November 2010 work planning

[James Patten]

Work planned for Nov 6:

* Nov 6 is "Albion Day" - a day when museum volunteers go north to the northernmost station on the line to assist with work on that property.  Albion Station is owned by the Albion Historical Society.
* Probably Zack will be working on the doghouse.
* It's likely that volunteers will be few, so most efforts will go to train operation, if anyone shows up.

[James Patten]

Work done on and before Nov 6:

* At some point during the week, Ken Boudin came by to look at boring the cylinders on #9.  He said that they would only be able to do it if the cylinder were separated, so Jason had the cylinder halves separated.
* Today Zack insulated the doghouse and "installed" stairs (the stairs used to get up to the bed of the Model A truck).
* Today was Albion Day.  About 7 of us went up to Albion.  We got a fair amount done - we lined track, ballasted the mainline between the station and switch, and respiked track near the stub switch and on the siding.  Meanwhile Ed and Bill worked on a platform at the station, cutting boards to length.  Dave and others spent a good deal of time on the brush cutter, clearing tall weeds and young trees all over the property.  Lunch was a little after 12!  After lunch Fred and Zack drove up.  Zack was quite impressed with the blacksmith shop.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Ken Boudin's visit was this morning.  He didn't need the halves seperated but said it'd be easier.  They came apart readily; as it turns it be easier this way even if we were doing it in-house.

Sometimes it goes well...  (Maybe Murphy went to Albion today?)

Jason

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Nov 13:

* Friday night is a board meeting
* There's still some stone left on the flatcar, plus all the ties that got pulled out are still there.  I'm hoping to empty the flatcar and get the ties off the ROW.
* The doghouse needs siding
* I'm holding an intensive brakeman training session for brakemen-in-training, starting at 9.

[James Patten]

Work done on Nov 13,

* I discovered that "intensive training" and "six people" don't go together.  Nobody's fault but mine.  No one gets too much time to do anything.  Instead I'll focus more on one-on-one or two-on-one.
* The Percival toolshed was emptied, jacked up, then skids were put under it.  It was then chained to Zack's truck and he took off and stuck it out of the way for the time being near the knoll.  Where it sat before we need to dig a trench for power and water to the new bathroom site, plus a culvert.
* In the afternoon, Fred took Ed and his friends up to Head Tide to continue moving wood.
* In the afternoon, I took everyone that was standing around that had been part of the "intensive training" and the toolshed move and went out and picked up all the ties that were bad from midway through Davis Curve back toward the station.  Stewart got the Model A out and we loaded up the back and put them out front for landscape ties for sale.
* Once done with that we emptied the flatcar over the culvert north of the water tower, and put some also up at the switch.
* Bridget and Linda made us lunch.  Beef Stew and Vegetable soup.  Sounds like Linda and Bridget are doing lunches for the winter to give Fred a break.

New in the gift shop: cream-colored mugs with the WW&F logo (like the gray ones only cream).  We were sent 2 gross instead of one, so everyone must pick one up!

Also new are 2010 Christmas Cards - A freight train at Alna Center with a Model A ski truck.  And Linda's talking about putting together a batch of cards that contain several from each series.

[Mike Fox]

New in the gift shop: cream-colored mugs with the WW&F logo (like the gray ones only cream).  We were sent 2 gross instead of one, so everyone must pick one up!

They would make dandy Christmas gifts.  Save some for me.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work Nov 20.

* Doghouse
* Locomotive 9 work day (smokebox)

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

This week at Sheepscot -

Metal testing equipment was brought in and Jason ran additional tests on #9's frame and cylinder castings.  The cylinder castings were then loaded on the Model A.  This was done by backing the truck diagonally in bay 3's door and over into bay 2 under the shop crane.  The castings were placed on the truck and then taken to a local shop for work. 

The oil was changed in the Model A and Sta-Bil gas treatment was put in the Model A and Model T railcar.

Vern worked on the large band saw, setting the blade and installing a cut guard.  He brought a 2 horse electric motor to run the saw.  It will have to be wired up.

A new Safety sign was made and put up in bay 2 above the big lathe.  The sign is a replica of a sign that was in the original WW&F shop in Wiscasset in the 1920's.   

[James Patten]

Work done on Nov 20,

* Fred and Dwight went up to Head Tide and continued working on clearing stumps, good wood, etc off the ROW up there.  They then worked their way south in keeping the top of the ROW cleared, skipping by the first big washout there.  It's worthy to note that Eric has been real busy up there too, working his way in from the other side.
* Dana ran a crew north, dropping some of the Kovalchick rail off near MP 6, then putting the rest of the K rail at the rail pile next to MP 7.  They then came back to MP 6 and replaced one or two rails before lunch, and some rails after lunch.  Now both flatcars are empty again.  Dana sounds eager to lay track on the siding.
* Jason ran a crew in the shop, first drilling holes for the ash cleanout blowout thingy in the smokebox, then working on getting the smokebox onto the boiler.  By the end of the day the two were joined, although not permanently.
* Zack finished insulating the dog house.  I noticed more rows of shingles on the side.

[Dwight Winkley]

On Monday, Nov. 22nd. Fred and Dwight took #52 to end of track. Spent the morning cutting brush at the Top of the Mountain.  That section was finished. One more section to brush to get to the end of the tree cleared right of way.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Nov 27:

* Woof woof! Fido's home isn't complete yet.  Dog house will probably be worked on.
* If we get enough people, we can get rails off the ground and onto the rail piles for future use.
* I understand Dana's coming, he plans to replace the remaining rails that need it near MP 6.
* Fred will probably continue working at Head Tide.

[Dave Buczkowski]

Dana/James,
If all goes well I should be in Sheepscot Saturday with New Fred to assist spiking some rail.
KD

[James Patten]

Work done on Nov 27:

* Dana took a crew out and replaced 1.5 rails by MP 6.  I think that's it for rail replacement in that area.
* Jason and Bob L dug out a steam Sunbeam electric generator from underneath the stairs in the carshop and brought it, plus the Sunbeam generator that was by the door in the gift shop, into the machine shop to try to rehabilitate them, hopefully for use on #10.  The one that was under the stairs was cleaned up and greased up, and hooked up to shop air to prove that it rotates, which it did.  Needs brushes to get it to make spark.
* Steve Z completed shingling the north wall of the dog house.
* Fred took Dave, myself, and John R up to where he and Dwight have been working at Head Tide.  We walked in to the second washout, then walked out.  Fred, John, and I then stopped off on the other side of the hill where Eric was working, and walked in there and back.

[Dave Buczkowski]

We also had three student artists on the track crew who had a ball pulling spikes and then spiking. They all want to come back again. One has already posted nine photos to his FB page.
Dave

[Dana Deering]

Thank you to everyone who showed up on Saturday to help with finishing up the rail replacement near MP6. Getting those badly bent rails out of there alleviates a safety concern and now I have to retrain myself not to hold my breath when the trains roll over that section.  Dave, your crew were great helpers and they are welcome back any time. In the PM I had a chance to work with Jason, Bob, and Steve Z. on the generator project.  That was very interesting.