Spring is arriving early in Youngstown and we are immensely grateful. There is quite a bit of work to be done here in the three months before opening day. We had over 400 paying passengers last summer and have set a goal of 1,000 for this year and are making improvements to the site to improve the visitor experience and streamline the operation of the railroad.
58 is getting a few upgrades in the off season including adding a second water glass, making some adjustments to the valve timing and the addition of a duplex pump to supplement the injectors. We will be taking indicator cards on 58 operating on the hill this spring to determine the health and squareness of the engine and help determine what additional work may be needed. This involves me riding in a temporary seat bolted to the cylinder heads, which should make for an interesting day!
We are currently building a four wheel multi purpose flatcar. Originally designed so that a mini excavator can be moved around the railroad, this car will have fully functioning brakes and will be used with the passenger train to provide additional braking effort. We are working on a long term project to replace the German trucks on the passenger car and tender with new trucks and until we get those trucks built those cars will not have brakes. By using this flatcar or "brake van" on our train we satisfy our requirement of having brakes on the rear car. To provide the additional weight needed to make the brakes effective, the flatcar will be loaded with four open hearth charging boxes to mimic a rather common narrow gauge car found in the steel industry.
Finally after over twenty years owning this property, we have an office on site. Last fall we purchased a New York Central bay window caboose at an auction and moved it to our site where it now sits out front and serves as our general office and crew room. It has been so useful that I don't know how we ever got by without it before.
Our schedule is available at our website at:
https://youngstownsteel.org/
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