December 2015 Work Planning

[Steve Smith]

Paul, in James's second picture, 52 is pulling--in order following the engine--Coach 3, Excursion Car 103 and the borrowed caboose, which I gather from labels to other pictures is the A Train.

Makes me think of Duke Ellington's "Take the A Train." I'm sure dating myself with that one!

Congratulations to all of such great teamwork!

[Joe Fox]

Actually the borrowed caboose was on the B train. Train A was 3, 103, and our caboose 320. Train B was 8, 118, and the borrowed caboose 554.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Steve,

You weren't the only one thinking of Duke Ellington's "Take the A Train".  It was in our minds as we put the consists together and added the letters.  I guess we're just a musical bunch!

[Steve Smith]

I guess I should just stick to music identification and not caboose ID, ay? 

Sorry about my boo boo. Thanks for the correction Joe.

[Paul Uhland]

Hey...you guys...you can do no wrong. 
Don't ever change!

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday December 26:

I'm sure we'll find something to do, but right now I can't think of what there is to do.  #9 and #10 are put away for the season, with Jason taking a much-needed break.  The car barn is essentially done, except for the doors.  With Saturday being the day after Christmas, we probably won't have many people around. 
* Kubota engine work
* Shingle mill work
* General clean up

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday December 26:

* Shingle mill: Dana wanted to remove one of the legs so that he could measure it up for replicating.  He unbolted it and it came off easy.
* Steam locos: Jason and family showed up to clean out #9 and #10 smoke boxes and fireboxes.
* Boxcar 67: Apparently heartened by my news that the GoFundMe campaign was doing very well (and has now surpassed the goal - thanks everyone!), people started tearing apart the boxcar this morning.  By late afternoon it was a flatcar.  See the Boxcar 67 thread for pictures of the work.  Many rotten pieces of wood.
* Landscaping: Mike tooled around on the bulldozer and got a ditch carved out on the south side of the carbarn.  Brendan also did something with it.
* Inventory: Linda decided to do inventory while it was still warmish.  We finished up the inventory count for the year.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Clean out crew:  Bullet Bob, Jawsh u a, Dana Ald- no, Deering, me.  Pushing assistance from everyone present.  It was easy...

See ya
Jason

[Mike Fox]

It was so easy bullet Bob will be walking funny for a while..

[Mike Fox]

Got a little flow going, draining the water away from the south west corner, with the eventual plan of it crossing under Barry Lane and the roundhouse lead track, to drain into the ditch next to track 7

[Alan Downey]

I should have thought to ask this earlier in the week... Normally I'd just bug Jason about this, but I don't know what his schedule is like right now so I'm hoping to crowd source this one.

Can someone either get a couple pictures, or shed some light on #9's vacuum brake control lever detent assembly? I'm aware that the assembly is comprised of a blade-type detent which rides in the handle in a casting shaped roughly like what I've sketched: https://goo.gl/photos/v8sPQCaBFK2vdcTr8
What I am uncertain about, is if there is any retention mechanism to keep the blade from sliding out of the handle- a keyway or something- or if it could just come straight out.

I'm in the middle of patterning a brake valve assembly for the new train brake system, and I'm second guessing the design for my detent assembly, and wanted to see if #9's could present a reasonable alternative.

So if someone is at the railway and has a free moment to grab a couple pictures if it's even possible to view the assembly, I'd very much appreciate it. Or- if one of the shop crew can shed some light on the situation that would work too.

Thanks!

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Well- a little background first...

No 9's control is a Westinghouse handle (including detent and detent spring) that was retrofitted to the bottom of the original Eames handle by Roscoe Woodman in the 1990's.  The top was broken off or otherwise missing.  So looking at what's there isn't representative of Eames practice.

I think the best source for seeing what our man Fred Eames did is in the Eames brake catolog...

See ya
Jason