Spring Work Weekend 2019

[Brendan Barry]

Monson # 3 picking up a loaded flat car and dropping off B&SR 34 for it's first load of stone.





34 spotted for loading at Alna Center.



First bucket of stone dumped onto 34.



The railroad's truck set up as a water tender at Alna Center.



Monson 3 taking water at Alna Center.



Monson 3 has picked up loaded car 34 and is spotting an empty for loading.



No. 9 taking water at Alna Center.



Flatcar being loaded on the siding while 9 takes water on the mainline. After the car is loaded 9 will pickup the loaded car and leave an empty behind.



Filling up the water totes at Sheepscot. A firehose was plumbed into the tank drain to fill the water totes.



The WW&FRy borrowed Maine Narrow Gauge flatcar 205 for the spring work weekend. 205 was supposed to arrive at the railroad sometime in early April for some rebuild work before the spring work weekend. Trucking issue and access problems do to the ongoing construction at the Portland Company complex conspired to delay delivery until Thursday afternoon before the work weekend.

The car was an excursion car at Edaville and at some point was cut down to a flatcar at MNGRR. The plan was to remove the steel end platforms and move the draft gear into the proper position for a car without end platforms and replace the end sills. Upon tearing into the car other problems were discovered that probably dated back to construction at Edaville. We had hoped to rebuild the car Friday but the increased scope of the work needed took two days.  Side boards were put on the car Sunday morning and the car was put into service hauling ballast Sunday. Some pictures borrowed from Facebook.

205 flipped over in bay 2 Friday morning.



Steel platforms being cut off.



New end sill fitted on.



Draft gear being worked on and the needle beams being fitted for new queen posts Friday night.



Draft gear work at the other end Saturday morning.



End sill being fitted.



Bolster truss rods being repaired and cheek irons going in at the near end. The crew at the other end was finishing up the draft gear at that end.





A crowd working on the south end.



Finishing the draft gear work on the south end and putting the coupler back in.







Tweaking a truss rod back into shape.



Flipping the car over Saturday night.





Fitting some side boards Sunday morning.



Saturday night welding coupler shims in.



Rolled out of the shop and onto a work train Sunday morning.







No.3 in the yard late Sunday afternoon with a string of four flatcars.





The sheathing in bay 1 was finished.









Electrical work was ongoing in the shop during the weekend. The lights in the shop extension were rewired and the lights in bay 2 were mounted higher and hung from the steel ibeams.





The rest of the firewood pile was cut and split over the weekend.



With four flatcars in service Sunday each work train ran with two flatcars. The empty and loaded trains would pass at Top of the Mountain.

Cars being loaded at Alna Center Sunday morning.













Ballast train heading down the mountain to the ballast crew.







Ballast crew unloading rock.





Walking down to the end of track.





Looking back south towards the ballast crew.



Turned around looking north where the slide used to be.



Standing behind where the tamper is in the last picture looking north.



Looking south. The retaining wall is on the right just before the tamper.



Looking north from the last picture.



Looking south around the curve before the present end of track.

[Russ Nelson]

21 minute-long video of the flatcar being flipped: https://youtu.be/9HfvMdSJQJE

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Thanks Brendan for that report and beautiful pics of #3 at Sheepscot. Repairing to put into operation the MNG flat car in a jiff is one of those technical feats that WW&F volunteers are used to achieving. I like  Russ's video of the dramatic flat car flip. 

[Bill Baskerville]

Surfacing and tamping just the outside of the track sure takes the whoop-dee-doos out of the track as seen in the shots before tamping.  Our track crew did an amazing job this past SWW.

[john d Stone]

That's a beautiful photo album of the Spring Work Weekend! Thanks Brandon Barry!
I took a few moist shots from Saturday.
It was certainly a great time, as always!
Many thanks to all the great folks who spent so much time and effort preparing every last detail.

[john d Stone]

A happy crew

[john d Stone]

Brakeman Dan at his post.

[john d Stone]

Dispatcher Ed sorts things out.

[john d Stone]

#9 gives us the run-around at Top of the Mountain.

[john d Stone]

#3 gives her level best on 3%.

[john d Stone]

#9 does a great Kennebec Central imitation.

[john d Stone]

Monson #3 looking work ready.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Thank you John for those  pics that shows the dedicated  volunteers working on the tracks in the rain.  Rain on the railroad does not make things easy generally speaking wheel slip ,locking and so on. But when it comes to working on the ROW and shovelling ballast it's an other kettle of fish, I experienced  it. But nobody can't fortunately command the weather.

[john d Stone]

Alain, we were actually quite fortunate. What rain we had was not much more than a drizzle. One real positive effect was the dramatic steam displays from the engines!

[Dana Deering]

This discussion reminds me that I need to say a big thank you to those volunteers who shoveled ballast with us during the SWW. That includes those members of the train crews who, once their train was secured, got down on the ground and worked with us. You all worked in the rain and mud doing an important job that will keep us on schedule for getting the Mountain line open in 2021.  Apart from track laying, track work is not considered the sexiest task on the work weekends but without it the railroad doesn't run.  I appreciate all of those folks who helped out on the track.