I got this in an email.
WNEP-TV, (Moosic, Pa.).August 27, 2015

Train Rides Cancelled over Tunkhannock Viaduct

NICHOLSON — It was supposed to be one of the main attractions at a celebration for the 100th anniversary of the Tunkhannock Viaduct, also known as the Nicholson Bridge in Wyoming County.

But now, two planned steam engine rides over the viaduct have been cancelled.

Plans were in place to have a steam engine carry about eight hundred passengers each day from Scranton to Binghamton over the Tunkhannock Viaduct as part of the celebration in September.

As a result of the cancellation, nearly $200,000 in ticket sales are being returned after organizers say demands from the Canadian Pacific railroad company went too far.

“To me, it’s a low point in my life that we couldn’t pull this off,” said Norman Barrett, the chairman of the excursion committee.

According to Barrett, he was working with Norfolk Southern railroad to have two train rides cross the bridge in September. Norfolk Southern is in the process of buying the railroad from Canadian Pacific, and thought they’d own the track by now.

When Norfolk Southern realized they weren’t going to own the track in time for the celebration, Barrett had to plead his case to the track’s current owner, Canadian Pacific. The company agreed to the rides, but not before asking organizers to raise their insurance policy from about $50 million to an unattainable $100 million.

“I think it’s terrible,” said Ann Marie Aylesworth, the mayor of Nicholson. “I think the railroad is doing a big injustice to the town of Nicholson and to the bridge.”

Businesses in Nicholson say they’ve been preparing for this celebration for years, going as far as making custom yardsticks to celebrate the occasion.

“It’s a little disappointing,” said Tiffany Germana, the owner of Germana’s Pizzeria. “We were expecting to get more business from it and people in town.”

“It was going to be a nice addition to our celebration,” said Lisa Mihalina of All Under One Roof in Nicholson. “After you think about it, and you still wake up this morning, we’re still going to have the crowd and the parade and the celebration and the floats. The train doesn’t come, then they train doesn’t come. I figure it’s their loss, not ours.”

Canadian Pacific released the following statement in response:

“Canadian Pacific is responsible to our shareholders and our customers, and so we must safeguard our operation. Our liability insurance ask is consistent with that of other railroads and reflects legal settlements from passenger train incidents in recent years. While we are willing to run these types of trips; we simply must safeguard our operation as we do this.”

All over, events are going on as planned for the celebration next month in Wyoming County. Barrett added that if you have purchased tickets, you will receive a refund for the face value amount of your tickets within 7-10 business days.

Yep Charlie, that about sums it up.. There are a few other points to this that I am not at liberty to talk about on a public forum but we have an official plan B now in place.

___All the steam trips (NKP 765) for the up coming Labor day weekend will be unaffected, and will run as normal as they are using the Pocono main east of Scranton ( DL trackage ).


___The following weekend will feature some kind of excursion on Saturday with 765, This has yet to be determined.
___Then on Sunday we will have a special Photo freight with the A-B-A f-3's pulling 40's aria cars and Steamtown's DL&W caboose. A private passenger car will be tacked on to the end of the train for all the ARHS members (except me, I'm with the engine crew). This train will depart Scranton and head east to Tobyhanna, with several stops on the way for photo ops. The passenger car will be cut off for the photo run-by's.

We held our last work session today before the festivities and I am happy to report that for the first time in two years DL&W 663 is ready to start. There are still a few minor things to do like placing the dynamic brake hatch back on, that will be taken care of during the week.
I also got to have a nice chat with the crew of NKP 765 and a chance to grab a few shots of her before the park opened. They were performing a monthly inspection on her right next to Steamtown's Berk in the round house.

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Also today______

The aux gen, main gen, and compressor were all aligned and bolted down.[attachment=23783]

New oil was pumped into the prime mover.[attachment=23782]

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And even 664 got some attention between runs.[attachment=23780]

After a few week brake from restoration work, (Railfest at Scranton, the ARHS 40th anniversary, and funding problems at the park put things on hold for a bit), we are back. Yesterday we had our first successful start up of DL&W 663. All the electrical connections on the main and aux generator checked out OK and she turned nicely with no vibrations. The three phase AC output had proper rotation, the traction motor blowers and cooling fans operated normally. Bearing temperatures were also checked in the prime mover and were all good. The batteries also were inspected and given a fresh charge. We still have issues with the coupling between the main generator and the compressor and a new one is on the way. Once that is installed and the piping for the compressor completed she will be inspected and returned to service. Not a bad bit of work completed before noon with only three people.

In the afternoon we moved our attention over to the "B". The main generator needed cleaning as can be seen in this pic.
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After some mild solvents and a few Scochbrite pads were used it looked like this.[attachment=24028] We did manage to install about half of the brush holders back in there, no pic on that.

As that work was being done the load regulator and fuel pump were also reconnected.[attachment=24027]

The first start up of this unit is getting closer and closer, but there is still lots to do before and after that to make her road worthy.

I did manage to get a minuet to walk around the shop to check the progress of #26 as the cab is now 98% complete and the brakes are now going on.
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I always enjoy seeing your updates here, Steve.

Wayne

Can I do a "ME TOO" on Wayne's post. I enjoy these updates and pictures. I have been there on most of this stuff.
Charlie

Today we finished wiring the control stand in the "B". This part of the project was put on hold for a bit as our attention was diverted to the FA, Streamliners at Spencer, Rail fest's, 663 breaking down,100th/40th anniversaries, and a bunch of other things. Wow were we buzzy. It was quite a monumental feet as NS had the holster stand removed from the B unit that the main cabinet came from. So this took lots of cross referencing from the B&M and NS drawings to figure out how it all would tie back together.
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I should have stated this first , but we were moved into the far corner of the roundhouse for the winter. About half the day was spent prepping the aria and setting up lights and power for us to use. While searching around for light switches and extension cords I stumbled across this.
[attachment=24295] A fake birthday cake for this engine.
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[attachment=24293] She is the only DL&W steamer on the property.

Steve,
Thanks for volunteering your time for these worthwhile projects. I know they are a labor of love for you, but I also know and understand what it takes to get anything done.
Every project I did started with lots of people but by the second week the crowd of volunteers had dissipated to a select few, only to reappear the last day to take their bows.
I can never show enough gratitude to the ones that do the work.
Charlie

Those pictures are great!
Nice Birthday cake too!

Yesterday BLW #26 was steamed up for the first time in 15 years and given a test run. Someone (not me) shot a nice video of her trial runs.

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Beautiful!!!!

Thanks for the link Steve, it is wonderful to see these thing breath and smoke again. She sounds great, and a nice whistle.
Charlie

Today was the first work session of 2016. The morning was spent trouble shooting a problem in the lighting of DL&W F-3 664. It seams that turning on either the number board lights or the instrument lights resulted in both of them coming on together. The short was located in a terminal board in the nose and repaired.[attachment=24778]

Here is a shot of the inner workings of the switches over the engineers window. They were also checked for proper operation.[attachment=24777]

With that task complete we moved over to the roundhouse and installed some more of the engine room lights in the "B".[attachment=24776]

When we had a moment we took a walk over to the EX-Seaboard Sw-1. This engine is mostly complete with only a few things that need attention for her restoration.

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One of the things that are in need of repair is the water tank. It leaks and leaks and leaks. In order to get it onto the Steamtown property the worst of the leaks was plugged with a pencil.[attachment=24779]
Her wheels are very thin, and her riveted air tanks need to be replaced with welded ones. Other than that, she is in good working order.

Most likely she will be repainted back to her original purple and silver paint. This project will be a joint effort between the ARHS and Steamtown.

That's great!!!!