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ROYAL HUDSON REBUILD PROGRESS PAGE
Thursday, September 28 - Royal Hudson #2860 made her triumphant return to steam today to the thrills of a crowd of more than 1,500 people at the West Coast Railway Heritage park in Squamish. On hand to give the signal for the locomotive to steam into the station was the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, the Honourable Iona Campagnolo, British Columbia's Minister of Transportation the Honourable Kevin Falcon, and his worship the Mayor of Squamish, Ian Sutherland.
Today was the culmination of more than a year of work to bring the 2860 back to life, and the sound of the whistle and all the live steam ambiance thrilled the crowd. The 2860 was christened with champagne for the start of her third career, which will see the locomotive back on the tracks in 2007, but in a slightly different role as she attends major events and hauls public excursions on a more occasional basis than in the past.
Those that worked hard to see the locomotive preserved for operation once again were applauded for a job well done. All at WCRA can be proud of the work accomplished and for returning the prospect of mainline steam to the region.
Click on the thumbnails for full sized images
September 6, 2006 - the engine was steamed up using its own fire to full pressure and the safety valve popped for the first time. the whistle sounded great.
September 8, 2006 - The Grand Steam Up event was officially announced for Thursday, September 28 - press release here. Everyone is welcome to attend this gala event.
September 11, 2006 - Veteran Steam Expert Al Broadfoot has joined our crew for the final three weeks of work as we pretty up the engine with her shrouding and prepare her for the September 28 event.
August 30, 2006 - for the first time since 1999 smoke and steam came out of the stack of the Royal Hudson as the boiler was pressurized with steam from a portable steam generator. It was an exciting day!
 
Monday, August 21 - Today, the installation of all the Superheater tubes is now complete. The new firebox brick has arrived and the rebricking of the firebox starts August 22.
August 16, 2006
Work on Royal Hudson 2860 has continued through the summer of 2006, and on August 10 a major milestone was achieved when the completed boiler work passed its full hydro test and was certified by the boiler inspector. View the Press Release. Work is now underway to install the superheaters and complete the reassembly of the locomotive, with a target for steam up by the end of September. (Photos taken August 16, 2006 by Don Evans).
March 29, 2006: Doyle McCormack, Bob Florence and Trevor Mills work on the rolling and seating
of the new tubes and flues in the boiler of the Royal Hudson. All the new tubes and flues are
now installed in the boiler, final welding scheduled for next week.
March 20, 2006: We made great progress today. Rob, Don and I cut and installed all but 15
of the flues. We will continue over the next few days to fill all the holes.
The new tubes are now being installed into the boiler of Royal Hudson #2860, at the West Coast Railway Heritage
Park in Squamish, B.C. Steam expert Doyle McCormack was here to assist with the first installation, and the crew
is now in the process of installing all the remainder of the new boiler tubes. These photos, taken March 13, 2006,
show the first three new tubes in place and the four old tubes that were left to hold the tube sheets properly in
place have been removed. Schedule calls for the tube installation to be completed by early April, with a critical
hydro test set to be held before April 15th. All being well, we will continue to progress towards a first steam
up of the locomotive in May.
 
 
Here are some shots of the new tubes for the Royal Hudson. They were delivered Sept. 29th.
Click On The Thumbnails For Large Images
8/14/2005 - 2 new pictures showing the now almost completely disassembled left hand side of the Hudson. Soon onto
the other side and then comes the overall cleaning of all outside surfaces.
8/14/2005 - Tube removal is underway with all but a few removed so far. Superheaters have been removed.
We are working on the boiler appliances and new gauges have been ordered to replace missing items. A new
booster engine exhaust coupling has been fabricated as one of them had been borrowed from CPR # 2850
(powered the 1939 Royal Train) displayed at St. Constant, Quebec at the new EXPORAIL museum. The return
of this item and several other small loaned items was requested for the display of # 2850 in their new museum building.
8/13/2005 - It's shift end on Saturday Aug 13 and we have accomplished quite alot today....
While Rob Marlatt removed some the caps of the flexible staybolts, I completed removing all the stubends from the smokebox tube sheet and then we moved on to removing more of the outside jackets and hardware.
Picture (Aug 13 011) shows a big bare spot on the Hudson were the sandbox was .... the other 2 pictures show the sandbox being carried with the mobile crane.
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8/6/2005
The tubes have all been removed, except for the
center few holding the tube sheet in place. The one photo shows how we are
getting in and out of the tube area, kind of a tight fit!
8/3/2006
We are almost half way through removing the tubes and are making good time. Pic 9 shows the amount
to date that have been removed. Pic 6 and 7 show what it's like on the inside looking out, notice
the red colouring which is oxidation from the water treatments. Everything's getting covered with red.
7/28/2005 - Photos of progress
Click On The Thumbnails For Large Images
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