October 2010 Work planning

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for weekend of Oct 2-3

* Bruce M is coming with mower and lathe parts, and will be demonstrating one and working on the other.
* Don't know if Dana is coming, but if he is there will be work weekend prepping
* Where this is a weekend between events, volunteers (especially train crew volunteers) will probably be light.  If you're train crew qualified please consider spending at least one day, both would be OK too.

Saturday night there's a ham & bean supper at the Alna Fire House.

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Oct 2.

* Multiple people tore into the railcar jacking system and fixed it.  It was jacked up in the shop OK, then jacked up and turned around outside.  It was taken out for the 4 PM trip.
* Dana was there, and retrieved rails for the track relay next weekend.  I believe he also got extra ties.  He and I treated the nuts and bolts with oil or penetrant on the section to be replaced.

The Alna VFD ham supper was quite tasty.

[James Patten]

Work anticipated for weekend of Oct 8 - 11.

Do I really need to elaborate?  It's the annual fall work weekend.  Food, entertainment, old and new friendships, and work work work!

* Dana is in charge of the track work project: relaying the rail from mid-way through Davis curve to about the culvert north of the water tank.  We're relaying the 33-lb rail (and 45-50 lb joint in the middle of the curve) to 50-lb in anticipating of building the new switch into the new part of the yard.  If there's time and enough people, he'll also supervise replacing bent rails in other portions of the line.
* Zack (most likely) is in charge of building the doghouse structure on the Percival house.
* Steve Z (most likely) is in charge of finishing the freight shed ceiling.
* Stewart (most likely) is in charge of finishing the painting on the freight shed.
* This time Elizabeth Davis is in charge of the food, as Sue can't make it.  Fred's in charge of food on Friday.

There's a board meeting Friday night.  And probably Dana's retelling of the "World Famous Moose Callair" on Saturday.

[James Patten]

Columbus Day weekend, part 1:

Friday saw the beginning of the rail replacement project.  Starting on the north end, Dana and crew started taking up the lighter rail (initially 40-lb, later 33-lb) and replacing it with 50-lb rail.  This started about 9:30 Friday morning.  As the 50-lb rails were longer than the rails they were replacing, two lengths of the light rail had to be removed before the heavier stuff could be put down.  We quickly worked out a system of pulling spikes, moving the old rail out of the way, plugging the holes, bringing in the new rail, and spiking it down.  Meanwhile in the yard a crew removed about 90 feet of track in order to place the frog for the new switch.  By the end of the day the replacement rails were off the curve.

There was also work on the dog house for the new entrance to the Percival basement.  The dog house got framed up.

Saturday, the dog house was boarded up.  A crew was put to work on the rails for the switch, while rail replacement continued.  Another crew went north to put in a culvert for a future driveway.  And the smokebox and tubes of #10 were cleaned out.  I left before the end of the day, but it appeared that the rail replacement crew and the switch placement crew were converging.

Part 2 tomorrow.

[James Patten]

Columbus Day weekend, Part 2

Sunday, crews spiked up all the remaining ties on the replaced rail section.  (Wasn't there Sunday so I can't comment on anything else that was done)

Monday, all activity was around the switch.  The 50-lb and 40-lb rails had all been placed in prior days, so now people were working on the compromise joints.  Rails for the guard rails for the frog, the switch, and the rail coming off the switch had holes drilled for bolts, then brought up to the work site.  The guard rails were bent, then notched, then spacers made and bolted up.  The rail coming off the switch was put in place, then a crew went up line to get another rail (that could be cut to be even) and brought it back, and installed it (the second rail was coming off the frog, and evened out the joints.  Then everyone was so enthusiastic about the siding that another two rails were taken (unused 50-lb rails that had been dropped off for relaying) and set out to advance the siding another 30 feet.  Meanwhile the comp joint between the 50 and 40 (quite a bump) got welded up and smoothed out.

I think it won't hurt to go over everything with Big Joe, especially around the switch area.  And there's still a number of bad ties to replace and spike, and a couple of strings of 33-lb rail to bring up from the middle of the track.

Regarding food: Fred and Bruce worked in the kitchen on Friday, and I saw Elizabeth, Joan, Jane, Lexxos, Fred's two grandkids, Julius, Barbara, and probably others than I missed in the kitchen on Saturday.  Monday it was Elizabeth and Joan.  Food was great all around!

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

On Sunday we replaced most of the ties that James had marked as bad.  We hand tamped the ties and some were spiked.  The private crossing was pulled up and the old planks were loaded on the Model A truck.  The new crossing planks were installed by Steve Z. and members of the track crew.  Monday a lining crew worked North of the new switch making adjustments to the new mainline rail.

Duncan M. finished installing the cove moulding in the freight house ceiling.  The new strips cover the gaps around the beams so building will be easier to heat.   

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for weekend of Oct 16:

This weekend is the first weekend of Saturday-only operation since the beginning of Summer.  It's also the weekend of a) The 470 Club's annual train trip over Crawford Notch in New Hampshire, b) a train show at Philips, and c) the weekend after the big work weekend.  All of these means there won't be many people at the museum this weekend (including me!).  So I'm guessing that means there'll be enough people to run the train and not much else.

[Mike Fox]

Work done Oct. 16th.
  James, Stewart and Cindy represented the museum at the show in Phillips. One of them can report on that.
  Steve Z., Jason, and myself replaced the joint bars where the compromise joint used to be in Davis Corner. This turned into quite a little mini project, and wound up trying to get it done between trains. While waiting for Jason to make yet another modification to the joint bars, I replaced the tie at the joint. After we were finished, it is a very smooth joint.
 Steve, Fred, John R. and Bob C. took turns on the train.
  Ed G. and Jason worked on #9s frame some more. Trying to remove the cylinders for repair at a nearby shop.
  I removed the distributor and crankshaft pulley from the railcar. It was decided that the distributor was one of 25 that was assembled incorrectly. It is being shipped someplace but I don't know where. A pin had worked it's way out of the crankshaft Pulley, bending the pin and oblonging the holes on the pulley. A new pin and pulley will be ordered.
  Linda was in the gift shop. Always happy to make a sale to one of the crew.

  Less than 10 riders today, which is about what we expected. Fred reported a few tree tops down from the Noreaster we had yesterday, but no other damage. Humason Brook was really flowing. Over 3 inches of rain in 12 hours will do that.

[Glenn Byron]

Here's here's for what it's worth.  Throw that distributer away!  Henry built that T with a timer down in front and four coils that buzzed sweetly when they were proper on 15 MILLION of them.  Modern technology has even improved on Ol' Henry's design.  Join The Model T Clubs and that Rail Car will do you proud.  Next year, invite "The Mainly T Tour" to grace our yard, and you'll have some pictures to share that will knock our socks off.  That T should not be a problem, way more of them are running fine today than steam locomotives.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for October 23

* Doghouse still needs siding, shingling, a door....
* I'm hoping to use Big Joe in jacking/tamping track - first finishing up south of the water tank, then taking it up to the switch area and working on the ties and track there.
* #9 frame work
* Keeping warm....

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Work done this week.

Our contractor, Jeff Verney dug the clay out of the site for the restroom pad.  He then filled the area with gravel, laid out road cloth and toped the site with crushed rock.  He allowed extra rock on the sides for stability. You can now see where the restroom building will go and the size of the structure. 

Number 9's frame received attention - Jason, Steve Z. and I removed the bolts that hold the frame to the cylinder castings.  The lower frame sections were removed and the upper sections (which are on the bottom because the frame is upside down) will be removed soon. 

Zack is doing well, he delivered the new door for the "doghouse" basement entrance to the Percival house.

A special train was run Friday morning for a school charter.  About 35 (1st grade thru 6th grade) students with 10 adults enjoyed a trip to the North end and back.  Upon their return they toured the shop and were given an explanation of how a steam locomotive operates.  They walked past engine 10 and were invited to come to Victorian Christmas to see her run.   Handcar rides were given by Steve Z and the line went around the corner of the shop...  the kids loved it!  They also walked through coach 3 and were told that children rode the coach to school over 100 years ago.  Everyone had a good time, some of the kids didn't want to leave.  Nine volunteers were around to help with things. 

[James Patten]

Work done on Oct 23,

* Zack put in the door for the dog house, and he and Steve Z put up Tyvek.
* JB and I tried to jack & tamp track, but we couldn't get the compressor started.  I need to talk to Mike....
* Stewart, Ed, and others tried to remove #9's frame from the cylinder casting, but it wouldn't budge.

[Dwight Winkley]

When the 3 pm train was at Alna Center, Tom Albee was seen on his large antique tractor with a new brush hog on the rear. Tom was driving over the small tree's in the field on the west side of the ROW. Where the tractor had been is now a cleared field.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Oct 30.

***FYI hunting season starts October 30 (Maine residents only that day, everybody else on Monday).  Wear your blaze orange or find someone who has it!***

* I'd like to get a load of stone from Alna Center and spread it on the new switch and on the areas I've previously jacked in the yard.  I'm also hoping I can get the Lindsay compressor going so Big Joe can do some work.
* Doghouse needs siding
* Probably work to remove #9's frames from the cylinder will continue, although looks like it needs a sizeable press.

The Alna VFD has a Hunter's breakfast on Saturday 4 - 9, but non-hunters are invited too!

[Jason M Lamontagne]

We managed to remove one of the side frames Monday, and will probably have the other free before the weekend.  They were rusted in.  There is plenty of work to continue this weekend though- with cleaning and assessing the frames, cleaning the cylinders, etc.

If there's enough people, I'd like to get the smokebox drilled for the cinder pocket and cleanout.  This is the next step toward mounting the smokebox on the boiler.

Jason