November 2011 Work Planning

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for November 5, 2011:

* Albion Day: today is the day we go north to assist the Albion Historical Society and Carl Buitta in working at the Albion station site.  Mostly carpenter work is planned, although could do track work if there's enough willing people.

Back at Sheepscot, it will be a light crew. 
* #9 work - see Jason
* other work: Still have tie cleanup to do (the ties from last weekend might still be on the flatcars); also need to run trains if anyone shows up to ride.

Don't forget to turn your clocks back on Saturday night.

[James Patten]

Work done on November 5:

* The Albion crew left Sheepscot around 8 AM, and returned around 2 PM.  They did carpentry work on the upstairs of the Albion station.
* This past week, Jason removed the cylinder castings from the frames, and investigated what he thought was a problem.  Turned out not to be one.  While the frames were off he ground a little more off the west frame where the cylinder sat, and put the cylinders back down (they fit much better).  Today he took a binder and straightened it.
* Zack installed the second set of bolster round stock, on the south end of the reefer.  Then he got the end beams in place, and using a come-along brought them all together.  At the end of the day he was working on putting the south end bolster beam in place.
* Fred, JB, Dave N, and I emptied a flatcar of ties, on the spur.  The other flatcar has junk ties which need to be put out front for give-a-way.
* Linda and Cindy were busy putting away new inventory in the store in the afternoon.
* We ran a few trains.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Nov 12:

* Friday is a board meeting.
* Reefer work: see Zack
* ROW cleanup: we have a partially filled flatcar which needs emptying out front.  Then we should go get more ties to move them back to Sheepscot.  If there's enough people, in the morning we should work on stacking rail that's on the ground.
* Track work: If there's enough people, I'd like to run a track crew in the afternoon, using Big Joe.

[Fred Morse]

There are also some small bent over trees to clean up. We should take a chain saw along.

[Mike Fox]

If the weather holds for December, I am thinking of tackling the junk pile North of the trestle. The Bees should be gone. Some of that old stuff could be brought back to Sheepscot for give away. Others could just be straightened out where they are to make the pile look neater.

I have other stuff in mind for the yard that month too. Firewood, etc. Plenty to do.

[Dana Deering]

Please keep in mind that the rail that is on the ground at Albee's and MP7 needs to be cropped before it is stacked.

[James Patten]

Work done this weekend:

* During the week Steve painted the dark green on the new clapboards on the station.
* At the board meeting Friday, we officially decided to number the new reefer car #65.  Yes, we're reusing an old number.  We also paid off the remaining half of the Coach 3 loan.  And we decided next year during the "off" season (before Memorial Day and after Columbus Day) to change our train times to 11, 1 and 3, instead of every hour.  Times during the summer season will continue to be 10 - 4 on the hour.
* On car 65, Zack and nearly everyone worked on installing the needle beams, drilling holes, driving bolts, and installing one of the blocks that support the coupler pockets.
* Fred and I picked up more junk ties in the yard, and several people helped in moving them to the junk pile.  The junk ties were all taken this past week.
* We moved the caboose over to the end of the spur, and the compressor car from the end of the spur to next to Big Joe.

[Fred Morse]

I took a good look at the trash pile North of the trestle yesterday, there are a lot of old ties and tie ends that can be picked up and brought back to give away. It should reduce the pile by one-half. For years we've commented on what an eyesore it his. With trains not running until eleven we should have enought time to load a car even with a small crew.

[Gordon Cook]

Just wanted to report that if #10 sounds a little sharper next time you hear her, it will be because I cleaned out the exhaust nozzles Sat.
I think we all noticed that she sounded muzzled, like she was waterlogged, or something. Bob L. figured it out: the nozzles were half closed because of soot and oil build up. It took me 2-3 hours to clean them out.

[Mike Fox]

Thank You Fred. I'll be down next on Dec. 3 if you want to wait till then to do this.

[Stephen Hussar]

Gordon, thanks for doing that...looking forward to the return of No 10's bark!

Mike and Fred...that sounds like a very good plan!

Stephen

[Keith Taylor]

Just wanted to report that if #10 sounds a little sharper next time you hear her, it will be because I cleaned out the exhaust nozzles Sat.
I think we all noticed that she sounded muzzled, like she was waterlogged, or something. Bob L. figured it out: the nozzles were half closed because of soot and oil build up. It took me 2-3 hours to clean them out.

Gordon....it sounds like too much oil is being used.
Keith

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Nov 19:

* Saturday is a practice drill and training session for conductors and dispatchers.  I don't know when but hopefully it gets done in the morning and we'll have the afternoon to work.
* Brendan's scheduled to arrive with reefer lumber on his trailer.  I suspect Zack will be working on the reefer.
* #9
* ROW clean up, depending on time of the drill.

[James Patten]

Work done Saturday Nov 19:

* Friday Zack was working on the reefer, working on draft gear.
* During the week, Leon took some of the junk steel to the scrapper.
* Also during the week, Steve Z painted the south wall of the station.
* Brendan arrived with his trailer.  Last week Galo Hernandez rescued some sizeable timbers in Thomaston, so Brendan, Steve Z, Fred, and JB went to Thomaston, loaded them on the trailer, and returned.  Some of the timbers are over 30 feet long.  The plan is to store them for now (where I don't know).
* A group of us went north to the junk pile at the trestle and brought back a flatcar's worth a junk timbers.  The good, square pieces were put on the free tie pile, and the rest were put on the AA truck and sent to the transfer station.  It was surprisingly cheap to get rid of it, so I think we'll be sending more junk to the transfer station.
* After lunch we had the class and drill.  The drill ended up being more of a discussion of good procedures to follow.  A real drill is planned for spring with the fire company.
* Leon spent the day reaming holes for #9.
* Zack did more work on the reefer.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Sat Nov 26.

* It's snowing today but with warm temperatures for this weekend the snow shouldn't be a problem.
* Jason will be working on #9
* Zack will be working on #65
* If there's enough people, I'll run a crew up the line to stack rail that's on the ground in the morning.  In the afternoon we can run a track crew.