Finally in the shop!

After a long wait, the 5057 finally went into the shop at the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad (POVA) shop in Usk, WA.  The people at POVA have sent us some photos of the work they have been doing and we are sharing them with you here.

The cab of the locomotive is in particularly bad shape relative to the rest of it.  Work has started there. Here you can see some of the rust that is being addressed.

The inner and outer panels on both the fireman and engineer sides of the cab are being replaced with new steel.  The photos below show how extensive this work is on the fireman's side of the cab. The bracing between panels is being replaced also, along with the front of the cab on the engineer's side.

The cab window frames are rotted out and we are waiting for an estimate for the cost to fabricate new ones.  All the window glass will be replaced because it is very brittle.  Here you can see the doors after they were removed.

There was a lot of rust in the steel supporting the cab floor.  The rusted metal there was cut out and the floor was re-braced.  New plywood was cut to replace the floor.  The photos below show the new floor.

  

The metal corrosion was more extensive than what was expected when the team at POVA gave us a cost estimate for the cosmetic repair work.  It will cost more than the $15,000 we were planning, but we do not know how much more yet.

The 5057 has been pulled out of the shop so the POVA staff can work on other projects.  When it goes back in next time, we plan to continue work on the cab and also replace the rear pilot plate.  We had to borrow a rear pilot plate from the Feather River Rail Society to move the 5057 from Portola, CA.  We look forward to sending it back to them and picking up the spare traction motor we purchased from them with the 5057.

Now is a great time to contribute to the 5057 Project!  We will need a bit more money to pay for this phase of the project, plus we have the painting and the move to South Cle Elum in the future.  The faster we raise funds, the sooner we can bring the 5057 home for people to enjoy.  Please make a contribution today if you can. 

Milwaukee Road U25B locomotives - a class act

The U25B locomotives of the Milwaukee Road, like other locomotive models on the roster, were assigned an alphanumeric classification by the railroad.  The U25Bs were class 25G-RS.  The '25' represented 2500 horsepower, the 'G' represented General Electric, and the 'RS' represented road switcher.

The Milwaukee Road typically stenciled the classification of the locomotive on the cab. You can see part of the classification stencil on the 5057 below.

We plan to trace the stencil so we can recreate it when the 5057 is painted.  The remaining part of the classification, the "RS" appeared to be missing.  However, when we visited the 5057 last fall at the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad shop in Usk, WA we noticed it could be faintly seen under a coat of paint.