Kentucky Info
We have received a progress report from Harvey. It sounds like their weather hasn't been cooperating, much like our weather in the upper midwest. We'll also post the pictures he sent.
Hello from a soggy Kentucky,
The Blue Grass is no longer Blue, but has turned red/brown from rust due to the heavy rainfall. In the month of April, we received over 25% of our annual rainfall, and May hasn't let up neither. We did have two days of sunshine in April, with 18 days of rain. We have considered to quit working on the Marion-Osgood, and to start building an ark. The last sunny day that we worked, we noticed several pairs of animals watching us and we wondered if it was a sign.
I've attched a couple of pictures that show that we did accomplish a little work when it wasn't raining.
As you may remenber, the boom and dipper stick on this machine was wood, that was encased with bolted on steel plate and angles to reinforce the wood. (This was before the days of practical arc welding.) We have removed all of the wood and actually made the boom into two welded boxes, with internal bracing in critical areas. We believe that when the boom is complete, it will be stronger that the original boom. The dipper stick was treated in the same manner, but we left the original wood in place.
Removing the wood that was in the boom was a bear to say the least. It was so hard that it literally ate up saber saw blades, chewed the carbide off of circular saw blades and destroyed chain saw chains.
We were able to do a little work on the main car body, all of the control levers are freed up. In the process of moving, it looks like the cross heads on the main hoisting engine moved about an inch, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get the main engine turning over. We still have to free up the clutch on the main engine. I pulled the head on the right cylinder of the main engine and the cylinder walls were oily and shiny. Hoisting on this engine is going to be a little different that the other shovels, one lever engages the clutch and another engages the throttle. We may need a three armed operator.
But, trusting in the goodness of the Lord, we hope to have good weather in May and will soon be able to get back into gear.
Harvey