A design review meeting was held at Continental Fabricators in St Louis, Missouri on Tuesday January 24, 2017  Members of Mid Continent’s 1385 Task Force were in attendance as were Gary Bensman of Diversified Rail Services, Steve Roudebush from SPEC Machine, and Brett Morley of Performance Engineering. The meeting covered all of the details necessary to build the new boiler as well as provided a platform for everyone involved in the design process to review the fabrication plan with the team at Continental.  It was a very productive meeting with everyone having input into the planning of the new boiler and Continental coming away with some clear direction enabling them to proceed with the task at hand.

Action items to come out of this meeting include the development of Continental’s final production schedule. Fred Steinkuehler, Vice President of Plant Production at Continental is currently developing their schedule. He is basing the plan on Mid Continent’s detail drawings and expects to be finishing up within a few days. While the production department work out their timeline, the engineering department will continue the preparation of internal shop drawings. We expect Continental to be wrapping up their engineering phase over the course of the next few weeks.

With the boiler process well underway with Continental Fabricators, and the major parts of the running gear and cab near completion, the Task Force identified the many remaining accomplishments still needed. Completion times were assigned to each and a general schedule was outlined. It has been determined that, excluding any major unforeseen concerns, the 1385 can be returned to Mid-Continent next year (2018).  Timing can be determined more accurately as these projects move along.

CNW 1385 Boiler Drawing 3D View

At this juncture of the 1385 restoration, it was decided to forgo hosting an Open House this year. The many hours otherwise required by Mid-Continent volunteers and staff to organize and host the event will instead be spent toward expediting the completion of 1385. In place of the Open House, there will be additional volunteer work day opportunities during the year.

The Task Force is very enthused and motivated, and thanks everyone for their support.