The Restoration of New Haven Locomotive 529

09/11/2026

Significant Update -

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control in material sourcing. The 529 will not be completed in time for our 30th Anniversary Celebration on September 25th. The 30th Anniversary Celebration will instead feature the Naugatuck Railroad U23B #2798. This was a tough decision that we had to make when we were forced with taking shortcuts to "finish" the engine for the event, or taking a little more time to do it right. We're really, really, realllllly close to finishing the restoration, but we can't do it correctly in the next two weeks.

Anyways...

Since we last checked in...

Tony and Joey worked on the final bits and pieces of the engine work, replacing hoses and piping. (Anything blue is new!)

They also pre-lubed the engine in anticipation of starting it for the first time.

Ben started fabricating new end sheets for the pilot.

Kevin needle-scaled the engine like a champion!

Oh, did I mention that the engine got jacked up into the air?! Or that our wheelsets returned from the wheelshop?!

Randy came in as crane operator to lift the truck frames off the traction motor combos. Preston, Ben, Logan, Matt, and Jordan worked on disassembling the trucks.

Matt S, Jack, and Dale cleaned gear cases, and scraped and needlescaled the front truck frame to prep it for paint.

John, Logan, Preston, Colin, Ben, Alex N, and Matt disassembled the old traction motor combos, cleaned them, then placed new bearings and axles into them.

Alex N, and Kevin painted the inside of the battery boxes

Jordan fabricated and installed new pedestal liners for the front truck.

Lastly, Andy continued working on the engine rewiring.

Donations are so important to this project. We're still short on funding to finish the engine.

Please consider donating to the project at either:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=MGT9MM7VLL2XU
or
https://rmne.membershiptoolkit.com/packet/t86847589
Want to get involved? Check out https://www.rmne.org/volunteer 🤝🚂
Thank you all for your continued support!

09/04/2026

I know, I know, I'm late on the Monday update. We were in North Carolina this weekend with our U-Boat for the America 250 Locomotive Celebration. Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

This week -

Rewiring continued! We're starting to get sick of spaghetti.

Joey and Tony have been finishing up last little bits of the engine work. We've begun setting the racks and doing the valve timing on the engine. we also replaced older hoses and fittings with newer ones.

Matt and Ben steamcleaned the fuel tank.

Logan and John cleaned the crank case.

Logan, Preston, and Kevin did a significant amount of needlescaling, as well as some additional surface paint prep.

Ben finished up the battery boxes and the doors on the bottom of the cab sides. He then started into the steps and end sheets.

Logan Matt Preston and John worked to prep the wheelsets and traction motors.

Oh did I mention the engine is up in the air with the trucks rolled out from underneath it? Pretty cool right!.

Donations are so important to this project. We're still short on funding to finish the engine.

Please consider donating to the project at either:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=MGT9MM7VLL2XU
or
https://rmne.membershiptoolkit.com/packet/t86847589
Want to get involved? Check out https://www.rmne.org/volunteer 🤝🚂
Thank you all for your continued support!

08/24/2026

It's Monday again, so you're stuck with another update from us!

This week -

Andy kept plugging away on the low voltage rewire. I assure you we will let him out of the locomotive when he's finished.

Joey and Tony got the fuel pumps and injectors installed. After a quick scare with the R2 injector not wanting to seat right, they were able to troubleshoot it and get it properly installed.

Logan, Preston, and Ken did a significant amount of needlescaling on the long and short hoods, as well as some additional surface paint prep.

Matt shot the first coat of orange where the radiator shutters will be mounted. This allows us to install the new radiators and remount the shutters.

Ben continued working away at the firemans side of the engine - straightening the battery box floor and reframing the battery box, as well as replacing the steel below the cab door.

Logan worked at cleaning out the crank case in preparation for pre-lubing the engine and barring it over. He even found a 1983 penny while doing this! Wonder how long that's been in there! If it's yours, thank you for your donation to the 529 restoration.

Tony worked at reassembling the piping along the top deck of the engine.

Donations are so important to this project. We're still short on funding to finish off the wheelwork and painting the engine.
Please consider donating to the project at either:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=MGT9MM7VLL2XU
or
https://rmne.membershiptoolkit.com/packet/t86847589
Want to get involved? Check out https://www.rmne.org/volunteer 🤝🚂
Thank you all for your continued support!

08/17/2026

Remember me from last week? We're back and still going at it!

Logan and Preston removed all the hood doors, radiator fan grill, some large exterior pieces of piping, and other miscellaneous awkwardly constructed pieces in preparation for sandblasting.

Matt S, Zebulon, and Shea continued needle-scaling the frame and trucks of the engine. Logan started needlescaling the long hood.

Not pictured, Tony and Joey continued working on the top deck of the engine, working on cleaning up the valve train assemblies.

Ben finished up the battery box on the engineer side (I lied last week when I said we were done, but we were really close). He also finished the fireman's side window and installed the window tracks.

Thanks to Kyle Smith at Smith Dustless Sandblasting LLC, we were able to get many important pieces sandblasted. This was a huge help in getting us closer to the painting stage.

Matt, Logan, and Alex primed the sandblasted pieces into the evening hours.

Also another shout out to Tony who after putting in a solid amount of work on Tuesday evening, showed up again for most of Sunday to keep working on the top deck of the engine.

Donations are so important to this project. We're still short on funding to finish off the wheelwork and painting the engine.
Please consider donating to the project at either:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=MGT9MM7VLL2XU
or
https://rmne.membershiptoolkit.com/packet/t86847589
Want to get involved? Check out https://www.rmne.org/volunteer 🤝🚂
Thank you all for your continued support!

08/11/2026

Hood doors removed, labeled and ready for sandblasting.

08/10/2026

🚂 Help us bring this New England railroad icon back to life! ❤️

Learn More about the NH 529 at 🚂 https://www.rmne.org/nh529

Please consider donating to the project at either: 💰 https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=MGT9MM7VLL2XU�or�https://rmne.membershiptoolkit.com/packet/t86847589

Want to get involved? 🙋‍♂️ Check out https://www.rmne.org/volunteer

Thank you all for your continued support! ❤️🙏

08/10/2026

08/10/2026

Another week, another set of progress photos! 📸🚂

This week we continued plucking away at our big list of to-dos.

Logan and Preston finished prepping the radiator room for paint, followed by shooting a coat of engine room gray. With this done, we can now install the new radiators and reattach the radiator shutters.

James and Carolyn continued needle-scaling the frame of the engine. (Also, shout-out to all our needle-scalers this year! There have been many of you, and you have all played a role in getting this engine prepped for paint!) 👏

Not pictured, Tony continued working on the top deck of the engine. We're very close to having the necessary engine work complete on this 244.

Ben continued work on the cab sides, finishing the engineer's side window. (We had to graft on new steel where it was removed for the 3-pane window added during its working career.) Ben also removed a rotten section at the bottom of the cab and replaced it with new steel. 🔩 Ben is now done with the engineer's side! 🎉

We still need your help to push this restoration over the finish line.

Donations are so important to this project. We're still short on funding to finish off the wheelwork and painting the engine.

Please consider donating to the project at either:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=MGT9MM7VLL2XU

or

https://rmne.membershiptoolkit.com/packet/t86847589

Want to get involved? Check out https://www.rmne.org/volunteer 🤝🚂

Thank you all for your continued support!

08/10/2026

Thank you Railfan & Railroad Magazine for the shout out! We're just as excited as you are.

Volunteers at the Railroad Museum of New England are feverishly working to complete an operational restoration of the locomotive.

08/03/2026

Another successful weekend of moving the ball down the court!

We spent the week fabricating new window frames for the engineers side cab window. These are based off the original Alco design in our efforts to backdate the 529 to its as-delivered appearance. We're also replacing any rotten areas on the cab with new steel.

Needlescaling continued on the frame and trucks. Many thanks to our volunteers who's hands are still vibrating days later.

On the 244 engine block, we've been cleaning up the cylinder head and valve train components and working on finishing the installation of the injectors. As of Saturday we've finished 8 of the 12 injectors. We're very close to the finish line for the engine work!

We still need your help to push this restoration over the finish line.

Donations are so important to this project. We're still short funding to finish off the wheelwork and painting the engine.

Please consider donating to the project at either
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=MGT9MM7VLL2XU
or
https://rmne.membershiptoolkit.com/packet/t86847589

Want to get involved? Check out https://www.rmne.org/volunteer

Thank you all for your continued support!