April 7, 2014 Bob D. informs me we have expended more than 103,000 volunteer hours thus far on the 2926 restoration. Many of those hours have been spent repairing the firebox and it’s associated staybolts. Work is not yet complete so we are still removing old staybolt sleeves and welding on new ones. Some 30 […]

March 31, 2014 Another milestone for the 2926 restoration was seen this week. Volunteers temporarily inserted two large boiler tubes for the first superheater piping “fit-up”. Two return bends were welded to the new piping with new centering shoes and bands. These were then slid into their boiler tubes and tack welded to the bifurcate […]

March 24, 2014 Hello all, This week we began installing jigs on the long welding table to start fabricating superheater piping. The first set of the large bifurcate assemblies was cut to length. Work continued on the lubrication distributors and two more are ready for paint and installation. Danny R. returned from vacation and began […]

March 17, 2014 The week began on Monday, as did the past several weeks, with flexible staybolt sleeve welding. Some 400 new sleeves have been welded to the firebox. This project is currently on hold while we await delivery of more sleeves. Work continued removing the actual staybolt from approximately 30 locations. These are being […]

March 4, 2014 Last week was the second six day work-week for the volunteers and welding crew. Over 80 hours were expended welding in some 120 flexible stay-bolt sleeves. At this point we are over half way finished with this part of the boiler project. We expect to be finished with this part in another […]

February 24, 2014 Last week was the first full week of on site work Monday thru Saturday. For the next month we will be on site six days a week! The BNSF grant for stay-bolt welding is allowing us to put two welders to work on the stay-bolt sleeve repairs Monday thru Friday. 90 Sleeves […]

February 18, 2014 We are still having warm working conditions this winter. Last Wednesday was no different. I almost fired up the A/C in the WHQ as the office temperature rose to 83 °. Large aluminum bronze bushings were pressed into the timing gear frame along with various other timing arms. The support brackets for […]

February 10, 2014 NEWS FLASH!!! As of this past Saturday volunteer hours restoring the 2926 has surpassed 100,000 volunteer hours! Bob D., who keeps track of the time sheets, informed the BoD members 100,040 hours has been spent cleaning, painting and repairing the big 4-8-4 locomotive. Wednesday was cut short due to old man winter […]

February 3, 2014 January is gone and another anti-climactic Super Bowl is over. This past week Dave V. worked at home re-designing our existing cylinder hone to clean up minor surface rust in the steam cylinders. The installation of a Franklin compensator and buffer was finished. Final adjustments were made according to the procedure literature. […]

January 28, 2014 Good progress was seen this past week. Ron T. is putting the finishing touches on a device to secure the magnetic drill to the bottom of the firebox. It will be used to remove several broken stud bolts. No welding on the flexible staybolt sleeves was done on Wednesday however more removal […]