Had a pleasant chat with Steve Sandberg this morning, and have lots of pleasant news to report:

Today 261's boiler is full of water. Yesterday they had it pressurized to 100 psi, looking for leaks. Found 6 leaking staybolt caps, and a couple of pipe joints that need to be addressed.

Steve considers it likely that they'll hydro the 261 later this month as work is progressing very well.

The rods are going back on the locomotive despite the 100 degree heat.

There will probably be a test fire later this month or early next month.

Steve said to tell y'all this: "Look for a truckload of coal in the neighborhood". <grin>

Good deal! Can't wait to see that gem back under power.

slowly and surely, your getting there. Makes me wonder what the minnesota museum is doing......-whistles-... dum de doo dee....

Thanks for the update Doug.

They posted diesel powered trips for october 13th and 14th today, seems like 261 would be ready before then? Maybe if all goes well, it will be steam powered, but they aren't promising anything?

Lots of stuff going on at the shop.
Some volunteers are working in 2, 3, sometimes 4 days a week.