Fletch and his crew got together on a Very Hot day this last Monday. We took our normal precautions with frequent breaks under our awning, and drinking lots of water. Even with that, the sun felt like it was hovering 2 feet over our heads – LOL. But we pushed through and had a dirty, but great work session.

While we wait for the tender to get painted, we decided to start focused work on the Locomotive cab. We used grinders to get down to bare metal on half the cab roof, and some walls of the cab interior. Once the rust and old paint were removed, we applied a good quality, red metal primer. We hope this coat will provide a good level of protection on the metal skin until it gets some paint. Fletch did a lot of work inside the cab, while the rest of the crew worked on top of the cab. Now I have a better understanding of the phrase, “like a cat on a hot tin roof”.

We also got a look at the mahogany cab windows and doors that received a coat of primer from the restoration department’s last work session. They look great, and many thanks to Owen Hughes for his work. Finally, many thanks to Steve Pahl and Jay Slinde for all their help last Monday.

Once we identify our next work session, we will let you all know. Hope to see you there. – Jason Reiman

The mighty Winston Churchill once said, “Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and the glory of the climb.” And this last weekend we added Joy to the #9’s journey, by moving its tender to where it will be prepped and receive its first new coat of paint in many, many years. When this will happen has yet to be determined, but it’s a big step in this Glory of the Climb. We will continue to work with the Operations Department and the painters to start narrowing down the next steps to transforming the tender.

Fletcher was finally able to join us this weekend, and he wants to give a HUGE thank you to Ed Ripp, Perry Anderson, Fred Vergenz, and all the crew working with them, for helping to get this move done. And thank you to our dedicated #9 crew for all the work this last weekend; Steve Pahl, Frank Fisher, and Mike Laabs. You guys keep this project moving forward.

As mentioned previously, our future volunteer sessions revolve around the successful coordination of all parties with a focus on getting the tender painted. As we narrow down our next move, we will put out the next dates. Thank you for following along.

Jason Reiman – #9 Crew