February 2018 Work Planning

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Feb 3:

A cold stiff wind is forecast for this day.
* Trout Brook bridge zone tree clearing.
* Boxcar 67
* Archives

[Mike Fox]

Stiff wind from the south will help..

We have some trees to cut at the Trout Brook site. One big Pine, heavily leaning south I want to fall north...

Plenty of other bushes and brush that will be close to the fire. So plenty to keep several sombodies busy.

A good day will complete the tree cutting in the permitted area of the bridge. We can then start cleaning up to the north, between the bridge site and the road.

[Ed Lecuyer]

Saturday will also feature an expedition, of sorts, at TOM. We will be laying out and mapping snowshoeing trails for the 2/17 Steam Train Snow Day.

[Mike Fox]

Ed,
I can point you to a loop trail if you need..used to be an ATV trail. Take a saw with you. Almost can bet there is a tree down..

[Ed Lecuyer]

Jason and Steve are planning the trail. I'm just drawing the map.

[John McNamara]

Tours of Porcupine Palace?

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Mike, 

The loop trail is what I had mind.  If you’d mark your recollection on a map Saturday morning, it’d be good to work from.  I was going to go up the mill spur and continue out to the Palace, then swing around the ridge above the Brook, then south and back west.

I don’t anticipate taking much crew away from you for long- but tree work is a priority.

Ed, can you email a topo map f the area that I can print?

Thanks,
Jason

[Mike Fox]

Could be an after lunch adventure, when the cutting is done. I can give approximate on a map, but it won't be accurate. It will be about 15 minutes of walking.

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Feb 3:

* Trout Brook tree clearing: We got rid of the big pine tree by the stream, but Mike couldn't make it go north because the chain kept breaking.  The third time the tree took a dive toward the stream.  Fortunately the ice was pretty thick so the tree didn't break through and people could walk around on the ice cleaning up the branches.  A few more trees were cut early to get the fire going.
* Top of Mountain: A crew went up after lunch to blaze a trail for the mid-month trains.
* Boxcar 67: Zack was working on that.

[Bob Holmes]

Hopefully, what you are doing with the loop trail is to make it a permanent fixture at TOM, for snowshoeing in the winter, and hiking in the summer.  Ultimately, it should have clearing, blazing and ongoing maintenance to make it a permanent destination attraction for a broader audience than just railfans.

Bob

[Stephen Piwowarski]

It is so nice it is hard to imagine it any other way. When you get back in the woods, it really feels isolated and wild. We talked of converting the flagging tape to a more permanent blaze when we were out this afternoon.

Steve

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Feb 10:

* Boxcar 67
* Trout Brook to 218 tree trash burning (and cutting?).  There'll be a foot of snow on it.
* Board meeting 4:00

[Mike Fox]

The tree trash that is piled is all hardwood. We will have to handle it. There are some pine limbs to take down that could be used as fire starters, and a fir tree. A good day will clean it up.

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Feb 10:

* Tree trimming: mostly limbing on the RR right of way south of Rt 218.
* Boxcar 67: Zack was working on grabirons.
* Backhoe/tie inserter: Jay was looking at things (the cylinders are back having been rehabbed).
* Giftshop: Linda was cleaning and organizing.
* Machine shop: Jason and Alan were hatching something...
* Plowing: The diesel plowed the line.
* Board meeting.

[Paul Uhland]

Bet that tie inserter will save LOTS of drudgery out on the line, especially with more track coming. 
Ya gotta run a demo video!