Written by Jeffrey Lentz

The fourth and final Delaware, Lackawanna & Western passenger car in Mid-Continent’s fleet has completed the process of having its trucks rebuilt and wheels replaced. Mid-Continent volunteers were joined by crews from McCutchin Crane & Rigging and L&S Electric on July 10, 2023 to pick up DL&W #563 to swap out the shop trucks and allow the reinstallation of its own, refurbished trucks.

The entire operation went very smoothly. The cranes arrived at 8:15 AM to begin setting up. The refurbished trucks were picked up earlier that morning from L&S Electric’s shop in Appleton and arrived at North Freedom at 10:00 AM. By lunchtime, the refurbished trucks were under the car.

This marks the conclusion of a Lackawanna fleet wheel/truck refurbishment program that has spanned 11 years. Each of the four cars were removed from service one-at-a-time during that time span to be worked on as time and funding permitted.

Car Builder: Pullman
Build Year: 1914
Car weight (with trucks) = 108,000 lbs
Weight of each truck = 14,000 lbs

After the crane work was completed, volunteers and L&S Electric staff shimmed the car for proper heights and clearances and then took the car for a short test run to check bearing temperatures. Everything checked out, and volunteers then moved the car into the Engine House to reconnect and adjust the braking system, which they completed the same afternoon.

The car must still complete the required annual brake testing and have a good cleaning of the interior to clear away three years of dust, but is otherwise ready to return operation. With the fourth and final car now on its own wheels, Mid-Continent’s operating coach car fleet is poised to once again be at full strength. This will be of great help operationally as it affords more flexibility if a different car experiences unexpected mechanical issue and needs to be swapped out during summer operations. It also allows for increased capacities during the museum’s busy special events such as Autumn Color Weekends and Pumpkin Special trains.

MCRM personnel assisting with the crane lift on July 10th included: Gary B., Richard C., Pete D., Bob D., Richard G., Ron H., Jeff H., Jeffrey L., B.G. Miller, Richard P., Ed R., Jay S., and Rick T. Sorry if I missed anyone else!

We have also uploaded a time-lapse video of the entire process on our YouTube channel: