9/2/2023 Work Session

This weekend, we did the final cleanup from Touch a Train 2023 (www.touchatrain.org). Touch a Train was such a great success this year. Over the course of four and a half hours, New England Steam Corp and @downeastscenicrailroad welcomed hundreds of visitors to Washington Junction Yard. Thanks so much to everyone who came out and said hi. We had a great time telling you about the restoration and all the progress we have made this year!

Thanks for all your support of Touch a Train 2023! Special shoutout to this year’s sponsors: Furbush-Roberts Printing Company and Governor’s Restaurant and Bakery. As well as the Ellsworth and Hancock fire departments and Nora's Grill food truck.

Additionally, work continued this week on the cab. Bob, Jim and Paul worked to round the corners of the cab armrest brackets. Then all four armrest brackets were riveted to the cab walls. With that finished, they then began fitting up the lower legs of the new front cab wall. It’s really taking shape!

8/5/2023 Work Session

Success today! The top row of rivets on the cab wall, near the roofline, was successfully riveted. We have been struggling for some time to set rivets in this tight space.

First, all the old attempts had to be drilled out before the new rivets could be set in. One thing we learned is that regardless of how the heading over of the rivet came out, they were all quite difficult to remove and certainly wanted to keep things together!

Once in place, the rivets were perfected with some cosmetic touch ups of the rivet heads.

The success was brought about by everything we have learned in previous attempts and prototypes, as well as a new forging oven bought for heating rivets. We are loving the new additional heat control this is providing.

Roger continued to needle scale the plethora of small parts that need to get cleaned up.

Everyone worked on getting the shop prepared for Touch a Train 2023. We can’t wait to see you out at the yard. Get all the details at www.touchatrain.org. The event is free!

Present for today’s work session were Leverett, Paul VS, Bob, Roger and Brian H.

7/23/2023 Work Session

Beautiful warm summer day with no rain for a change! Bob and Brian attacked poorly executed rivets on the cab wall, and removed them so that they can be redone. When they don't pass muster, they can be re-done. Next, they drilled the rivet holes for the new cab side window arm rest brackets and fitted them up with temporary bolts. Bob did some grinding and cutting on the cab roof vent frame. The smoke box petticoat made a fine work rest!

Jim worked on the loco's chassis, removing the never ending accumulated crud. Finally, Brian got quite a few cleaned up parts primed and painted.

We gave a number of shop tours both before and after train departures.  A chap from England was very interested in what we were doing, along with a couple from Arizona. Never know who you will meet during the course of the day!

Only a few more weeks until Touch a Train.  Do come pay us a visit!

In attendance were Jim Armstrong, Brian Herbert and Bob DeWachter.

7/15/2023 Work Session

Today, Paul and Bob reworked the staging for a better working height to drive rivets in the cab front wall roofline. Paul, Jim and Bob drove some rivets into the cab wall to roof brace.  It didn't go very well, and none of them came out in a presentable fashion. We are going to have to rethink the process and make some tweaks to achieve better success rates.  All part of the learning process!

Jim did some cleaning and oiling on the chassis.  Roger worked on needle scaling the cab roof hatch frame.

Bob made a bit of an archeological discovery this weekend. A few weeks ago, the welded on cab hatch had been cut free from the hatch framework.  We were never convinced this was the original hatch that had been welded shut.  Having plans for the old steel, Bob did some cleaning up.  There was no paint left on the outside of this hatch piece, but there were some splotches of black on the inside of it. Using a flapper disc to remove the paint, Bob went through black, primer and then found MEC green and yellow.  So the hatch blank was made from a piece of another car or locomotive by the RR.  There is no clear indication of when this was done.  Maybe when other areas of the cab were patched.  It is definitely a different shade of green than a few spots found in other cab areas. Quite a mystery!

Paul, Roger, Bob and Jim Armstrong in attendance.

Amherst Railway Society Grant

New England Steam was recently awarded a $2000 grant from Amherst Railway Society that will be applied to having 470's Franklin Precision Reverse Gear disassembled, inspected and a cost given to rebuild it for service. Once we know what the rebuilding costs are, we will seek additional funding to pay for it. We will be shipping it to FMW Solutions later this year.

7/1/2023 Work Session

Only Bob was working in the shop today, but he still managed to get quite a few things accomplished!

He started with some maintenance on the MIG welder.  With that done, it made sense to test it out some, and decided to eradicate a grouping of holes in the upper cab corner. These holes were testament to the various window/door hinges applied over the years.  Since we're starting fresh with the wall, window, and hinges, these holes were of no use.

This is what it looked like before:

And after Bob worked on it:

Bob checked out the air monitoring instrument and performed a sample gas calibration. This dials in the sampling sensors for O2, CO, H2S (sewer gas), and Methane (flammables). The device has an air pump constantly sampling work space air and alerts with beacons and audible alarms if danger thresholds are detected. Bob also delivered a donated serviceable 50lb CO2 fire extinguisher on a cart. This will be excellent for chilling bearings!

Finally, Bob made some brackets for both cab sides that mount the window arm rests.  These will be riveted in place.  The brackets that had been there before were welded. We are opting for rivets, as it will be more appropriate and aesthetic. To finish the effect, the corners will all be rounded before the final installation.

6/24/2023 Work Session

This weekend, we concentrated on getting some rivets driven into the new metal of the cab.  We are still working out setups and techniques.  This week, we tried new, longer, rivets for the front wall to roof arch brace joint. This area has been a tough cookie due to the limited space involved. The rivet backer with a pneumatic cylinder that braces to the next arch of the roof continued to work well. The hammer forming of the rivet head is done on the outside for this joint. We were able to drive rivets on both sides of the new front wall, successfully tying in the new side walls.

A few non-acceptable rivets were removed, and a few heads were reworked to improve appearance.

All in all it was pretty successful and we should be able to pick up where we left off next session and get more rivets driven. If anyone has interest in some hands on involvement with 470's restoration please contact NESCo. We always need more hands!

In attendance at the shop today were Bob DeWachter, Brian Herbert and Peter Violette.

Mid Maine Sports Car Club Comes for a Tour

On Sat the 24th NESCo conducted a tour of our shop and 470 hosting the Mid Maine Sports Car Club.  Pre-arrangements were made to accommodate our largest group tour to date.  We were ready!  37 MMSCC members arrived in a group of beautiful European Sports and Touring cars.  Great group of people who were genuinely enthusiastic to discover what NESCo and 470 was all about.  We had three NESCo members in the crowd adding to the interaction and Leverett did a great job leading the tour and answering questions.  Everyone seemed to have an enjoyable time!

Special thanks to Anne Follweiler from MMSCC for reaching out and making this happen.

If your organization has an interest in doing this, please contact NESCo to schedule your tour!

6/10/2023 Work Session

Roger continued with needle scaling bits and pieces.  After amassing quite a collection of cleaned parts, Brian got most of them primed up on Sunday.

Bob welded two old 2” tubes together, which were threaded through the smokebox, boiler and into the firebox.  This allowed hanging of lighting to illuminate the entire interior.  Brian set up a ventilation blower to provide fresh air into the boiler.  Paul spent much time in the “tube” cleaning up tube ends and swept the floor, filling a few sacks (and his hair) with debris.

All of us tackled removing the throttle from the boiler.  We were able to remove the throttle spool from the body.  There was no corrosion of any kind inside, and the piston ring was absolutely perfect.  Nice surprise! This was lowered to the ground, giving the previously installed davit its first test.  We got the locking nut for the throttle shaft backed off, but the shaft still needs more persuasion to unscrew….   The upper throttle body mounting bolts were removed after diligent work.

During the next work session, we will tackle the dry pipe connection and throttle shaft.  Then the throttle body will be free.

In attendance on this fine day was Bob D., Paul VS, Brian Herbert, and Roger.  Leverett was about also.

6/3/2023 A Message From Bob's Workshop

Remember the new air rivet gun that we were trying out? This one?

We gave it a go during the May 27th work session and after setting 2 rivets we had a failure. The shaft snapped…. which is less than ideal.

For the next prototype, Bob has converted a chipping hammer mandrel into a rivet setting mandrel to fit the mid-size air hammer we got from Jason. He used an abrasive cut off to lop the pointy bit off and slowly whittled out a female dome to fit our rivet heads for the cab. It was pretty tough metal to work with…..wiped out a hacksaw in a few strokes! In this case, we are hoping that bodes well for its durability. We should be in business now!

5/27/2023 Work Session

Memorial Day weekend, we welcomed many tours through the shop. It was lovely to see so many people out and about!

When not talking to folks, we managed some work. Saturday night and Sunday morning, Bob ran conduit and wired outlets on the outside of containers 2 and 3 to provide electrical while working on the boiler.  He also added circuit to put lights in container 3 later on. Given that we are having less and less cold nights, we finally turned the water to the shop on. Huzzah for washing up!

Roger put in some dedicated hours to needle scaling. You can see how much material is missing in the corner of the ash pan due to the corrosive effects of coal ash.

We are continuing to test new methods of light-weight rivet air guns and backers. We need something small enough to fit in the tight spaces where the cab roof intersects the walls. Pictured here is a prototype of a new backer. It is a tricky spot, but with each iteration we are getting closer!

While working on the cab, we realized that the hatch was bolted on — not riveted as we had supposed. Removing it will allow for critical riveting space to be opened up inside the cab. Additionally, it will allow for increased airflow. Right now, when we rivet in the cab, all the heat is trapped by the roof and it gets mighty toasty. The hatch came off cleanly. We also inspected the roof during the process and are happy to report that it is in much better condition than anticipated.

Present for the work day: Leverett, Hanna, Paul VS, Bob, Roger

5/20/2023 Work Session

Work continued on the boiler survey this weekend. In order to prepare for the removal of the throttle, the throttle gland was removed from the backhead by Paul and Bob. It came off with surprising ease considering the amount of backache the flexible staybolt caps caused.

We are testing a new lightweight air rivet gun in order to handle the small rivets we are setting in the cab. For a size comparison, the air rivet gun we have been using is laying on the table of the first photo, attached to the yellow coiled hose. Our practice steel plate -- yes, it is cut in the shape of the tender -- has many rivet learning sessions displayed. We set four rivets in the far right column, starting from the top. After a few modifications, it seems like this lightweight air rivet gun may be game changing!

Finally, we continued working on cataloging Maine Central technical drawings in our collection. Finding some real gems!

Present were Bob, Paul, and Hanna

5/6/2023 Work Session

Finally, Maine has decided to grace us with some sunny and warm weather!!

This weekend, work was mostly focused on preparing the shop for the upcoming work on the cab and tender. Roger continued with needle scaling various rusty small parts so that they can be painted and returned to the tender. Paul cleaned up the neglected air riveting hammer that had become rusty, wire brushing and oiling it up.  Ready to be put to work now!   The crane was fired up and the welding/fab bench was relocated to allow work to be done on the lower portions of the replacement front cab walls.

A few office improvements were made. Bob and Paul arranged all the office furniture and moved the refrigerator and drafting table into the office. They also created a mobile dispensing rack for the Mother of all paper towel rolls.

In attendance were Bob, Roger and Paul VS.

4/15/2023 Work Session

Needlescaling is one way that the NESCo crew is working to restore the Maine Central #470. Metal parts that can be reused are stripped of old paint and rust using a needlegun scaler. The needlegun holds a set of very fine chisles ("needles"), which it pounds against the surface of the metal around 5,000 times per minute using compressed air. Once needlescaled, the surface is ready to be primed and painted.

Roger is the "King of the Needlescaler" at NESCo, having perfected the art of removing paint and rust from small parts. He spent much of Saturday continuing to needlescale small parts, so that they can be painted and reattached to the tender.

4/2 and 4/8/2023 Work Sessions

Over the last two weeks, work has continued on the new office container. If you guessed that the color would be green, then you are correct! Paul has gotten one coat of paint applied and Bob ran more electrical outlets to make the space more functional.

Work also progressed on the boiler. Timm finished the platform on top of the boiler so that crews may enter the dome safely. Some stray boiler tubes were discovered inside the tent, so Keith and Leverett moved them out to the pile. Leverett continued to work on mapping boiler studs. Brian and Hannah from Maine Locomotive & Machine Works came up Friday, April 7th and removed the wet patch off the backhead of the boiler. This “wet patch” had been applied by Maine Central to repair a leak. It was simply a steel patch formed to fit over the area that was leaking and it was welded around the edges and patch bolts applied in the center of the patch. We suspected a crack underneath it and after it was removed, our suspicions were confirmed (see photo). This type of repair is no longer acceptable and will require a different method of repair to be determined when the boiler survey is complete.

Additionally, Ron and Al continued drilling rivet holes. Keith and Leverett brought over a donated tool box and started organizing small hand tools. Keith also oiled the machinery on 470's frame, and Roger needlescaled small parts.

Present for work Sunday, April 2nd were Paul V, Ron and Al Jenkins, Timm Steele, Keith Thompson, and Leverett F.

Present for work Saturday, April 8th were Paul V, Bob, Ron and Al, Roger, and Leverett F.

3/26/2023 Work Session

In preparation for riveting, Ron and Al have resumed drilling rivet holes in the new tender cistern. While many holes have already been drilled using the mag drill, many more are left. Check out the photo of the old cistern to see the pattern that they are painstakingly transferring. Hot riveting, here we come!

Following the slew of shop improvements made last week, Timm reworked the water pipe to make a spigot, so we have our own wash-up area by the safety shower. He also completed a lovely set of steps to the office container. Inside the office, we have begun running electrical and a full coat of primer has been applied. Any guesses for the final color?

Present were Leverett, Timm, Ron, Al, Roger, Paul VS, and Hanna

NESCo recieves Mass Bay RRE Railroad Preservation Grant

New England Steam Corporation (NESCo) is proud to announce that it has received a $4005.00 Mass Bay RRE Railroad Preservation Grant from the Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts, Inc. (Mass Bay RRE). The funds will be used to purchase a pair of leaf spring sets for 470's lead truck.

NESCo is honored to be the recipient of this grant in recognition of the historic significance of Maine Central 470 and the important restoration work that NESCo is conducting.

3/19/2023 Work Session

Welcome back to the start of NESCo work days! The crew was happy to see each other after taking the winter off.

The crew got right to work cleaning up the end of the boiler tube and flue removal! Brian and Hannah from Maine Locomotive & Machine Works removed the last the tubes and flues from the boiler on March 11th. On Sunday, the crew worked to remove the pile from the shop. We are embarrased to admit that it took until the last 12 to work smarter, not harder. Look at that clean floor :)

Did you catch the article about the 470 restoration in the April 2023 issue of TRAINS magazine? A lot has happened on the project, even since the article was written. Here is a lovely look inside the boiler, sans tubes!

The work session included many quality of life improvements around the shop. The office container is now about half primed with Kilz. Eventually it will store all of our archived historical documents on MEC. A new air compressor is now wired up and plumbed into the system. All of the new hose reels are mounted and 470's machinery has been oiled!

Present for our first work day of the season was Bob D, Hanna, Paul V, Ron and Al J, Roger B and Will T

New England Steam Corp.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
P.O. Box 302
Winterport, ME 04496