4-8-2 - Frisco 1522 - What It Took In The Past To Restore To Operating Condition Status - Inquiry

In 1985, Pat Cravens and Wellie Lazier approached Doc Roberts, the director of the Museum and asked about restoring an engine to operation.

They looked at several engines and picked SLSF 1522 for its size and local connection to St. Louis. They did a cosmetic restoration effort on the Norfolk and Western (N&W) 2156, preparing it for display at St. Louis Union Station depot and were given permission to do the SLSF 1522.

Pat had been involved in restoration of an engine or two up east and had some experience with it. He developed a scope of work and approximate needs and then assembled a "shopping list" of skill sets needed to bring it off. He then asked people who possessed these skills if they wanted to be involved.

Someone had recommended me because of my rabid Frisco steam knowledge and my machining and tool making background. We had an Ameren high pressure boiler welder, I convinced a couple other folks where I worked to get involved.

We started on 9/15/1985 and as word got out, other folks started showing up. We had attorneys, a doctor and various other folks involved.

At first, the Transport Museum Association was paying the bills. Many local companies got involved through "in-kind" donations of materials and labor.

Eventually, the St. Louis Steam Train Association was formed and obtained a 501 (c) (3) status and that helped raise finances through donations and memberships. The local NRHS chapter helped from time to time.

In 1988 we were up and running. I was appointed Chief Mechanical Officer for the locomotive, three of us were certified by the FRA as engineers. The SLSTA was recognized by the FRA as a "railroad".

My responsibility was assigning tasks for maintenance purposes and filing the Federal reports and scheduling inspections.

The rest is history .

 

Holy cow! I had no idea.

I am very impressed and my hat is off to you, Don.

 

The internet really was no help to us.

We had some people come and work with us from time to time who were experienced in restorations, plus I developed a few friends in the "industry" who were a tremendous help to me. Our organization was run internally somewhat like a "Benevolent Dictatorship".

We had a Board of Directors, with officers and operated mostly like a business. Something of that magnitude cannot succeed by operating as a hippie commune where everybody "does their thing".

It takes a good deal of supervision, a "boss" who understands how locomotive works, what needs to be done, when and how to do things and the materials needed.

The project duties go on and on. We had plenty of "worker bees" who learned their jobs well. If someone became a giant pain in the rear, they were pulled aside and talked to.

We really had a great group of folks in our crew.

 

Hi Pat,

Nice to hear from you!

Sounds like your coming right along. That is some kind of work to crawl on the ties to put crater grease in those gear cases. When I was a machinist in Alliance, NE they could spot 16 units at a time on the service pits.

I was elected by virtue of my seniority to grease the traction motor (TM) gear cases many nights. What I remember most was the animal parts one could find on top of those traction motors.

If you ever get a chance to see and work on traction motors of similar vintage units, you will see that the axles ride on journal boxes with roller bearings in the truck frames. But the axles sit in huge brass machined plain bearings in an oil bath in the TM.

It is kind of ironic that they ride on roller bearings, but where the 600-900 horsepower motors meet the drive axle via the pinion and bull gears, they use plain bearings, up to, and including, the SD60s. Some really heavy duty stuff.

Great to hear from you Pat, I hope you have enjoyed your career thus far.

Please carry on.

 

The guy who was director of the MOT had a pit put under one of the shop tracks.

But since he was such a genius, it was not very usable due to depth and length.

However, it was better than rolling around in the dirt or mud outside.

 

It was for the museum's collection in general.

Best thing he ever did was leave MOT and now they have a Director who is on top of it, has sense, listens to others and asks questions.

She was very helpful to us when we were active, even though we were a pain, she gave us what we needed.

It is in good hands now.