March 2010 Work Planning

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for March 6.

- Tree cutting, if enough people show up.
- Machinery work for #9 if anyone's interested.

It's a little early to start on track work.

[James Patten]

Work done on March 6.

We had a good tree cutting crew today.  Cutting started around 7:30 in the southwest corner of the future parking lot, and finished up alongside the road and the western border of the lot.  There's still a thicket of trees at the southeast and northwest corners.  Work finished up before noon.  With no snow, a hose was run from the corner of the house out to the corner of the lot and used to supress the fire at the end of the day.

A train was run up the line to clean up any debris from the winter and the wind storms in recent weeks.

Earlier in the week Jason did some welding on the frame of #9 to repair some cracks.

New materials for #9's main driver axles arrived this week.

New books (from M2FQ) arrived today also.  Linda was taking money.

Mike will soon follow with photos.

[Mike Fox]

Looking in from the road, actually standing across the road.


Then I went to septic heights. Looking back at the road, I managed to capture the corner of the house to give an idea of the size of the cutting.

[Duncan Mackiewicz]

Mike & James,
Nice update and pics.  Feels funny to have more snow in my Western Mass back yard than I can see on the ground in Midcoast Maine.  Looks like the winter crews have done one heck of clearing job this year.  Can't wait to see it in person.
Duncan

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for weekend of March 13.

* Tree cutting - there's one corner left, down by the house.  Some trees are leaning toward the road so we'll need bodies on ropes pulling.

* Alternatively if the weather's bad enough we'll probably work inside, perhaps in the basement of the house putting in insulation in the gaps between basement wall and first floor rafters.

* There's probably work in the machine shop.

* Weather permitting, I'd like to take out a track crew in the afternoon for tie replacements.  Rain would have to be intermittent at best in order for me to do that.

[James Patten]

Work on the weekend of March 13.

Last week the bandsaw had a rubber cover put on the large wheels for the blade.  On Friday this week Vern built a table for the bandsaw.  Jonathan built a framework of some kind for Big Joe.

Saturday was a busy day:

* In the early morning the remaining mess of trees just southwest of the house was cut down.  Three large pines were left, but everything else was cut down, with Fred running a brushcutter to remove the weeds.  Nothing was burned, instead it was piled up.

* The diesel was fired up and switched around most of the cars in the yard - taking the coaches out of the barn and moving the flats and open car.  Then the yellow car was moved into Bay 2 and the overhead crane removed everything on it - a press (not a printing press), and parts for the big lathe at the south end of the shop.

* A crew worked to free up the press while another worked to level up the big lathe.

* The main drivers for #9 were brought into Bay 2 and put up on the lathe.  Some measurements were taken to figure out the angle of the eccentrics.

* I took a small crew out to replace ties in the afternoon.  We replaced 5 on my section.

* The plow was removed.

[Bill Sample]

"Plow removed".....uh-oh sounds like a guaranteed snowstorm recipe.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for weekend of March 20.

* Spring officially arrives at 1:30 PM on Saturday.
* Jason has a #9 work day planned.
* I would like to spend the day on track work - jacking and tamping; tie replacement; maybe alignment, maybe putting in stone where we tamped.  This is mostly on my section, and some of it will be within yard limits.
* I doubt there'll be any more tree clearing.
* EDIT: Forgot to mention the WW&F will be at the All-Scales Model Train show in North Gloucester, ME.

[James Patten]

Work done on March 20.

* #9 work day.  The place was busy.  Noah M (from SR&RL) was grinding welds on the frame.  Rick cleared out the remaining bolt holes on the cylinder casting.  Ed and Emily spent time cleaning up the drivers, and they were later powerwashed.  More holes were drilled in the new firebox for future rivets.

* I heard reports that Trask Crossing was messed up with dirt and rocks from tree clearing operations on his mother's land, so I took the engine up with JB along and cleaned up the crossing.  While there the fellows that were doing the work came in and we chatted for a few minutes.  Turns out one of the guys grew up in Coopers Mills next to the ROW, so he knew all about the railroad.  I invited him over for Easter Express.  A later trip past Trask revealed that they have really cleared out a lot of trees - but they've been very neat about it and haven't left a lot of slash behind.

* John M did a survey of the phone system from Humason trestle northwards to document and record his work.

* I attempted to jack and tamp the main line just north of the station.  However when I got the compressor car in place at looked at it from the east side, I didn't see a tamper there.  A hunt of the property revealed no unattached tampers, so JB and I spent about twenty minutes unlatching one of the tampers from Big Joe - only to be asked as we finished why we didn't use the tamper on the compressor car: easily visible from the west side of the car.   Arggh.  Then I had to run a couple of trains for passengers.  Once that was over I got the jacks out and started working - only to need to run another train.  So as it was nearly 5 after getting back I gave up and put everything away.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for March 27:

With Easter Express in 2 weeks I'd expect a light volunteer turnout.

* Jason may be doing some prep work for #10's steam up next weekend, and may need help.

* There's odd jobs here and there that need doing, such as insulation in the house basement.

I won't be there myself.

[Fred Morse]

Hi Everyone,

     As James was not here this weekend, I'll try to tell you what we did.  There was work being done in the shop on #9 and on a steam Genator parts as well as trying to get an old hydrolic press working. A new brake shoe was put on the diesel as one wears out faster than the others. In the afternoon six of us went to the end of track and did more cleaning up. Also cut down some leaning trees. There's still some work to be done between Sheepscot and Alna Center. We picked up the two rails at the top of the grade on the right just North of Alna Center and the blocking under them. Hopfully when the new sidings are build everything along the railroad can be picked up and brought back to Sheepscot,and we will have a clean right of way all the way to the North end.

                                                                        Fred

[Dave Buczkowski]

All;
Here are some photos from yesterday to go along with Fred's report:
Fred forgot to mention our new manual crossing signal. We know him as Steve:
Our "new" 1910 wheel press:
El Presidente reviewing his railroad:
Dave

[John McNamara]

I see that the executive business car on this railroad has an excellent 360-degree view - substantially wider than the cramped confines of business cars found on other railroads.

-John

[Gordon Cook]

So,,,, How many tons did the press get up to??

[Dave Buczkowski]

Gawdon;
I believe I heard 2000 pounds. I don't know what was used to test it but they had been using a 2X6.
Dave