Maine Central Steam Locomotive #470 Discussion

Do you own, or have you built, a model of Maine Central 470? No matter how "refined" or accurate it might be, even if it's a mailbox, or lawn ornament, would you consider sharing a picture of it with us? It doesn't matter what scale you model, but we'd love to run a feature article regarding 470 models in our newsletter. Please send your contribution to [email protected] . We'd like to hear from you as soon as possible.

Readers: If on your layout, or on a shelf, you have a model of Maine Central 4-6-2 #470 -the one we are rebuilding in Hancock- would you take a picture of it, and email it to [email protected] ? Whether it is N, H-O, O, G, or huge, we would like to see it. I would like do write a short feature article on model of 470 for our journal, "The Booster".
No pictures, no article!

Thanks!

If you are following the restoration of the #470, the MEC 4-6-2 that made the final steam run in 1954, please note the availability of the 2017 470 Calendar.

Maine Central Steam Locomotive #470 Restoration Project 2017 Calendar | eBay




Maine Central Steam Locomotive #470 Restorati...
This is a custom made 2017 Maine Central Steam Locomotive #470 Restoration Project calendar.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/162324753373" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


This calendar is the work of an independent individual, using historical photographs (with permission), drawings, and original photos taken during the past three years. New England Steam Corporation does benefit from calendar sales. Follow the above link to purchase yours for $15 .

Touch A Train 2017 will be held at the Washington Junction Yard of the Downeast Scenic Railroad, Railroad Siding Road, Hancock, Maine. The date will be June 10th, beginning at 9AM. There is NO ADMISSION FEE! Touch A train has grown each year and this is our fourth. Maine Central 470 will be available for inspection, and donations for the restoration will be accepted. Governor's is providing cookies and other goodies! A few nice surprises are expected! Bring your children, grandchildren, and the neighbor's kids. Bring your wife (it's what she secretly wants) and get in touch with your inner train!

An afternoon train will be departing from the yard at 1PM, for a special fare price.

Any updates on the engine?

Any updates on the engine?

They hadn't gotten this far the last time I visited Washington Junction in person in mid-August, but the latest NESCo newsletter I received includes photos of the construction progress on the shop building that will house 470 out of the weather for the first time in decades. Footings have been sunk and the ex-shipping containers which will form the sides of the building have been set in place atop the footings. These will be topped with tubular metal arch trusses and a heavy duty tarp material, which have already been procured, to form the roof of the structure.

Some work has been done on the tender and other smaller individual components, but major work like reuniting the undercarriage of the locomotive with the smokebox is still pending. They do have their own crane to help with that when the time comes for it. Slow but steady and promising progress is being made, and as NESCo's Mr. Fernald has been often quoted to say, they are moving "at the speed of money".

Plenty of photos and information here: http://www.newenglandsteam.org/news" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mr. White has it about spot on, but allow me to amplify a bit:

The footings and containers for the shop building have been set. They are all but permanently anchored, which will involve drilling and setting some plates.
A contractor has been identified and will erect the arch-tarp building in a few weeks. The building parts are going to be brought over to the site from storage in the next couple of weeks.
The flat-bed trailer carrying the boiler has been made ready to move under cover after the building comes up.
The tender is outside again. A shop truck is about to be assembled so the original can be rebuilt, indoors, under cover.

We will be at the Brewer Train Show, on November 18th, at Jeff's Catering. At that show you can make a donation, purchase shirt(s) or a one of the newly arrived embroidered "470" baseball caps..
If you model the MEC, raffle tickets for the two GE U25B H-O scale Diesels, donated by Bowser Trains, will be available. The drawing for the models and a stainless steel recognition plate will be in the last week of November. We cannot sell tickets online or through the mail (sorry).

Check us out on Facebook and our website regularly, as there are some great accomplishments shown there.

Encourage your RR club or organization to donate to the tender fund. We are 15% of the way to our goal, which when met, will allow us to send the tender to Cianbro in Pittsfield, for re-manufacture.

This Tuyere Grate plate was attached to Maine Central 470, while it was a park display and owned by the City of Waterville, Maine. Someone removed the plate and put it on eBay, where it was sold in April or 2013. 470 is a historically important artifact of Maine transportation history, and was purchased by New England Steam Corporation for restoration to operation. Since the plate is an original artifact from the locomotive, we would like to recover it and return it to the backhead of the locomotive. If you own the plate or know who does, or have information about the current status of the plate, please contact us directly at [email protected]. We will provide the current owner with a direct copy for their collection. NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
Please help us recover this and other 470 artifacts.

Richard Glueck
President

The amount that has been accomplished thus far is amazing. In relatively short order you guys got the funds to buy the engine from Waterville, then move it, and now continue to make a steady pace on restoration. Look forward to seeing the continued restoration on this historic Maine Icon.

"A couple of three" items you might care to note:

-We recently came in contact with a gentleman selling off his grandfather's steam gauge and cab sittings collection. We were able to acquire an Ashton Duplex brake gauge, to replace the unit vandals destroy. This is a rare bird. There are other pieces available that exactly replicate the lost fittings of 470's cab. If you are on Facebook, please go to our site and click on the donation button. Any funds donated through that access will be used to replace those missing cab fittings. This was a lucky opportunity for us, and support is needed to complete these acquisitions.

-The based of the shop building is completed. Concrete piers were sunk into the earth, well below the frost line, and six 40' re-purposed containers were set on them. The containers have been anchored to the piers. The arch-tarp building frame is onsite, and we only await the contractor to come down and put'er together. With the building up, we need a volunteer crew to restore panel track indoors. The 470 chassis and tender will be towed into the building, while the boiler, which sits on a flatbed truck, will be backed in as well. Your Maine Central 470, will be under cover for the first time in nearly 70 years. Chief Mechanical Officer Leverett Fernald, will designate workers to completely strip the boiler and others will begin chassis and drive train work. This is serious, hard labor, and we need volunteers who will show up and carry out instructions. Hard hats, safety toe boots, work vests are required.

We have submitted a grant proposal to install electricity and lighting throughout the shop, and heating in the office. If your club or railroad hobby organization wants to help underwrite that task, please get in touch with me at [email protected].

-The drop pit has been put off for the time being, but still something we wish to install. Getting the locomotive indoors became a greater priority. We think you'll understand.

-The tender frame has been stripped of old paint. The trucks will be torn down this winter, and cleaned, repainted, greased and replaced. Mystic Valley Railway Society has paid for that. The tender body (cistern and coal bunker) will be sent to Cianbro, in Pittsfield, for use as a pattern. From those measurements, an exact, historically accurate, replacement will be constructed. We have partial funding for that, but must raise $85K to rebuild the unit. By the way, that's a bargain price.

-I want to mention to extraordinary efforts of Bob DeWachter, in completely building new classification lights from scrath, rebuilding the cylinder drain cocks, and total restoration of the reversing wheel and mechanism. Some of these will be displayed at Brewer and Amherst Train Shows.

-Tickets for the Bowser H-O scale, Maine Central U25B Diesel locomotives, are available until November 20th (Brewer Train Show). This generous donation was made by Bill Lee of Bowser Trains. Tickets are $1 each, six for $5 or multiples thereof. The winner gets both locomotives and a stainless steel display plate. They'll be in his/her hands before Christmas.

-470 is your locomotive. New England Steam Corporation has been formed to purchase and move the locomotive (DONE), rebuild it (DOING), operate and maintain her (COMING). This is really a protective trust to preserve, education, and economically build businesses around the locomotive's drawing power. Whenever you donate to the funding, it goes directly to your locomotive.


Thank you for the continued recognition.

Thanks for the update!

For those of us who cannot make it to the Brewer Train Show, is there any other way to purchase raffle tickets?

Excellent question. You can make a donation to NESCO and in a note, state you would like to be included in the drawing. I may not sell tickets over the internet, however we can always accept donations. If you trust me, and you can, give me your telephone number and name, contact information, and I will personally see ticket(s) in the number you desire are entered in the drawing. I can never guarantee who will win, and at present there are about 150 tickets in the drawing. Your odds are better than any state lottery, that's for certain. I only ask that people remember, this is a raffle, and while some one will win, others will not.

All donations go to the restoration of the 470, and that alone. That's a win - period.

You may have read about the missing Tuyere grate plate, stolen from MEC 470 and sold on eBay. An aluminum replacement copy has been offered to us by another preservation group, for the cost of the casting. We've requested the plate copyto complete the 470 cab to it's historic order. This will a $40 outlay.

Recently, New England Steam was alerted to the availability of an Ashton quadruplex brake gauge, an exact replacement for one destroyed by vandals while to locomotive was a park display. While our focus at this time is completing the shop building, because of the opportunity, we made the purchase. It turns out, the seller has a collection of other pieces which if functional, may replace many items destroyed on the 470.

The quadruplex gauge was an outlay of $400. We are hoping interested supporters will help in covering this expense, and potentially, the purchase of other cab fittings. Please consider donating either by Paypal or check, to help cover the quadruplex expense of $400, and the plate replacement. If we should receive funding in excess of the $400, it will be used solely to replace cab fittings. We will post pictures of those acquisitions as they are made.

We are making steady repair progress all the time. Our tender fund is being fed in small bites. We only await our contractor to erect the shop building. Skilled repairmen are working on restoration of significant locomotive parts. Your donations help us meet necessary repairs and restorations.

If you care to help, please send donations made by check to: New England Steam Corp., P.O. Box 302, Winterport, Maine 04496. You can find a Paypal link on our website,

https://sites.google.com/site/mainecentral470/donate" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; .

Please note checks as "gauges".

You can also renew memberships or become a new member through the same link page.

All funding goes to the locomotive restoration. Donors of $100 or more receive our enamel "Restoration Support" pin.


Thank you for your consideration of this appeal.

The raffle of the two H-O locomotives to support restoration of Maine Central 470...

And the winner of the two Bowser MEC U25B locomotives is Linda Manning, of Orono, Maine! About 600 tickets in the pool, from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Thank you for helping us the restoration of Maine Central 470! Thank you for everyone, who participated, and especially, thank you, Mr. Bill Lee, of Bowser Trains for donating two very excellent locomotive models!

Dear Friends: We are trying to move all our annual membership notice reminders to a single time of year. Several of you have already begun to update your memberships for 2018. This makes it easier for us to maintain current records and gets everyone onto the same calendar year.

You have been receiving issues of "The Booster" (another issue coming out in a week) and an regular newsletter, because you have been a supporter in the past, and are currently listed as a member. WE NEED YOU AND WANT YOU TO STAY A PART OF THE RESTORATION OF MAINE CENTRAL 470. In 2017, you've seen the shop building coming together, several significant parts of the locomotive being restored, and some terrific interaction with an excited public. There are bigger things coming in 2018!

Please consider renewing your annual membership for 2018 by either using Paypal on our website (http://www.newenglandsteam.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), or by mailing a check to New England Steam Corporation, P.O. Box 302, Winterport, Maine 04496 .

We will be back at "The Big E" in Springfield, this January, and you can renew or rejoin there as well. By renewing now, we can update the membership and you won't get "bugged" again in the 2018 year!

Thanks for your continued support. We look forward to hearing from you.

Richard Glueck
President