Len sent me the e-mail below. I don't think I could have put it any better. I would like to thank everyone hear for the prayers while I'm over in Iraq. Also I would like to personnally thank everyone on here for your help with info, tips, and just putting up my lack of steam knowledge. This is a great website and it's great to know there are folks out there who still care about the steamers! This holiday season please take the time to thank the troops coming home and remember us during your holiday meals. Don't worry about your freedom, "Everything is safe and secure!" We love what we do and will always protect your rights.

2009 Year End Progress Report on Project 565

Hello all,
First off Steve and I want to thank everyone who has helped on this Project of Delaware Lackawanna and Western No. 565 , With out your help we wouldn't be here at this stage of completion.

Steve Boonstra started this project in the end of 2008, He and his air force guy's and a few rail fan friends started to hunt down and collected all of what they could find of DL&W 565's parts, and brought them all into the storage room and roundhouse with 565 her self. It would be the first time in over 30 years, that the locomotive would be close to almost all of her parts since she was taken apart over at New Hope and Ivyland for a full restore and conversion to oil fire fuel back in the early 1970's.

Then Steve found out he would be deployed for one year over in Iraq, Steve put on RYPN.org which is a fail fan forum on the inter net that he was looking for some one to take over his project at Steamtown on DL&W 565 Restore project . after a two month search no one contacted him. I had thought about it for a while to help with the project during the time they were looking for the parts , but it snowed and I didn't go up. So that night I contacted Steve on the phone, and told him I would take over the project for him. I told him I had some know how of steam railroading for I was a Member of Wanamaker Kempton & Southern Steam Tourist Railroad for 12 years, and had been a member of the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania for 6 years.
So on Saturday June 14, 2009 I went to Steamtown for the first time since the grand opening back in July 1995. I met with Lou, and Bruce Mowbray. We talk and Bruce showed us around the park and told me what I was to do and where to do it.

The first thing I did to get the word out about 565 was to make a help wanted video and put in on Youtube.com . The video showed 565 and what we needed to have done and that we needed volunteers for it. I changed the name to just "Project 565" short but sweet.

Then I started posting about Project 565 on rail fan forums. Railfan.net, Railroad.net, RYPN.org, Chaski.com Railfan , and Trainorders.com along with Youtube I started to get good responses. By with in three months I had a nice crew made up of Five people including myself. I was contacted by a young man of age 15, from New York state, he wanted to help out, but he was to young for the age range is 18 or older to work as a volunteer at Steamtown. He asked if we could use a web site for the project, I said sure. I already had a Facebook, Myspace, and Tweeter page. But a real web site would be great! So he started to build a site through Webs.com they are a free site. After a week time we had close to 200 visitors on our site.

Through Project 565 web site we were contacted by a group from upper New York state they wanted to help on the project. We also had folks from the IL. Railroad Museum and Danbury Railroad Museum in Conn. and by a former employee of the DL&W / EL/ Conrail who contact us about 565.
The web site is getting well known for in one day we have had 76 to visit the site and we are now up to 3112 that has visit the site since activation back in the end of September. Here is the sites address http://project565.webs.com/ .

Since I started as Co - Volunteer Lead back in June, I have held a workday every month and some times two workdays in the same month, except for the month of November. I held a workday every weekend up to the 21st. with a full crew. I also go up myself and work on the project at different times.

Because we have been working hard on this project, we have gotten done a lot!!!! of the small and large parts , and because we have been doing so well, we are showing Steamtown we are devoted to the cause.
Hear is a list of what we have accomplished for 2009.

Pilot Truck
Lead wheel set, Frame, truck frame swivel fixture, truck equalizer bar, truck stabilizer frame

Cab
Flooring , Grate Shakers, Throttle Handel, long stem valves, Check valves, Sight glass, Window and door linkage, and our Carpenter will be working on our seat boxes over the winter in his workshop at home.

Chassis
Front Driver Journals, Grease tension plates, and some Spring linkage, Pilot "Cow Catcher" is on track One waiting for sand blasting.
All of the Drive rod attachments found

Brake system
Cross bars, Air brake stand, ok this is where Steve's Air Force guy's come in They sand blasted and primer painted most all of the brake linkage for Chassis.

Boiler
Smoke box cover, Steam dome, Aux. Steam dome, Hand Railing holders, Smoke box door clips, Marker light holders, Headlight, Fire box cross bars, Small Aux. Air pump, Pressure release valve. Oil cans shelf that mounts above the fire box doors.

Tender
Left Stirrup step Removed, Tender is now push back to the locomotive.

There has been other parts sand blasted and I'm not sure of their names and where they go on the locomotive.

Steve and I want to thank the whole Steamtown employees for their help in this project, With out having their expertise we wouldn't had gotten this far. We look forward to working with them next year in 2010.

And now that steamtown will have us up over the winter months, we should get even more done! So stay tune to see what eles we get done.
Len
Co- Volunteer Lead.