October 2017 Work Planning

[James Patten]

This coming weekend .... the Fall Work Weekend!  Yes, that's right folks, 4 - count 'em, FOUR! - fun-filled days of hard work, sweat, callused hands, sore muscles, great companionship, and full bellies.  On the docket for this fabulous stretch is:

* Door and stair replacements in the Percival House - replacing the parking lot door with a new door, landing, and ramp for the lot; replacing the front steps, and probably replacing the east door too.
* Retaining wall on the south side of Humason Trestle.
* Jack, tamp, line the track down the Mountain and the saw mill spur.
* Add some track to both places.
* Jack, stone, tamp and reconnect the Sheepscot yard tracks to the car shop.  There may be jacking and tamping elsewhere in the yard too.
* More flanging on #10's boiler.
* Food, food, and more food - Breakfast Sat - M, Lunch all four days, Supper F - Sunday.
* Mainline track lining and tamping.
* Woods track stone.
* I'm sure Fred could be persuaded to run the chainsaw to cut up ties.

[Jeff Schumaker]

I don't think it will take much persuading with Fred.

Jeff S.

[Mike Fox]

I will be arriving EARLY Saturday morning to dash up and grab the excavator. I would like to be up and back by 7 so as to not hold up the work crews. Probably leaving around 6, if someone wants to catch an early morning Jaunt.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Fall Work Weekend, Day #1 Friday October 6th -

* Shop - Jason and crew spent some time with the flanging machine. Bolts were installed on the center post sway braces.

* Track - Dana's crew lifted, connected, lined and tamped the tracks to Bay 2, 3 and 4.  Bill B. installed a longer throw rod and 1912 style target on the Mill Siding switch stand at ToM.

* Operations - # 9 and #52 ran special work trains with 52 going to ToM and 9 hauling stone from AC for the trackwork at Sheepscot.

* Track backhoe - Randy and crew worked on running/testing the backhoe.

* Rolling stock - Zack and crew replaced some rotten deck boards.

* Chow - Nancy Weeks prepared two nice meals for the crews. 

* Railroad clocks - Bernie Perch worked on the depot and freight house clocks.

[Joe Fox]

How did old Ditch Which (DW) run?

[Ed Lecuyer]

How did old Ditch Which (DW) run?

It didn't... yet.

[James Patten]

Fall Work Weekend Saturday October 7: Day 2.  From North to South

* I don't believe anything happened beyond the end of track, other than lots of people walking the right of way down the hill and back.  Although Mike did get the Kubota this morning before sunrise.
* Mountain main line: tamped the outside of the track, and about half of the inside.  The track was also lined.
* ToM phone line: the pole at the ToM switch got a phone box.  Not sure if the phone is in it yet or not.
* Mill spur: the spur was extended to the tree line (quite literally), and got some ballast on it.
* Alna Center: Fred occasionally loaded stone.
* Humason Trestle: Jason was to have led a crew building a retaining wall.
* Nancy has her cook shack set up just below the restrooms.
* Some folks were working on the back hoe attachment to get it independently operable (for tie replacement).
* Our bridge inspector, the bridge reconstruction contractor and our crews were looking things over.
* The Percival house west door (which was replaced yesterday) got a platform and partial ramp to the parking lot.
* The Vic Hamburger memorial tree was planted yesterday, the memorial stone arrived this morning, and the dedication ceremony was this evening.
* Mike dug the hole for buried utility pipes.  Josh put the conduit in place, and the hole was partially refilled.
* Some work was getting done on flanging #10's boiler backhead.

I'm sure there were other projects, but those are the ones I saw.

[Mike Fox]

Actually, I dug the hole for the new electrical building. And, in true archeological fashion, I found 2 ceramic pole insulators tied together in the hole. I am sure they were something Harry had, but I found it interesting to unearth them just the same.

[Ed Lecuyer]

The shipping storage container was painted a camouflage green so that it would be less noticeable from the train.

Work was done on #10's new headlight.

#9's smokebox got a new coat of graphite.

On Friday the work to connect the bay 2 track included a fair amount of archaeology to remove cribbing that was buried there.

[Dave Buczkowski]

Kudos to Bill Fortier on painting the box. He made quick work of the painting with his sprayer. It's a huge improvement.
It was nice to see everyone smiling while working hard this weekend. We accomplished a lot so far as reported above. As always, it was nice to see all our narrow gauge family converging on Sheepscot. Thanks to all for contributing their time, effort and friendship.
Dave

[Ed Lecuyer]

Work on Sunday:

* 3 fabulous meals by the kitchen crew.

* Ramp to front door of Percival house completed. Needs grading to interface with parking lot.

* Flanging for #10's boiler (backhead) progressed.

* Major cleanup of shop building; storage container is full-ly organized.

* Rain did not stop track crew from completing the mill siding. Mainline rails now extend over the new culvert. Track is in service (tamped, lined, dressed) down most of the grade to just south of the culvert.

* After several days of effort, the Sheepscot Station clock is serviceable. The dispatcher greatly appreciated having it working again.

* Work on photo cataloging in the Archives.

* Much electrical work seemed to occur. I noticed many new outlets in the rebuilt sections of bays 2&3 in the shop.

* Steam crew went above and beyond the call of duty by rescuing #52 so a wet and hungry track crew could get some lunch; then stayed on duty in case another rescue was needed at the end of an extra long work day. In the meanwhile they did a bunch of switching and put boxcar 67 in bay 2 to continue its restoration.

(Someone more knowledgeable can fill in on 52's issue.)

* Phone box at TOM was removed for off-site servicing.

If I missed something feel free to add/correct.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

52’s air compressor is considering collecting its pension and retiring.  We’ll likely replace it over the winter. 

See ya
Jason

[Philip Marshall]

Also on Sunday afternoon there was a delivery of some additional bridge timbers and hardware. Steve Z and I unloaded and stacked them next to the woods track.

[Gordon Cook]

Hauling #52, 3 coaches, and the caboose up the grade south of TOM gave 9 a nice workout. Johnson bar in the corner, throttle pulled back, barking away up to Rosewood at a steady pace.
She seemed to enjoy the challenge, as did her crew.
Almost as much fun as pulling up into the north yard on return, and making sure we didn't end up in the turntable pit.

[James Patten]

Work done on Monday, October 9:

* The former Track 7, now the Turntable track, was jacked and tamped this morning.  We managed to finish before the rain got going.  It no longer has a 1.25" superelevation on it.  Now just a quarter inch.
* Jason and Rick were making good progress in flanging the back head.  Part of their tools were oak wedges to get the metal to smoosh correctly.
* Nancy served breakfast, then broke down her tents and served lunch in the house.
* Folks were making sure the new floor kept clean.