MVRS Charter - Steam in the Snow 3/5/2011

[Mike Fox]

Ok. Now for some pictures. First, mine. Taken with a cell phone, they are not that great, but are used in this instance to show those who could not make it what you missed.

First. 4 of us went out and did some chipping at Sutters. After 20 minutes, we returned and got some help. Here is a shot of the guys at work. That is smoke from the 10 filling the air.


From the crossing toward the train.


End of the trip at Alna Center.

[Mike Fox]

Joe also shared some pictures and words. Here they are.

Steam in the snow for the charter was a lot of fun. The 10 seems lost in the cloud
of steam and piles of snow.



Steam in the snow is a rare sight. As the plow extra backs up for another try at
cockeyed curve. All of the steam surrounds the engine and hides the diesel. With
some creativity and imagination there could be a mixed train hidden behind the
clouds of steam.



Here we see the headed plow extra attack cockeyed curve



Waiting for the charter.




What a sight. As we backed up cockeyed curve in preparation of a photo run by at
sutters crossing big plumes of steam fill the air. Now if only i could have
gotten some sound with the picture.



The train pauses at sutters to pick up the photographers. Everybody seemed to
have a good time. What a great day it was.

[Stephen Hussar]

Mike, Joe -thanks so much for taking, and posting your pictures!!

Stephen

[Craig "Red" Heun]

WOW!

Nice work and great pics!

Thanks

[Kevin Madore]

Mike,

Thanks so much for posting!   After reading James' assessment of the situation on Saturday morning, I was wondering if the mission was going to be successful.   Looks like it was a struggle, but the WW&F pulled it off!   Nice job!   Glad you were able to show us what it looked like.

/Kevin

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Thanks to team Fox for taking pictures to show how things went.  The charter went well because a number of members went that extra mile post.  As has been noted, work (mostly snow clearing) was done all last week.  The mainline from the south switch up to the water tank was shoveled by hand over a two day period.  The shop was where the rest of the action took place with work going into high gear Friday morning.  Jonathan and Gordon spent hours finishing the ash pan and re-connecting the brake rods on #10.  Joe and Jason arrived and Joe worked on #10 while Jason and a few others did more plowing.  By afternoon 10's brakes were done and the drain plugs put back in the boiler.  Joe wanted to fill the boiler and tender so the water would warm up to room temperature.  (The warmer water makes less stress on the boiler during steam up).  The hydrant in bay 3 was frozen so Zack heated the stem and handle with a torch but still no water.  The next plan was to run a hose to the house but we didn't have enough hose.  Plan C ... Zack dug out the pump house and got water so we switched #10 out to the main next to the pump house.  The engine was filled and put back in the shop for more work on the ash pan doors.

Saturday morning a path was cleared around the water tank so we could get to the door and close the tank drain.  Engine 10 would be getting 2 loads of water so the tank had to be filled about 1/3.  The next thing was to find the main drain which is between the pump house and water tank.  It was under 3 feet of snow.  A piece of re-bar marked the valve but it is only 2 feet long so we started digging.  The valve was located and closed and the pump started to fill the tank.  While this was going on, a good sized crew went plowing with #52.  They cleared to Sutters and returned.  As Mike said our Canadian friends were the ones who got us in the "Alna Center or bust" mode.  A double headed plow train was put together and a larger crew loaded into 320 to go out and break 4-6" of ice off of the Sutters crossing planks.  The crew returned at lunch time to get the train ready for the charter.  After lunch some stayed back to crew the train and give tours while others went plowing again.  A while later the phone rang and it was Jason.  He said "we just broke through Trasks and are working north".  They got all the way to AC and Mike's photos tell the rest of the story.  It was a good day and I heard many compliments from the MVRS members on the second train as we arrived back at Sheepscot.

[Joe Fox]

I must say that in my opinion the day was a great success. Everybody was happy with the end results. Steam in the Snow was amazing, and I honestly think it would be a good thing to continue to do/try in the future, with the proper equipment such as a wedge plow and flanger. Even though it was a lot of work to keep the line open, I believe that it was well worth all the effort, to see and hear the 10 as she worked up the grades. It is estimated that around 400 man hours went into clearing the line over the past month, and i would say was well worth the effort.

[Ed Lecuyer]

Jonathan St Mary sent these photos he wanted to share:

[Bill Fortier]

My turn:







One of the bigger snowballs tried to make a break for it.

[Joe Fox]

http://www.youtube.com/user/DowneastRails#p/a/u/0/LJEvC0WNS1M

To those who weren't able to attend the steam in the snow event in person, I just found this short video clip on YouTube posted by Downeast rails.