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The Rannoch Corporation
Focused on Steam Railroading

Volunteers Needed for #108 Project
Rannoch is looking for volunteers who would like to play an active role in the restoration of Locomotive #108.  Bringing a steam locomotive back to life is a labor-intensive project.  We have steam-locomotive and boiler restoration professionals who are helping us with the highly skilled work, but there is a tremendous amount of work which can be done by anyone with average mechanical aptitude who is willing to get his/her hands dirty. The pay is lousy (non-existent), but the psychic rewards are terrific.

Often, we are asked, "What kinds of jobs do you have that volunteers can do?"  Hopefully, the following sample of jobs to be done will give you a feel for what we need help to accomplish:

General Tasks:

  • All of the wood in the cab needs stripping and refinishing in a color to be determined.  We may want to dress up the woodwork on the cab walls a bit, and the floor planks, which have become soaked in oil over the years, need to be replaced for safety reasons.
  • The cab roof hatch assembly, which was removed to reduce overall height for the move, need to be cleaned up, straightened up, painted and replaced on the cab.  This would tie in with a refinish of the overall cab outside sheet metal.
  • Numerous small and not so small metal parts which have been removed need cleaning, and in some cases painting and priming or rust proofing.
  • The sheet metal cladding around the boiler insulation was removed by the prior owner so that the asbestos insulation could be removed.  We kept the pieces of old sheet metal cladding as a pattern for a new "jacket".  Someone needs to take this sheet-metal jigsaw puzzle and figure out which piece fits where, so we can have the new jacket made when the time comes.
  • We need to locate mechanical lubricators we can buy to take the place of the defective and probably un-repairable hydrostatic lubricator which the locomotive came with.
  • We need someone with the ability to write, take pictures and maintain a website (using Front Page) to replace our current webmaster (me).
  • If you want to do something "big and clean", we have about an acre of rusting steel that needs needle-scaling (with a pneumatic tool) and priming.
  • We have set up the rudiments of our shop in about 4000 sq ft of old warehouse which we share with Blacklands Railroad.  There are a lot of things we need to do to improve the shop facility itself, such as installing the vises we have bought, but not attached to the workbench.  

For People with Special Skills:

  • We will have a steady stream of machining to do  We will need lapping tools for valves, various bushings, pins and threaded parts.  The latter often involve special old-style tapered boiler threads.
  • We have  a lot of cutting and welding to do.  The tender water tank needs almost a complete rebuild, so lots of metal will have to be cut away and replaced with new sheet steel.
  • Our shop needs a better water supply, that is plumbing, of which it has none at all.  
  • The locomotive needs a lot of plumbing too, after we complete boiler repairs.  We have steam, air, water and oil plumbing to do!  We have pipe vises, benders, and threaders, all of which need expert operation to produce a safe, quality job.
  • We have about a gozillion rusty nuts (and some bolts) which need to be removed and replaced.  Removal of more than half will likely involve a cutting torch (otherwise known as the "brass wrench").
  • We have an airless spray paint rig and we will have lots of painting to do.

How to Volunteer:

  1. Put your name on our email mailing list.
  2. Show up on our Work Days 

 

 

 

© 1998 - 2004 The Rannoch Corporation.
Last revised: March 03, 2004