May 2012 Work Planning

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for May 5:

* Saturday is the Annual Meeting, at 2 PM in the Alna Meeting House.
* #9: See Jason
* #65: See Zack
* Restroom work?  See Steve or Zack.

[Fred Morse]

If it's not raining Sat. I hope to pick up some more of the old ties North of the trestle.

[James Patten]

Work done on May 5:

* Stewart was doing more painting on Car 65, and had painted the window frames and housing, and was trying to get the car warm enough to dry the paint.  Meanwhile he also painted the south truck of Car 65, the north truck is still waiting for a few more parts.
* Crossing planks were reinstalled at Brook Crossing.  The crossing of the brook (at Brook Crossing) has been redone and the property will undergo logging.
* Ed the Fearless Forum Moderator began working on building some whistle signs.  He was using the jigsaw upstairs to cut fancy shapes, and later he and Courtney painted.
* Mike and Fred took a flatcar north and cleared out some more stuff from the junk pile.
* Jason and several others worked on #9.
* The Annual Meeting was at the Alna Meeting House and was over in about 45 minutes.

[Fred Morse]

Sat. Steve Z. and I put up the walking path sign on the South end of the path, it can be seen good from 218, I hope it stays.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday May 12:

* There's a board meeting on Friday evening.
* Fred would like to continue clearing things off the junk pile.
* #65: See Zack and Stewart
* #9: See Jason
* Restrooms: See Zack
* There's also scraping to do behind the freight shed
* Rules Review after lunch.  If we start on time we can be done by the 1 PM train.

[James Patten]

Work done on Sat May 12.

* Stewart led the painting of 65.  The new trucks were rolled out and eventually rolled under the car.  I think Jason and Leon had the forge going to create some parts for it.
* Fred took a crew up to the junk pile and completed filling the flatcar with junk wood.  It was spotted at the end of the spur for Leon to cart away.
* Zack and Steve discussed the restroom project.  I think the building permit applications will go in this week.
* With the trucks out of the machine shop it looks empty now.  It was decided to take a look at the crane car and see about bringing that back from the dead.  Two foot gauge wheelsets were made out of the standard gauge wheel sets, and the frame of the car was dug out of the wood pile.
* All of the split wood was moved to the wood stack for #10.
* A rules review was done after lunch.

[Mike Fox]

Also,
Saturday the flat was repaired on the AA truck. Just needs to be put back on and aired up.
Monday all the annual passes were sent out.

[Dwight Winkley]

When my father first put air in the remounted AA truck tires he always wrapped a logging chain around the tire and rim. Just incase the locking ring was not seated.

[Ken Fleming]

Years ago I was driving AA Truck through a hay field and the left rear locking rim passed me.  My father had told me that was a common problem.  Re-installing the rim out in a field was great fun.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for this coming weekend:

* Thursday evening we're hosting the Wiscasset Region Chamber for Business After Hours.
* Car 65: See Zack
* Loco 9: See Rick
* Restrooms: See Steve
* Track crew: I'd like to take advantage of the last weekend of the shoulder season schedule to run a track crew.  It would be nice to leave at 7:45.
* Sunday is a charter through Hub division NMRA.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

30 Seconds over Sheepscot -

Jonathan and Jason worked on #9 plus a new coupler toe (that latches the knuckle closed) for #10.  The old toe will go on car #65.

Car 65 - Most of the lettering has the finish coat of white paint.  The west side is done and east side is nearly complete.  The ice bin tray was made from new 28 gauge sheet metal by Steve Z.  Parts for the ice bin drain, flange, bolts, pipe and gasket were purchased or made.  The drain system may be installed Saturday.  Friday afternoon Zack lifted the north end of #65 and rolled the truck back out to install a shim.  The work was completed and truck back under the car by 3 o'clock.

Machine shop and shop extension - about 4 hours was spent cleaning each area for the Business After Hours reception and the NRHS tour this Sunday.  Engine 10's boiler jacket, domes and cab were cleaned as well.

Business After Hours - About 40 members of the Chamber of Commerce, Business leaders and Wiscasset town officials enjoyed a visit to the railroad on Thursday.  Guests started arriving around 4:30 and continued to show up until 6:00.  Our cook, Linda Zoller set up 3 tables of food.  A punch bowl and cooler held drinks.  Many attendees toured the shop building and inspected the new milk car.  Everyone complimented the work.  At 6:30 most of the guests took a train ride to EoT and return.   Engine 52 was on the point.  A brief chamber meeting was held when the visitors returned.  The officers said many good things about the museum and thanked us for a wonderful evening.  

Members who helped this week include; Jonathan, Jason, Zack, Fred, Linda, Bill H., Steve Z., James, Dennis, Cindy, Vern, John R., and yours truly.

Stewart

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

James asked me to do the Saturday report so here goes -

- James took a track crew out in the morning.  Tamping was done near milepost 7. When the crew came back most of the volunteers went to jobs on other projects.

- Zack, Fred and Leon installed rough-in plumbing at the restroom pad site.

- Mike worked on ROWMOW 1.

- Leon hauled more rotten tie debris away with his trailer.  The ties had been gathered from up near Humason Brook trestle and were on a flatcar at the end of the spur.

- Marcel worked on #9's cab.

- Car 65 got the final coat of white paint on the east side letters and number.  The truss rods were painted and the ice bin drain installed.

- Joe and Dawn worked a table for the museum at the train show in Bartlett, NH. 

-The kitchen crew fixed a nice fish and chips lunch for everyone (about 20 people)

- Brigid and Jodi worked on the garden around the Percival house.

- Steve Z. mowed the field at Alna Center with the museum's riding mower which Leon took up on his trailer.

- Courtney cleaned the windows on coach 3 and some switching was done for special steam trains to be run on Sunday for the NRHS charter.

Stewart   

[Mike Fox]

Candid Courtney was at it again.






And even a family of geese was spotted by Courtney.

[Mike Fox]

Also, Big Joe is in dire need of a new lift pump. The starter motor that drives the pump was very hot this morning and stopped working. I then grabbed the only available single tamper and finished tamping what James had ready by hand. Isaah and his friend Thaddeus (sp?) did a great job keeping up supplying me with stone.

We had been working on converting to a hydraulic pump to drive the lift, squeeze and motion. We will need to step up the progress on this to get rid of the starter motor lift. The motor we have we think lost it's spark and thought to be due to a bad circuit board. I found a plugged gas line for it also. Need to find a way to bypass the circuit board.

[Brendan Barry]

Mike I have a new circuit board sitting in my truck I need to bring up. I was going to bring the board up for the work weekend but the board never made it into the big truck. I'm still waiting to see if I can get that hydraulic drive fairway mower with the kubota. I intend to come up next weekend if I'm mobile just got two shiny new crutches from the emergency room.