March 2013 Work Planning

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday March 16:

Most of the local (Alna) volunteers were missing much of the day because of the Alna Town Meeting.

* Restrooms: Zack covered the outside posts with boards, in order to prevent splinters (the posts are PT).
* #10: Prep for the loco to steam up on the 30th: Firebox door, smokebox front, coal bunker boards, and a review of water treatment
* #9: Eric got the eccentric straps in.  Jason and others worked on shaping/making straps. 
* Fred's Tractor: After playing around with it a little, the rollbar was put on and some slight improvements were made.  Then more playing around.
* Big Joe: Mike did some work on it: gas tank, hydraulic exhaust, other.
* Lunch: A great New England Boiled Dinner put on by Cindy, Brigid, and Linda.
* Line trip: After lunch took a trip up the line to check on crossings and track.  There were some small trees down north of Alna Center station.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday March 23:

* Snow shoveling, maybe some plowing
* #9: No Jason, but those that know what they're doing can show those of us that don't what to do.
* I'm sure Mike has things planned for the John Deere and Big Joe.

[Mike Fox]

No me this weekend. Owls Head with the family. May stop to drop off papers. If I have time, I may remove the Hyd. Drive motor from Big Joe.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

I actually will be there Saturday, though maybe not all day.

Jason

[John McNamara]

Does anyone know what the plans are, if any, to plow to Alna Center?

Thanks!
-John

[Mike Fox]

A week late John. No snow last weekend. May settle enough to be ok for Saturday.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

I was at the RR today.  Looks like the plow would barely kiss the snow on most places, and we've several days of 40 deg weather coming.

See ya
Jason

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

This week -

Things were a bit slower this week due to the 10 - 12" of snow that fell on Tuesday but there was some activity at the railroad.  Jeff plowed the driveway and the S&S crew shoveled the station platform and walkways to the shop.

Engine 9 - Five people worked on a number of parts.  One part was the brackets (not the NCAA type) that sit on the base of the binders that hold the T bolts for the wedges.  

Restrooms - Steve Z. and Zack worked on a few items which included Steve re-touching some of the top coat paint and Zack working on the attic access hatch.

Easter prep - On Wednesday, Joe and Dawn Fox came to Sheepscot.  They worked, along with Cindy, loading 1,750 Easter eggs with candy.

Stewart  

[James Patten]

Work done on March 23:

* Restrooms: the plumbing inspector came by and looked at the plumbing, and left without issue. 
* #9: Ed G worked on cleaning and freeing up some pieces belonging to the brake rigging.
* #10: Wes has spent some time polishing and cleaning the brake and steam gauges in the engine, and worked on calibrating them.  The gauges are back in the engine.
* Telephones: John M and others took a trip to AC to make sure the phones are still working, at least between those two points.
* Fred's Tractor: Fred gave John R and Dave B instructions on running the tractor.  We moved some snow around.

[Mike Fox]

Big Joe's Hydraulic drive motor did not want to come off. I have a plan to remove it but need more time than I had available today.

[Wayne Laepple]

And today in Baltimore, Dave Crow, with a little help from me, machined two more rails and most of a third for the three 35-pound switches for the north yard. At the conclusion of our last session in the Baltimore Streetcar Museum's machine shop, we had set up a jig to secure each rail in position for machining, so today all it took was setting the rails in place and clamping them before we started milling. Each pass took about 40 minutes, and we had to make five or six passes on each rail. We ran out of time with one pass left to do on the third rail, and we hope to get back to that one in a couple of weeks.

Next, we'll have to make a vertical 5/8-inch diameter outside curve on this rail to nest into the other half of the frog (we did the other parts during our first session last month), and then we can bolt the two rails together before final machining to form the point of the frog. That's for another day.

[Fred Morse]

It's not Fred's tractor anymore, It's W.W.and F. Deisel tractor #1 Whatever!

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Also -

The "telephone extra" run doubled as a plow extra as we took #52 to clear the line and expose the rail head to the sun.  We stopped at each crossing to check for ice. Most of the crossings had a plow ridge to break through. The worst place was at Sheepscot Mills xing where we had to chip out frozen mud in the flange ways .  

At Alna Center, John rebuilt the telephone junction box while the rest of us cleaned both crossings and gathered fire wood for the station stove.  Wind blew the cover off of the kindling box so we put some kindling in the station to dry out.  The station stove will be used unless the weather warms up a lot.  Everything is snow covered and we hope that some sunny days will clear the field by Saturday for the Easter egg hunt.

[Brendan Barry]

The museum's trailer made the trip down to Dean's house in Massachusetts this weekend and was loaded up with the ground throws from Baltimore that have been sitting on my trailer. Some of you may recognize the loader. The guy in the green shirt is our friend Tim who had no idea what a ground throw was until today but he helped transfer them between trailers.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday March 30:

* Restrooms: the tiles have arrived, Zack and Steve Z are going to get them.  However the tile probably won't be installed until the end of April (scheduling issues with the tile guy).
* Easter Eggspress: Noon to 3, on the hour.  Easter egg hunts at Alna Center, providing that the ground is not too spongy.  #10 will be doing the honors.