Author Archives: stewartstownfriends

2021 Annual Meeting Notice

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Notice is hereby given that The Friends of the Stewartstown Railroad, Inc. will be holding an annual meeting on Saturday, June 12 at 9:30AM. The purpose of this meeting is to review yearly results and hold elections for officers and directors of the organization. Members in good standing that are interested in running for President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, or one of five Director-At-Large positions should submit their wishes to be placed on the ballot to Dave Watson at dmw280@gmail.com. Submissions must be received no later than Saturday, May 8 at 9PM. Thank you.

Coach and Track Workday Announcements for July 2020

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For Coach 1158 Workdays
We will be working Thursday (July 2), Friday (July 3), and Sunday (July 5) this week starting at 930 AM. A great deal has been accomplished so far. Here’s an update and where you can help.
(1) Window Sill welding Repair / Body Patches: Jim, Aaron, and myself have been working on repairing missing window tracks and sills so windows can open / close properly and we keep the water out. So far, 5 windows have been completed with 35 more to go. We are also repairing holes in the lower coach body. We set a new record this past Sunday fixing an 11″ by 4″ hole. Aaron walked up with no previous welding experience and graduated from Jim’s welding class on the same day. We are willing to teach and work with anyone that wants to learn.
(2) The 3 Luggage Racks: these have been needle-scaled and primed, I ended up with paint drips in a few places, so they need to be sanded off. A few small touch-ups are needed.
(3) Priming and Painting the Coach Interior: Several of us over the past few weeks have been needle scaling, sanding, wire brushing and smoothing the interior walls + arm rests. One end wall plus the station-side interior wall above and below the windows are ready for primer and paint. We are looking for painters to prime and paint these surfaces. All materials are on site needed to prime. The paint is ready for pick up and will be here in a few days. I plan to needle-scale the bank-side interior wall next week.
(4) Roof work: David Collison dropped by this past Saturday and installed about 25 more button head screws in the rivet holes. There are still 60 left to go. Finishing this step is the key to moving on to the next which is preparing the roof surfaces, primer, and paint. A major goal/milestone we should complete this summer. Anyone that is willing to stand on the ladder can work on installing the button head screws.
(5) Window installation: The wood trims need sanded, primed and painted. The windows need to be properly installed along with the sill and jamb pieces replaced as needed. We have been placing replacement windows as we can find where they fit. Each window seems to need minor adjustment to adjust for fit.
There’s a lot of work to be done. Come on out and give us a hand.
From the track department:
The Wednesday night work crew will be out on Wednesday night, July 1. We will continue with tree cutting of branches hitting the train so that we can get the blue caboose up to the end of the Class I track without trees hitting it or the loco, IF we do not get that done on June 24 evening.
If we do not need to cut branches, we will probably go out to the end of Class I track and continue spiking ties that were previously installed, or there are 6 ties needing installed at the curve in front of the water cistern.
There is always plenty to do, often hard to decide what to do, but we always pick something needed and important, get it done, then move in to the next item on the list!!
Help is always needed and welcome, please come out and help move us forward down the track!!
Looking ahead, the July work weekend will be Saturday and Sunday July 11 and 12. We will be continuing tie work towards the picnic grove, or tamping and raising low joints and swales in the track, depending on what gets done during the June Work Weekend. There is always lot’s to do, we have been making good progress this year with 1/3 of our planned tie replacement already fine and more truckloads of ties scheduled for delivery in June. Come out and give us a hand and help accelerate our progress!!

Friends of the Stewartstown Railroad Seeking Donations for #GivingTuesday

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Since 2006, the Friends of the Stewartstown Railroad, Inc, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the Preservation, Promotion, and Restoration of the Stewartstown Railroad, has persevered thru the generosity of donors and dedication of volunteers that dearly love this historic little gem. Like many non-profit organizations, we depend on donations to provide materials and supplies used in various preservation and restoration efforts participated in by our volunteer members. Last year we built (from the ground up) and placed an open-air excursion car into service completely from donations. We also replaced the roof on the Stewartstown Station and helped to return the Iron Bridge back in to service. These efforts were all made possible by the generosity of our supporters and donors!

Since then, we have been hard at work rehabilitating our latest acquisition: former Reading Company coach #1158. A significant grant from from the John H. Emery trust has made this effort possible. We are currently looking to raise an additional $1,000 from this annual #GivingTuesday to keep the restoration work momentum up! When coach #1158’s restoration is complete, it will return to active service on the Stewartstown Railroad where it will serve as a demonstration early 1920’s inter-urban passenger coach. Will you please consider donating to our coach #1158 restoration currently in progress? All donations will go toward materials, paint, steel, and glass needed to finish this project by Summer 2020. We thank you for your consideration of this request!