Updates on the railroad - June 14.

This weekend our steam crew will start to work removing tubes and firebrick from the boiler.

We have a gentleman volunteering to work with Dave Dick and I on networking, and we've made fund raising and development a priority since we have enough mechanics for now, and while we know some of the services and materials we need donated, we think those can wait. He's going to talk to other nonprofit cultural groups in the area, and approach the universities and colleges to see about partnering with business schools in development. I'm hoping we can pull expertise together to help us form a good development and funding program, and help us find the right talent to make it work.

A friend in Pennsylvania is aware of a private collection of old railroad hardware which includes some steam stuff.....the collector died some time back, and he will approach the heirs in a couple weeks or so to see if we can acquire some of the hardest to find things 110 will need.

Depending on the rate of progress with boiler cleaning, I'd expect we can verify all critical issues with the boiler by the end of this year if not by September or October. I'm personally aiming for a teardown and inspection and measurement of the valves and cylinders also, depending on progress and when I can arrange time there to get deep into it. Logistically, 110 is sitting on a track next to a ditch on one side, so heavy equipment access for disassembly is possible only from one side. We may be able to build a tripod from the old boiler tubes and with some other devices handle it adequately. Otherwise, over the winter - after the Christmas trains - we move 110 to a better place for the ongoing work.

So, even though discussion has been slow this week (Hugh has been drawing like mad, and I've been pursuing information) a lot of progress is being made. With Michael involved now, we're back to looking at the front end from another point of view, and some interesting things are being thought about and talked about.

Dave