February 23, 2016 Over the last several work sessions we have had abnormally higher temperatures for February. Good for our volunteers working outside. The never ending job of pipe insulating continued. It’s obvious there are many “never ending jobs” on a steam locomotive. Progress was made fabricating and installing the various air brake component brackets […]

February 10, 2016 Two more cold morning starts and mild afternoons this week. Work continues on designing and fabricating air brake control components. Careful considerations are being applied regarding ease of access and maintenance. Various parts and control rods are being sandblasted and painted. Gauges and instruments in the cab are being located for ease […]

February 3, 2016 Two more cold morning starts and mild afternoons this week. Workers fabricated a replica of the handle which operates the injector steam valve. All the related parts were located and installed. Another bracket was fabricated for the PZA air brake component. It was welded to the main bracket fabricated previous sessions. Holes […]

January 26, 2016 Over the past several work sessions many peripheral components have been researched and installed. Workers retrieved valves and piping associated with the water injector then test-fit them in place. All the air brake piping leaks have been repaired and a successful air test was performed. The cab bracket which various gauges are […]

January 13, 2016 Wednesday’s work session greeted us with a slow drizzling rain. By 2:00 pm the temps dropped like a rock and the heavy rain was falling sideways with snow mixed in with it. We managed to get a few projects done. A cab drain pipe had been cut off at the floor during […]

January 5, 2016 Last Wednesday we had to deal with the aftermath of a snow storm earlier in the week. 1/4″ of ice covered our worksite. The majority of our crew began spreading ice melt, shoveling ice and removing it to outside the work area. Both work days began in the mid to low 20 […]

December 28, 2015 This past Wednesday workers built a ply board shipping box for the ATS unit. It is being sent off to be checked out. All the trailing truck brake shoes have been reinstalled. Slack adjusters were being prepped for reinstallation. Temporary brake stand supports were built and installed so some of the various […]

December 22, 2015 All the new lubrication lines have now been installed. We will begin pumping lubricant through them and check for any leaks. Planning for the air brake stand is mostly complete. We plan to begin assembling and mounting the various parts needed for the new stand. Most of the staybolt leaks have been […]

December 14, 2015 Our work week, for the most part, was shortened by a drizzling rain Saturday. A few hearty souls worked most of the day as the rain eventually passed over, but turned to snow Saturday night. As I previously reported we discovered several flexible staybolt sleeves which were not salvageable so they have […]

December 2, 2015 I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and safe travels. On the site we are still fixing known boiler leaks found during the air test. We have removed many flexible staybolt plugs for reconditioning and checking their seats for proper alignment with their threads. All of the washout plugs have been removed […]