Build 11 – September Update

This is really great news!

Dakota Foundry reports they have completed all the patterns and cores for the cylinder half-saddle castings for No. 11, and they sent some photos. They will be preparing the molds and are planning to pour the pieces soon. We can expect the completed castings, each of which will weigh about 1500 pounds, sometime around the end of the year.

This photo shows the completed pattern for one half of the mold. As you can see, it is a large piece. The tape measure at the bottom shows that it is about 32 inches wide.

This photo shows several of the cores and core boxes, which create cavities inside the mold during the pour.

This image is of the cope, or top half, of the two part pattern used to make the casting. On the right side, the curve is where the casting will be mated to the smokebox of No. 11. At the center left is the valve portion of the casting, and on the extreme left is where the frame of the locomotive will be bolted to the half-saddle. The bottom half of the mold (not shown) is known as the drag.

In other news concerning Dakota Foundry, the drive wheel center patterns, as well as the cranks (created by Bernie Perch) and the rear frame extension (by Alan Downey) castings, were crated by Harold and Alan Downey and were picked up by the trucking company on Thursday morning. Those pieces will be ductile iron rather than grey iron.

Several members of the No. 11 Project engineering committee were in Sheepscot over the past several days, during which they continued the work of forming parts for locomotive fireboxes. Jason, Rick, Gordon (pictured) and Wayne were involved in the process, using the flanging machine to form the rear firebox and the door wrapper sheets. In addition, a method was developed to form the throat sheet using the flanger.

Donations for No. 11 continue to come in, and donations contributed during 2021 stand now at $66,642. There is still time for you to contribute if you have not done so, however. The fund raising doesn’t officially end until Dec. 31, 2021. Donate at www.build11.org.

Finally, on Saturday evening, as No. 9 was rolling into the engine house for the first time, the two names were drawn for the raffle winners from among those who purchased raffle tickets to support our fundraising for No. 11. Grand prize winner is Bill Baskerville, and Peter Kuntz is the runner-up. Congratulations to both, and thanks to everyone who purchased tickets. The raffle raised over $1000 to help us make progress on No. 11.

GOAL!!!

Arguably more exciting than watching the Olympics, the WW&F “FundRazr” goal of $50,000 in 2021 for building locomotive no. 11 has been achieved this week! Thank you to all who have contributed; your generosity will ensure that the project does not pause in 2022 due to a lack of financial resources.

That said, we’re not quite out of the woods yet! We still need to raise $3500 to complete the $50,000 challenge set forth by one of our most generous donors. Lean more and donate at:  build11.org

Of course, any funds raised above and beyond our 2021 goal will make the 2022-2025 campaigns all the easier.

If you’ve been keeping up with the news, you know that the national economy is roaring ahead, but at the same time is plagued with a shortage of willing workers. This problem has led to a delay in the manufacture and delivery of crucial components from Dakota Foundry for No. 11. That being the case, we are temporarily shifting our focus from No. 11’s frame to No. 10’s boiler.  In the coming weeks, we plan to flange the last few pieces for No. 10’s firebox, make some modifications to the front and rear tube sheets, and then take all those parts to Maine Locomotive & Machine. ML&M will move ahead with manufacturing the new boiler, welding the components as we provide them. The shell is already at their shop.

Meanwhile, Gordon Cook is designing a fixture and jigs for the flanging machine. It will be used to form the large radius curved sections of the top of the door sheet and the rear tube sheet. The idea is to hold these large sheets in the proper position to achieve the best results. They are difficult to maneuver in the flanging machine, and the pivot will ensure that they will have the correct radius.

And our own shop crew is now actively seeking machinists who would like to volunteer their talents towards the Build 11 project. In short, we are ready to machine a plethora of castings and parts – and could use some help. If you are a qualified machinist in the Midcoast Maine area, please email us at info@wwfry.org to learn how you can help Build 11.

It is also planned to modify our home-built Beatty-style flanging machine to serve as a brake, adding another layer of versatility to this most useful tool. With that, we will be able to manufacture various parts for coach No. 9’s trucks. While we have a number of parts already on hand made for us by Cattail Foundry, we need a few more components before we can begin to machine and then assemble the trucks.  As for Coach No. 9 itself, the exterior is essentially complete, so Eric and Ron and Lou will soon turn their attention to the interior of the car.

And to the delight of our hard-working steam crews, a brand spanking new Nathan “Simplex” No. 4 boiler injector, made by Eccentric Engineer of Orange, California, has been purchased and is being installed to replace a troublesome “legacy” injector on locomotive No. 9. Some minor modifications of the piping will be necessary, as will making a bracket to hold the device. If this injector proves successful on locomotive No. 9, additional injectors will be ordered for locomotive No. 11.

Learn more, get involved, and contribute at build11.org