With your help, we’re delighted to say that last month we passed a significant milestone with the restoration of Reading 2100. Thanks to your donations, over 550 staybolts were welded into the firebox of the locomotive. In this video update, Jason Johnson of Gemini Industrial Machine explains the welding process.

Other work done by volunteers in the past 30 days includes:

• The ultrasound survey of the boiler is near completion. Areas that are very tight to get into, such as by the frame and around spring rigging, will be done when the locomotive is raised up to help replace staybolt sleeves around the combustion chamber.
• In preparation for the welding in of the staybolts, volunteers did a final cleaning of the firebox’s interior side sheets along with a final polish of the staybolts themselves. Tools were created that aided the welding process. Caps with bolts in them helped press the staybolts against the outer firebox sleeves, along with shims to hold and align the staybolts in place on the inside sheet, were created to help aid the welders.
• The process to remove staybolt sleeves that our boiler contractor marked has also begun around the combustion chamber of the firebox.