Here is the mid-month update on what’s been accomplished by American Steam Railroad volunteers.

• The forging and machining of the 560 staybolts has been completed by our great volunteers, who have given many hours and days to this project. The next process is to sand blast all of them to remove mill scale so they can be welded into the firebox. 
• The water shut off valves from the tender to the locomotive have been inspected. The valve on the engineer’s side had a bent rod, which volunteers are fixing, along with replacing the filter screens that help keep sediment from flowing out of the tender and into the boiler. 
• An inspection was made of the interior water space of the tender. We found that the baffles and walls to be in good shape. The floor has an accumulation of sediment that will need to be cleaned during a future work session. 
• Currently $1,654 has been raised for the welding in of the staybolts. Only $2,873 is needed before we can have boiler contractors strike an arc and start the process. Click here to sponsor one today and you’ll get a shutout in our next monthly video update. 
• Various items were taken out of long term storage including the tender doors, grate shaker bars and mounts, lubricator lines for the stoker, a dead weight gauge tester, along with other various items. 
• A light oil was applied to the grease cellar parts to help prevent rust, along with grease reapplied to the main driving axles. 
• The feed water pipe from the tender was brazed to fix freeze damage.