Apologies in advance for the photos being so heavilly weighted toward the 50-B and the Buffalo Springfield. I didn't do a great job at getting more pics of the stationary engines and those on tracks.
Everyone having a laugh during the morning safety briefing
Troy is laying down the law
I greased the gears of the 50-B with this special thick open gear grease. The grease gun had a little bit of red grease in the end of it, which (I hope) won't hurt anything too much. Unfortunately, I ended up getting
in a fight with the grease gun and losing. I ended up with two hands covered in half a tube of a very thick, sticky grease. I just ended up using my hands to smear the grease on the gears. There is this rotating one
(spins the cab around), there's two bevel gears in the undercarriage which are responsible for road movement, there's the rack and pinion on the boom, and then a couple more bevel gears on the top. I didn't do
the back slide of the boom. I ended up finding a roll of paper towels and a gallon of paint thinner and got most of it off. As I type this, a week and a half later, I still have some remnants of this grease around my fingernails. :-)
(Hopefully Jerry will send me that pic he took of me up on the boom with my hands covered in black)
The #7 coming around the corner.
Here is the Raymond steam crane moving into position past the 50-B
I took this to show the relative size of the bucket on the 50-B relative to the bulldozer. Granted, the perspective favors the bucket, but it's still pretty big.
Firing the boiler of the 50-B. I did this for a little bit. It's challenging because the operator likes the boiler to be as close as 125 psi as possible, which is what the safety valve is set for. Here the stack blower is being
used to pull some more air into the fire box to get rid of some of the black smoke. Other controls or course are fuel and atomizing steam. These three variables (along with the load generated by the operator/driver)
are like the three steps in a dance, all interacting with each other and playing off the steam demands of the person up front.
Inside the firebox. The fireman uses the color of the exhaust coming out of the smokestack along with a visual inspection of what is going on in the firebox (distance of the flame from the burner, etc.) to get the fire just right.
On the other side are the two injectors. I tried the one on the left and couldn't get it to lift. I could see a stream of water coming from the overflow
discharge, but I couldn't tell if it was a solid stream of water, or if the water was hugging the edges of the pipe and actually hollow in the middle.
Thinking that it was pulling cold feedwater from the tanks and not thinking it could have imparted that much heat to said cold feedwater, I put my
hand in the stream of water (which wasn't steaming, BTW) to guage the flow. Mistake. That water was hot enough to burn and I got my first
(and thankfully only) scald for the day- and an important lesson. We knew this already anyway from steam class. We always say the injector
pre-heats the feedwater, which is why we don't need a dedicated heat-exchanger like on the traction engines when there is a mechanical feedwater
pump. It didn't occurr to me exactly how much that water is heated until I stuck my hand in it. My reflexes jerked my hand out before it got burnt
too badly, but...ouch. That's one way to learn.
Here's a closeup of an oilcan on the floor of the 50-B
Sometimes I like playing with the focal plane of the camera and see how a shift in focus can change the feeling or meaning of a photo with exactly the same composition as the other shot.
The Raymond steam crane lifting a large spool of wire rope. You can see how the weight pulls the front down and lifts the back up into the air.
You might wonder why I included this unremarkable image. If you look on the left, there is (guessing here) a grandfather and his grandson. I seem to get a shot like this every event and I think it exemplifies the
passing of knowledge of these old machines from the old generation to the young, which is part of KSW's mission statement (education)
Inside the cab of the 50-B
I stood on the opposite side from the driver's position and got a bunch of pics and video of the steam shovel in operation
Little does anyone know, but there are some serious karaoke competitions that go on in the 50-B
Sing it, brother!
This is a close-up of the boom. The drains from the crowd engine drip condensate and steam cylinder oil where they run down into a pocket on the boom
Eccentrics and pinion gear for main (hoist) engine.
Working end of the Bucyrus 50-B steam shovel in action
A crowd of spectators gathers to watch, including the crew from Kristies Flyer
Kimric and Liam and ??? on Kristies Flyer steam trike
Jen, all dirty and looking like a grown up version of a Great Depression girl
rumbling diesel train
Troy removes the janky mcjankins (bent coat hanger) whistle pull and puts on a real rope
Jen, taking a picture of something exciting on the other side of the boiler
Jen is getting a fire going again, getting ready to take the Buffalo Springfield Steam Roller over to the barn for the evening's festivities
Jen and yours truly in the Roots shed
Being silly
OK, and now for a serious one.
This valve is impossible to get open again. Who closed this thing anyway?
With the American flag, the Roots sign, and Jen sitting here all photogenic-like, watch this end up on some calendar or something...
Jen turns the roller around and heads over to the barn.
Does she have enough boiler pressure to make it all the way over to the barn?
The Roots of Motive Power yard at the end of the first day of the 2013 Steam Festival
Troy's hands are a blur as he prepares the steamroller to be shut down for the evening
Troy says that it's time to go get a clean set of long johns on for the ball later that evening. Jen says, "Does this beer that I'm drinking mean that I dont' have to be crew chief anymore today?" :-)
Troy tries to photobomb Bryan and I, although Bryan's ear is just a little too high and too far to the right. :-)
I am *not* grabbing Bryan's butt. I merely suggested it.
Sorry Bryan, I *tried* to get us both in focus. Usually, it works out OK. Oh well. Next time.
You may have noticed that I have started (very subtlely) watermarking my images
due to people stealing them and attributing them to themselves or others. Sorry. I hope it didn't distract too much (if you noticed at all :-) )