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From: MDelvec952 mdelvec952 AT aol DOT com
Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 01:44:46 -0400
Subject: DL&W F3 Volunteer -- Super Sundays in Scranton
"Tri-State_F3_Scranton_5-23-2010_002_edit.jpg" - image/jpeg, 1200x1631 (24bit)



Greetings, all,

So, let's start off this edition with a photo.

Ready:






Ohhh, what a tease.

Needless to say, this weekend's work sessions have a lot to show for them. But, relax, there's still a long way to go. The ARHS crews have been spraying paint and have started into the yellow. But to paint the yellow all of the maroon areas require masking. By the time a single unit is painted, well over a football field's length of masking tape will have been applied and trimmed with a knife along a straight edge. The result is a perfect line. That nose herald is all paint and made from the 1948 EMD blueprints that were digitized so that a perfect mask could be cut in a vinyl-like material. Each of the curved stripe ends were done the same way. For the major nose curve, the blueprints were blown up to full size to be taped directly to the nose. These blueprints came from the EMD plant during the 1989 FT open house week. While others were taking pictures of everything on the grounds, I was in the office looking at drawings and ordering copies of each of the typefaces
and all of the curves and all of the styline drawings for each DL&W model.

With the Tri-State unit, we had a productive session as well as we can declare and end to the heavy work. The last of the grab irons were reattached and all but a few of the batten screws were reapplied. Four of them require drilling and tapping. Joe Van Hoorebeke, our artist with welding rod, made a few more repairs and fixes. With the arrival of the nose grab irons we were ready to measure and drill holes in the nose until we discovered that the original 1948 holes were there, filled with the original 1948 bolts. Matt Bast torched them out and we're ready for the nose grabs. The irons themselves were brought to Pittston for powdercoating in the proper DL&W gray color and they'll be applied after the final painting. More painting with POR-15 to seal up and stop any future rust was applied, more body filler and feathering of the paint. The last of the kick plates were finally removed and taken to Jersey for polishing, and the rusty areas behind them were repaired, fill
ed and made ready for paint. Good work.

The porthole glass is ready at Snow's in Dover, while the headlight and number box glass will be dropped off there for duplication. Nothing makes a restoration shine more than fresh glass. Our ace sign painter Dave Rush is ready to go having made the full-size templates for the nose curves, and the number boards for both engines. Dave has been lettering trucks and busses and billboards and automobiles all of his working life, and as the son and grandson of Lackawanna engineers he's eager to get started on DL&W 663. The jeweled number boards are being cut as we speak at a shop in Pennsylvania, and reflectors are being fabricated. Things on my list to do find sources for the EMD gasket material (we need lots) and order material for the air filters.

Either as fund raisers, or as thank yous for the contributors, we are considering making up heralds, jeweled number boards and builder's plates. We're waiting for the costs to make more than what the locomotives require. Most of what's going on the locomotives were contributed or discounted. If there's interest, please contact me off list.

ARHS will have work sessions later this week, while the Tri-State crowd seems to want Memorial Day Weekend off -- after working one-, two and sometimes three-days a week in Scranton, the volunteers earned the break. We'll always consider work sessions if enough people familiar with the remaining work are interested. Please, no vigilante efforts at this phase as any judgement errors could set us back. Contact me before working on the Tri-State unit. I'm getting married Saturday, 5/29, as most know, and many of our stalwart volunteers will be at the wedding. We're looking at June 4-6 weekend work days, and with enough bodies we can finish the body work and start to prime.

Thanks, all, and some photos follow ....Mike Del Vecchio



After discovering the original 1948 EMD holes in the nose were there and filled with the butts of original bolts, volunteer Matt Bast burned the holes open with a torch from inside the nose. Your's truly has an autobody hammer to knock out the slag and splatter. Down near my feel can be seen the new steel and weld on Joe's Nose, welded by Joe Van Hoorebeke. By the end of the day, that weld was ground smooth and filled with POR-15 filler to make is smoother than Joe's actual nose. This area below the nose door had practically disintegrated in Jim Thorpe.





A librarian by trade and the archivist for the NRHS, Mitch Dakelman pitched in on getting the 60 years of muck, sand and rust out from under the threshold so that the batten strip bolts could be reapplied. It was time consuming but valuable work. Mitch worked on the inside tightening the last of the screws on the fireman's side. Just two on this side require drilling and tapping.





We're gettin' down to the little stuff. Joe Van Hoorebeke and Mike Bast had heated up the diamond plate on the rear platform and were hammering it flat. This area was inaccessible until the ARHS unit went outside. We've done no prep here yet. Since the 663 is over a pit, this work will have to wait until we're outside.





Let's remember our goal, the future Lackawanna 663 at the NRHS Convention.
--e68add2a-7916-433f-b333-3fd22d02c83f

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