February 20, 2018 Work continues on the backhead as volunteers insulate it then install freshly fabricated and painted metal panels. Other areas of insulation included the underside of the smokebox. All those metal panels have not yet arrived on site. Workers are now providing paper templates for the jacketing fabricators instead of sending the old […]

February 13, 2018 Hello steamers, We are certainly getting down to the small things as we are still installing small bore control piping, blowing out installed piping with compressed air and testing the various gauges for accuracy. More insulation was applied to the smokebox and backhead thus protecting our fire-up personnel from the 400 plus […]

January 29, 2018 The week began early with a round trip to Farmington, NM on Monday with about 2000 lbs. of drawbars to be annealed by Team Industrial. The ​return round trip to retrieve them was on Wednesday. The following is reported by Dr. Mike since I was absent hauling drawbars. Wednesday the backhead sheet […]

January 22, 2018 This week workers separated the locomotive from the tender so the drawbars could be loaded Saturday for an annealing trip to Farmington, NM. Elsewhere on site more small bore control piping was installed and air brake instruments were undergoing testing. The never-ending job of pipe and equipment bracket fabricating is ongoing. Our […]

January 2, 2018 As the New Year begins I was reminiscing about all the many accomplishments our crew has performed and the remarkable milestones achieved over the last year. Many of our supporters who watch our progress weekly remember these reports at the time they were reported. For those rail fans this abbreviated list will […]

December 2, 2017 I haven’t written a report in a while. I came down with an awful cold and was away from the site for about three weeks. Then my wife, Madam Secretary, caught it from me. Both of us are back on the job now. Brake hanger pins and bushings have been fabricated and […]

November 14, 2017 As of November 7th we took ownership of ex-Santa Fe baggage car RPCX 3939. The 3939 was the original car number while the reporting mark is not. That mark will be changed in due time. Current plans are for it to have ​the heavy work done in Ohio such as the trucks […]

November 8, 2017 I missed two work sessions in October so I may miss some work activities. I went out to Ohio to meet with the owner of our future tool car. While there I met the mechanic who will be performing the initial work on the car prior to its trip to Albuquerque. The […]

October 17, 2017 This past week we were able to stop the leak on the main steam valve on the turret. It was hoisted into place atop the locomotive. The four saturated steam pipes from the steam dome to the turret were also lifted up. They will be permanently installed this week. Small bore piping […]

October 9, 2017 New small bore piping is being bent and installed for the stack lifter and sander check valves. These pipes were under the jacketing and had wasted away. Two MU jumper boxes were installed along with the MU cable which was threaded down through its conduit. Work on the fuel line began Saturday […]