Whitefield Section House - Official Work Thread

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Annie and I will be up for several weekends immediately proceeding the big day and the entire week proceeding that day, so there will be time enough to get things prepped without impacting the spring work weekend. If it was convenient and didn't jeopardize other projects, perhaps some preliminary ground work could take place.

Steve

[Mike Fox]

A "site walk" was performed today. Ground looks good. Will fit perfectly where discussed. A little grading necessary to level it up a little.

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Mike,
Was the gravitational field checked in the area of concern? Just curious because if anything unusual was found that would change all of the loadings when using a crane to remove cars through the removable retractable roof structure.  
In all seriousness, glad he site walk looked good and glad to hear the WSH should fit as planned. Thanks for taking a look.
Steve

[Stephen Piwowarski]

To all those concerned:

I'll be up this weekend for wedding "things", including some prep work for the section house. Annie and I will be getting in late afternoon/early evening on Friday and be around through Monday early afternoon.

Thanks,
Steve

[Brendan Barry]

Section house progress

[Paul Uhland]

You guys could've shown Kaiser Shipyards how to build WWII Liberty Ships faster than two days each. 
Once again, amazing.

[Greg Klein]

Looks great!

[Stephen Hussar]

Excellent. Great pics, Brendan, thank you!
SH

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

More work done today:

* Skirt boards installed on 3 sides.  The front was left off due to needed research for the ramp/jigger track design.

* The second set of gable 2X4's were added on both ends.

* Measurements taken for the rake boards which may be installed tomorrow.  If we get the rake baords up and set the shadow boards we may be able to lay the ice & water shield on the roof so the building will stay dry(er).   

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Linda was kind enough to search the archives and found the following photo which clearly shows the arrangement of the jigger track. Thanks Linda!

[Gordon Cook]

Love the picture, so classic. I don't believe I've ever seen that smaller handcar before. Does it or at least plans survive?
It would be fun to have both types so we could recreate the picture.

Other Questions:
Was the door like a barn door but inside?

Is that a horseshoe over the door?

Were there 'tracks' in the building?

Do we have any idea who is in the picture?

[Philip Marshall]

What a neat picture! Thank you Linda for finding it and Steve for sharing it!

The 4-wheel velocipede is very similar to the one from the SR&RL the Phillips Historical Society has on display.

It looks like the "tracks" in the building are just hardwood rails fastened to the floor.

And what's the weight of the rail on the jigger track? It looks really light, like 16-lb or even 12-lb. Were they fastened down in any way or were they just a pair of loose rails that were slid out whenever a handcar was moved in or out?

-Philip Marshall

[Ed Lecuyer]

There appears that there may have been at least two jigger track arrangements. Look at these photos. One shows some sort of ramp (and turntable?) Note also a walkway or platform in front of the door.

In the other photo (which appears to be the same crew as the photo that Linda provided) there is no platform, no turntable, and the jigger track is just the two rails.

Personally, I like the ramp/turntable/platform configuration - it's much more interesting.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

The platform would be safer to work around.  We need to see where the door is in respect to the height of the spur once it gets lifted and tamped.  When the spur is all set we can build the jigger track and ramp.  The jigger track will probably be a piece of bog track.

BTW - we already have an old horseshoe to put above the door.

Gordon,  Here are a few answers:

* The door was a sliding/rolling door like the side doors on 320.

* There was a horseshoe above the door in later years.

* We believe there was some type of track inside, probably hardwood rails which is what Zack plans to install when the spruce floor goes in.

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Gordon,

To address another one of your points someone at some point started to build a replica of that smaller car. Ive seen the handle for it in varying locations within the car shop. There might be more of it somewhere...

Steve