Restoration (Part 2)
CAMA Volunteers Restore this Historic Engine
As the restoration process progressed, a number of mechanical issues came to light that had to first be dealt with before the C.H. Brown engine could safely be test run. Conrad Milster, chief engineer at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, has long been our go-to guy when it comes to steam engine setup and repairs. Conrad felt that it was necessary to carry out a number of additional repairs of worn parts so as to assure that once running, the C.H. Brown would give us many years of trouble-free operation. Some of the old repairs to broken parts went back many years, long before the engine ever arrived at CAMA, and some of these repairs will remain unaltered. Because of the nature of some old repairs, the C.H. Brown will not be allowed to ever run "full steam ahead", so as to maintain a reasonable safety margin for future generations to come. Not knowing the history of previously made repairs, it is safer to err on the side of caution, and treat our biggest steam engine with the reverance due an aging senior machine.
