December 2009 work planning

[James Patten]

Work on Saturday Dec 12.

Tree cutting: Chainsaws were fired up and the thicket of trees on the NW side of the house were cut down and burned.

Machine shop: Jason organized a clean-up of the machine shop and moving of stuff upstairs.

Loco 9: After grinding some last week and finding small cracks in the frame, the Board decided Friday night that a thorough investigation of the frame is warranted to find out any problems that there may be.  So a part of the day was spent in going over the entire frame with a wire brush, cleaning it up for first a visual inspection, then later a more detail inspection.

Bandsaw: The bandsaw (which for many years the frame of it sat in bay 1) has now acquired its bandsaw wheels.  Everything's been painted up and it looks really nice.

Loco 10: The boiler was filled back up with water in preparation for Victorian Christmas next weekend.

Snow: About 4 or 5 inches of snow were left at the museum, the diesel was run over the yard tracks to clear them up.

[Bill Fortier]

Loco 10: The boiler was filled back up with water in preparation for Victorian Christmas next weekend.

Waiting patiently.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Dec 19.

December 19 is our annual free Victorian Christmas.  Loco 10 is planned to be in steam.  Train rides are, if I recall correctly, 10 - 4, with the horse-drawn carriage/sleigh at Alna Center from 11 - 2:30.  Santa will be holding court in the AC station in the afternoon.  There'll be light refreshments in the gift shop.  Come everyone!

We'll need crowd control, train crew, and friendly faces to help out.

[Bill Fortier]

How's the snow holding up? This week's forecast doesn't seem to offer any additional coverage by Saturday.

[James Patten]

Very little new snow since Saturday, but having spent one Victorian Christmas in the diesel doubleheading with the steam engine from heavy snow, that's fine with me. 

[Mike Fox]

See the January photo in the WW&F 2010 Calendar to know what James is talking about. What? No calendar? Better get one quick. January will be here before you know it. On sale in the giftshop.

[Gordon Cook]

Very little new snow since Saturday, but having spent one Victorian Christmas in the diesel doubleheading with the steam engine from heavy snow, that's fine with me. 

Gee, I thought that was one of the most fun days I've had on the railroad!
But I wasn't the one in the diesel.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

There won't be any more snowfall in Alna in time for the Victorian Christmas but whats on the ground will stay.  It is a bit cool here ... the temperature was a flat 0 this morning and it never got above 15.  Should be a bit warmer with less wind on Saturday. 

[Dave Crow]

Stewart, you and Cindy will have escaped the 4 to 8 inches forecast for here in Baltimore this weekend.  And it's a bit warmer here... 18 degrees when I left the house this morning at 5:30.  I look forward to seeing photos from the weekend.  And we're hoping to be up there next year!

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Dave,  I hear Maryland got about 2 feet of snow.  I hope the roads are clear when we get back on Weds.   Victorian Christmas went well, some trains had over 100 passengers.  The word is getting out as there were alot more railfans.  Some were taking pictures at locations along the mainline.  Sheepscot Mills was one spot.  The run around move at AC was another favorite.  I bet there will be fresh WW&F videos on youtube this week.  There was enough snow for the sleigh ride at AC.  The sleigh was an old articulated job with iron parts from the 19th century.  It reminded me of the log bunk sleds used in Franklin County along the SR&RL.  The weather was clear and temps got into the mid 20's with just a slight breeze from the North.  At the end of the day we got coach 3 in bay two, 320 and 309 in bay one and coach 8 with engine 52 in bay three.  We put the plow on 52 before we did the final switching to get everything in the barn.

[Mike Fox]

Wow. Coah 8 and the 52 in bay 3. Must have taken out the truck. That would be a tight fit with it in there.

[James Patten]

As Stewart reported, we got all passenger cars except for 103 under cover.  The Model AA truck was moved back almost as far as it could go to fit Coach 8 and the diesel in Bay 3.  Bay 2 has Coach 3, plus the tamper (which is going to get more work this winter) and the Brookville, currently up on blocks.  Then in Bay 1 the coupler of the boxcar is almost inside the firebox of #9's new boiler.  #9's cab on its rollers is between boxcar and tamper.  Gotta be an acrobat now to move around.

Meanwhile I think it was a very enjoyable day.  I was rather surprised at the number of people that showed up.  It was cold but moderated in the afternoon so that I was going around without gloves (still bundled up though).  Never got a chance to ride the sleigh, though.

[Ed Lecuyer]

[Moderators note]
I'd like to keep James' monthly 'work planning topics' free of banter and other chit-chat. Eventually, it may turn into a Twitter, Facebook, and/or other news feed. Regular volunteers are welcome to comment on the activities (pre & and post) if it pertains to the work done or to be accomplished.

If the work to be done (or completed) raises a question, let's agree to start up a new thread.

This month, the conversation strayed from that format (and I just did a little clean up to combine some similar threads.) Next month, we'll do better.

Wishing everyone a Victorian Christmas,

-Ed
 

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for weekend of Dec 26.

It appears that the Weather originally forecasted for during the day Saturday is now forecasted for Saturday night.  So looks like Saturday may be an OK day.  However, it's also the day after Christmas so I'm guessing rather few people will show up to volunteer.

Likely chainsaws will be fired up and operated behind the house, preparing for the parking lot.

I would judge it rather unlikely that anything will get done in the machine shop.  But I have been wrong in the past.

[James Patten]

Work done on December 26

Fred, Zack, Mike, and I cut down some sizeable trees north of the house, between the future sites of the parking lot and the car shed.  Naturally the tree trash was all burned up.  Later John R and Bob C showed up to help with the burning down.

Jason and Bob L showed up to do some welding on the piece of frame that was removed from #9's frame nearly a year ago.  The piece isn't going to do anything, the purpose was to try some newly recommended welding stick types.

Bob C and John R also took down the Christmas lights.

Bill F showed up to do some milling on small pieces of metal.