Work in Youngstown has been proceeding at a pace never before seen here in Youngstown. Both the Mahoning Valley Railroad Heritage Association's Marter Yard and the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum are seeing improvements being made. Here, MVRHA's 20 ton Davenport diesel mechanical locomotive is getting a much needed paint job.


Privately owned P&LE caboose 566 was blasted and repainted and now only needs to be restenciled. This yellow was matched to a paint chip on the car so it should be fairly close to correct. We used Sherwin Williams Steelmaster 9500 for the topcoat, which is probably a better quality paint than the P&LE used when they originally painted the car.


MVRHA's two hot metal cars are also getting some attention. I have found that for rusty metal surfaces, Rustoleum's Rusty Metal Primer is the best coating to use short of blasting and repainting bare metal.


Finally, over at the YSHM construction of the mainline is progressing with only two more stick of rail to go in before we reach the north property line. Here our "ballast extra" is headed north to drop stone over a newly laid section of track. We are using 100RB rail on this railroad as much as possible.

The MVRHA is hosting their annual Open House on Saturday, July 14 from 10 am to 2 pm. Come see the progress we are making and maybe even take a very short ride in the Davenport.

Looking good. The caboose probably hasn't looked that good since the '80's. When you get a chance, please let me know the color info on that yellow.