March 2012 work planning

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for March 3:

* Car 65: See Zack
* Rail cropping and moving: weather permitting, Dana will be up to run a crew for cropping and stacking the rail at Albee's field.  There's a snowstorm due tomorrow and a rain storm due Saturday.
* #9: Jason will not be there Saturday, but will be there Sunday.  Sunday Jason also plans on welding on Big Joe.

[Mike Fox]

Weather for Saturday sounds like it will keep me away again unfortunately. Snow to sleet to rain. No fun to drive my distance in.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Probably a good idea Mike.  There's about 12" of snow in Alna with another couple hours before it's done.  We'll dig out tomorrow morning as Car 65's ship lap sheathing is supposed to arrive mid day. Should have some sun while we unload.  If the precip changes to rain Saturday it'll be a mess with ice in the afternoon.

Stewart

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Good news, Bad news -

Saturday could be a tough one.  The weather service is forecasting another 1-2" of snow in Alna overnight.  Snow will change to sleet and freezing rain by mid day Saturday with rain moving in during the afternoon.  Temps may get to 40 by late afternoon.  Precipitation will end sometime Saturday evening with temps dropping below freezing by Sunday morning. 

Today, UPS delivered the new springs for car 65's coupler and trucks.  Taper pins for #9 arrived as well.

Stewart

[Steve Zuppa]

As did the interior sheathing for #65.

[James Patten]

Work done on March 3:

The day started with snow, then switched to rain.  Generally a miserable day.  I figured we'd be lucky to have anyone show up.

* Loco 9: Ed G, Rick, and Paul started in on #9, with some machining.  I did some work in the cylinders, grinding away at the cylinder liner holes for steam input/output.  Mid-morning the forward and rear frames were separated, and the forward frame was flipped on its side.  Later in the day Rick and Paul were enlarging holes in pieces.
* Car 65: The car was hoisted up in the air on the overhead crane and the passenger trucks were rolled underneath.  The car now sits on trucks, although it rocks like a boat now.  Later that day the 2x4s for ladder supports were installed.  In the afternoon the SW interior wall was boarded.
* Lunch was hotdogs and beans.

[James Patten]

I stopped by this afternoon the Museum (March 4).  Stewart was applying "Harry's paint" (linseed oil) to the belt rails and door posts of #65.  Jason, Rick and Paul were hard at work on #9's frame, adding some appliances to it.  Some photos should follow tonight.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for March 10:

* Friday March 9 is the board meeting at 4:30 PM.
* Car 65: Hopefully the windows will have arrived and can be installed.  Hopefully the coupler will have been welded up and can be installed.  If that happens the floor and roof can be finished.  See Zack.
* #9: See Jason
* Weather and snow cover/frost permitting I plan to run a track crew in the morning.  I think Jason has some welding still to do on the tamper, so I'll plan to replace ties.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

30 Seconds over Sheepscot -

This week Jason and Jonathan got more frame parts milled and set up for #9.

Car 65 - The nail holes were filled and sanded by Steve Z.  Some inside and exterior sheathing got primer paint.  The car was marked off for placement of the numbers.  The windows and frame trim arrived and the window openings were cut into the car by Zack and Steve. 

Stewart

[Stephen Hussar]

If this pace continues we're going to need webcams in the shop building!! 

Stephen

[Mike Fox]

Yes, lets get those ties out of Rowmow's way.

[James Patten]

Much progress on several fronts today, March 10

* #65: The north end coupler was installed, and after that the remaining floor and roof was put in.  The west side window was put in.  Then it was switched out to the station platform and underwent some painting.  The number is there, I think because the red was not painted around it.  Zack fixed something on the north end truck and now the car is much less tippy.
* #9: Work continued on attaching appliances to the forward frame.  The rear frame was turned right-side-up and the rear truck was put under the end of it, and another 4-wheeled car put under the other end.  Then the rear frame was moved over to Bay 1 behind the boiler and now one end rests on ties.  The cab was moved into Bay 2. 
* Tie retrieval: A trip was made north with a flatcar to the end of the line as a line inspection, then one of the guard post tie piles was put on the flatcar and taken back to Sheepscot, where they were piled at the south end of Bay 1.  These will be used as cribbing for #9's boiler when the time comes to mate boiler and frame.
* Tie replacement: The ties that were identified as needing replacement during the mainline rail replacement project were finally changed out.
* Lunch was Shepard's Pie from Brigid, Cindy and Dawn.
* #10: Joe was doing some work on #10's valves.
* Tamper: The stabilization project that was done a few weeks ago didn't work out, so I undid the welds that held the new pieces.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

A bit more on #65 -

The floor and roof work was done inside. This was after we lifted the car to install the coupler and rolled the north truck out to adjust the center pivot casting. The truck was then put back in and the car sits level. When the car made it's first trip outside many photos and video were shot.  We put 65 on the main at the station to use the platform to work on the car.  Zack and I installed the rest of the frieze boards and shadow boards.  We also cut the port in the floor to access the north bolster center pin.  The end of the side sheathing was sanded (on the north end) so it would match the reveal of the end boards.  A small bit of primer paint was applied to the north end around where the car's number goes.  More painting will be done next week when the temps get back into the 50's or higher.  The next thing will be installing more ship lap sheathing inside.  Zack and I rode the car when it was switched back inside.  It rides some nice on those J&S trucks.

Stewart

[James Patten]

Forgot to mention that Josh was doing some electrical work.  He was changing out light boxes in the gift shop.  He might have been doing more that I'm not aware of.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Josh also removed the light on the north end of the shop building.  The goose neck light is an 80 year old fixture that came from a PRR freight house.  Josh plans to repair or rebuilt it.  He also looked at ways to get power to the water tank building for lights (inside and out) and outlets for a possible water treatment system.

Stewart