1741 Ready to Paint

 

After a long days work all exterior imperfections have been addressed and the Jeff Connor from Railcar and Military Equipment Painting has arrived to begin painting the 1741. Ryan finished welding in the nose, front walkway, new drop step mount assembly and cab heater vent covers. Cory finished cleaning up metal work and priming bare metal areas. Over the next several weeks the locomotive will be sanded, steam cleaned, primed and painted into the bluebird scheme. Highball Graphics will be working with Railcar and Military Equipment Painting to bring 1741 back to its original appearance!

Update from Cory Fothergill

Labor Day Weekend Metal Work and Painting Update on 1741

Ryan & Cory Fothergill,  Wayne Allen worked several days this week in attempt to finish metal work. Side doors , front steps, flooring and sub flooring, and other body work has been completed at this time. The last item to complete before paint is welding on the front diamond plate walkway and new drop step. Our contractor for painting the 1741 arrives this week. Paint has been color matched, highball graphics has designed the lettering and logos for the locomotive as well. As always thanks for the support via comments or donations! We hope to have 1741 on the rails this fall! 

470 Railroad Club August Membership Meeting - To Alaska by Train--the Greatest Train Ride that never was! by Carl Fowler

 The history of the railroads in Alaska and extensive coverage of surviving operations on the Alaska RR and the White Pass and Yukon--plus why no railway was ever finished all the way from the "Lower 48" to Alaska. In the 35 years I sold rail travel worldwide I dealt with literally hundreds of calls wanting to "take the train to Alaska". Once there were more lines than today--but there never was one all the way. The program follows what does exist--including the Cascades Amtrak route, the British Columbia Ry, the "Skeena" line of VIA to Prince Rupert, the Alaska State Ferries to Skagway, the WP&Y to Carcross (and once to Whitehorse) and the ARR from Fairbanks to Seward. We also visit the long gone, but amazing Copper River & Northwestern--which actually ran across the face of a glacier and other abandoned Alaska lines.

To Alaska by Train Video

More Metal Work on 1741

 

Metal work continued this weekend on 1741 fixing a cracked cab roof behind the cab and installing more missing sheet metal. Member Chuck killian helped remove hoses and parts in preparation for the paint job. Ryan Fothergill and Cory Fothergill continued work on the metal replacement. Jackson Small helped remove some rotted remains of the sub floor in the short nose. More another time!

Getting 72 Ready to Paint

 Work continues at a higher speed now to get 1741 ready for paint in September. More metal has been removed off the engineers side to be replaced. The rear cab door has not shut since we purchased it. After discovering the door was from a GP40 locomotive and modified to work on 72, we replaced the door with another, can you guess which locomotive it came from? The rear cab roof was prepped for welding work and a conduit box was installed in the from where one was damaged. The rear sanders were also reinstalled with a more modern setup.

Reported by Cory on August 11

Conway Scenic Railroad 50th Anniversary

 

I would just like to take a minute to thank the members that took time out of their weekend to come help out at the Conway Scenic's 50th anniversary celebration. For those who couldn’t make it, the 470 club displayed and gave rides on the club's railroad handcar and the club's railroad speeder. Giving these rides to the public is not easy and can be very tiring with just one person. It was also great seeing members of the club this weekend who came up to help celebrate a huge milestone. 

 Thank you all again who came to help, your volunteering doesn’t go unnoticed.

Jack Small

Updates on the clubs 1741 and 4268 engines

 The last two weekends we made some steady progress on all three club locomotives. Ryan Fothergill has continued the surgery on 1741 replacing rotted metal to prep it for a paint job in September. Wayne Allen, Cory Fothergill and Eric Grover worked on a vigorous task of changing a leaky radiator in 4268 without removing the roof. For those of you who haven’t seen a locomotive radiator , 5 of these sections make up each side of the f units , and they are connected by approximately 40 bolts. To loosen and tighten these bolts normally one would remove and flip the roof , remove the radiators on saw horses and work that way. With some ingenuity we were able to drop the leaky radiator section down , and install a new one without removing the roof. Bolts were tightened by removing a fan and climbing into the upper portion of the carbody. 4268 is back together and tested with 4266 and they both should be available in the next week for events. Thanks for all that donate to keep these projects going!