Strasburg Railroad

Strasburg, PA

http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/

We visited Strasburg RR on Sunday 12 October 2008. Arriving at 9:30 AM we got a primo parking place right next to the walk through. I served us well during the day as we made several trips back to the car for this and that.

MPG WMV Steam trains passing, Strasburg is the only railroad in the country where you can see two steam engines passing each other.

The smokestack is hooked to a coal pot bellied stove used to warm the car during the winter

Across the road from the RR is an extensive train museum. We did not visit it on this trip as my back was really bothering me that day. So what else is new?

All the pin striping on this car is done by hand by one of the talented restorers at the Railroad.

Switch year tower

Terri, Roy Bear and Eddie Moose. The boys do love a train ride!

We had purchased tickets for the noon tour of the restoration/maintenance shop. We guessed that they tour is run at noon as the workers would be at lunch at that time. these first photos are of parts outside the shop waiting for attention.

Vertical slotter or vertical shaper. I ran on of these for many months as an apprentice many years ago.

Cincinnati shaper, maybe a 24" model? Ran one of these many years ago at what was then C.E.M, now Spirol International.

Southwestern Industries DPM5 CNC mill. We have a DPM3 in our school shop. A very versatile machine which can be conversationally programmed or you can load a G code program into the machine.

Take a look at the steady rest behind these two visitors

Tailstock of tat same lathe

Tool rest and headstock of the same lathe

Horizontal mill, didn't catch the brand though

Vertical turret lathe, one of the few manual machines I have not run at one time or another

LeBlond Regal lathe with a WAY long bed

Planer. Never ran a planer but did run planer mills which are similar to this but with four power heads mounted. One on each column and two on the cross beam. You can make a ton of chips with one of these machines. I was impressed with the wooden table covers in place to protect the surface of the machines table.

Carlton radial arm drill

Wheel lathe for machining engine and car wheels

This boiler is undergoing inspection and repair In the right photo you can see the repair patch that has been welded in.

I would sure like to be able to get my students to keep our shop this organized

Small scale loco undergoing rebuild

This fellow was our guide for the tour. He commented at the end of the tour that he hoped we would come back at a future time since the guide duty is rotated between a number of workers, each with his specialty, and but visiting more than once we would get different perspectives about the shop.

These stay bolts have had their heads formed and will be going to the machine shop for further work.

This is the undercarriage for the boiler shown above. The frame will be rebuilt and made ready to receive the boiler.

These rings are used with propane and oxygen to heat tires for mounting and dismounting on wheels.

Tubes in a boiler

Wheels mounted on axles awaiting tires

More organization

A very serious jack for lifting railroad cars

The cupola of a caboose

The ladder on the side of this car was remounted with special bolts made in the machine shop. Because there was no access from the inside of the car they had to be inserted from the outside.

This tender is being built from stainless steel and is of all welded construction.

This might be a good spot to apologize for the not so great quality of these shop photos. I did not have my external flash unit with me and the built in camera flash was not up to the task of taking pictures of dark train things in a dark shop.

To maintain the proper look fake rivets are spot welded from the back side of the wall (L)