Well another year working on the 565. We are moving in the right direction and should have the pilot under her by summer! The pilot has been the most difficult part so far. With so much missing we have been making many parts and it's a big learning curve for us. The shop employees have been great with showing us the machinery and we can now make stuff ourselves. Of course they still keep a watchful eye on things so nobody gets hurt.

Feb 16 Workday:
Great workday yesterday! We completed repair on the Crosstie brace for the radius arm. Bruce and DJ finished milling the hole to the correct size and installed the bushings. It's ready to be installed into the engine. We will fit it next visit and then need to make custom bolts to install it.
Mike, Jeremy and Brendan made the bushing for the center pin that needs to be installed in the frame for the pilot truck. It was made from raw stock of 12" round and about 9" inches thick.
Nic finished welding up the radius arm. Nice work there can't even tell where the crack was.
I added the shims to the journal boxes to fit the frame. 1 is done and the other needs one more shim attached. I need to make a thinner shim to make up some of the gap but everything is going very well. That's all for now.

First congratulations of the year. When is is convenient, please post the pictures of accomplished work. Overall, this has been a model of how to repair a "parts and pieces" locomotive.

Thanks Rich. Here are the pics of the new bushing! I will get Dan to take some pics of the crosstie completed.

Work continues on the pilot turck for DL&W 565. We began work on the crown brass and the grease boxes yesterday. The journal boxes are shimmed to fit the frame and just need some cleaning up at the contact points, polishing.

What's left:
Need to make a center pin
Finish up the grease boxes
Finish working the brass to fit the boxes
Polish the brass where it makes contact with the axle
Then assembly of the whole thing.
Once we get everything assembled then we can check our clearance between the wheels and the journal boxes. We know we have to install brass there but not sure what our final clearances are going to be.

For those of you on Facebook, this "then" photo just surfaced in the Baltimore Chapter NRHS collection:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

Pardon me, boys. Is that the Lackawanna choo-choo?

Static or not, she looks wonderful in that photo.

That photo was taken in Wayne, NJ while on static display at the Victoria Station restaurant. An Erie caboose, and a PRR observation car are still there as well as a semaphore and some other items. It is up for lease, again, and the most recent use was a business called "Partners in Research"

Minor correction. When 565 was on display there, the restaurant was called Gaslight 1900 and was owned by Tony Citro. When Mr. Citro sold the restaurant, he kept 565 for planned use on the Morris County Central tourist RR., which had just moved from Whippany to Newfoundland, NJ. Unfortunately it was the aborted restoration for this planned use that led to 565's bits and pieces being "scattered to the winds."

Seeing what Mr. Boonstra and friends have done so far, there is no doubt that 565 will someday look as good if not better than she does in that posted photo.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

What??? Is that true??? Has a Private party finally come forward to maybe buy steamtown??

I hope Steamtown never closes. Look how far they come with what they done to steamtown to improve it.

Where on God's green Earth did you read anything on this page that would even bring someone to consider that outcome?

Hello,

No, Steamtown was not purchased by anyone. It is still owned and operated by the National Park Service. Steve and a few others are working in cooperation with the park to cosmetically restore this engine and possibly other items as well in the future.(Time will tell)

Thank you
Daniel Barnett

... me thinks the site was "Lenny'ed" earlier this morning and the Mods removed a few posts..... I saw the earlier post about Steamtown's status and a couple of posts that were typical Lenny type and now they are all gone.

Tim W.

We had our first weekend work in a few months. We finished machining the brass to fit and started on the second one. Getting a good feel for the milling machines and setting them up. Also we temp installed the crosstie bracket back in the frame so we can taper the holes amd make new bolts for that.

A young railfan, Doug, has been working on the CAD drawings for the crossheads and is putting the final touches on them so we can re-produe them. Stay tuned for that!

Thursday work day. We got the grease boxes welded up and the pins made for it. Nic is having too much fun with the welding! I finished up the last of the journal brass and milled the top part of the journal box out to accept the springs. Nic has some pics of the final product. We are getting closer to putting the pilot together. Next month I would like to have 2 work sessions and maybe just maybe we can do an initial fit of the pilot truck parts. if we get enough folks up to help we can knock this out. Let me know if you are interested in next month. Thanks

Gentlemen, Here is what we have left to do on the pilot truck

One pilot wheel journal box needs to have the top milled out to accept the springs Center pin needs to be made up.
We have to assemble the upper part of the pilot but we have all the parts.
The #1 driver springs are ready to be strapped and one strap is made. We will continue to finish this up.
We have to make one set of shoes and wedges for the #1 journal box. Can't really make them until the driver is down.
The radius arm for the pilot truck needs to have the hole fixed where it attaches to the frame.
The bushing for the center pin needs to have the holes drilled for the bolts to hold it in place The crosstie frame piece where the pilot truck attaches needs to be bolted up.
Mill the brass journals smooth.


I know it's been a long time but we are getting there. With working only once a month you can only get so much done. Thanks.