Hello everyone,
Hope you all are staying safe during these strange new times. In compliance with the State of Ohio's Stay-at-Home order, the American Steam Railroad will not be having any work sessions on the 2100 until further notice.
However, there is some recent work that has been completed on the locomotive, so I hope that this will take your mind off of the bombardment of bad news, even if only for a few minutes.
Work has continued on the removal of the cab floor, including removing bolts and appliances. We will replace the floor with new steel to accommodate the stoker feed mechanism and grate shaker bars.
Photo by Brian Smith.
We also brought the running board side skirting out of storage and are currently in the process of removing the red reflective tape that has been clung to the skirting for nearly two decades. Similar to the ditchlights, the tape was required for the locomotive to operate in Canada. We don't need it here in the United States, so off it goes.
Our staybolt fundraiser drive is still ongoing, and as of March 29 we are almost fully funded. The old staybolts that we cut out of the firebox are now on SALE, so now is the perfect time to buy a piece of the 2100 herself! You can also let us know if you'd like it polished or in the original boiler patina. Head over to fireup2100.org/product/staybolt/ to get your own!
And finally, if you'd like an in-depth look at where we are at with this project today, check out the video I recently made with ASR's Forrest Nace walking through the current projects that we currently have ongoing.
Thanks again to everyone for their support of this project. Make sure to stay safe out there during these unprecedented times.
