January 2017 Work Planning

[Carl G. Soderstrom]

True Value also sells Weed Burner/Ice Melter.
You may want to use a piece of corrugated tin over where the flame is
aimed - It keeps the heat down and channeled toward the remaining/next ice
to melt. It does make a difference.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Day #3 of the on-site prep for the photographers special:

* Turntable - Much time was spent clearing and testing the travel of the bridge.  Snow and ice were removed and the ring rail was cropped.  The table moved freely by the afternoon.  A mostly sunny 50 degree day helped with the clearing. 

* RC4 - The railcar isn't in the train schedule for the weekend but it didn't start for the move over to bay 3 so the plugs were pulled and cleaned and battery charged.  The Model T was started in place and adjustments made for smooth running so we can run the railcar outside for photos in the yard.

* Kitchen - A few hours of prep went into the home made beef stew the crew will enjoy.

* Campus - More clean up of VC items and more trash was collected, enough that a second dump run was necessary.  Most of the large snow piles near the turntable were moved away with the dozer.

* Snow plow - Jonathan and Eric worked on the new flanger for #52's plow.

* Archives - Linda worked on the artifact list program.   

[Mike Fox]

Joe's ends.

[Bill Baskerville]

Joe, 

Why the taller ends?  More fill or ballast for the wash outs?

BIll

[Philip Marshall]

I believe it's to make 118 look like a Monson flatcar. I love the idea!

(The Monson seemed to always use short pieces of rail for the verticals though, not wood.)

[Bill Baskerville]

Philip,

Thanks for the info.  You are correct, I just found this out by looking at the recent post on Facebook about the unloading of Monson 3.

Bill

[Joe Fox]

Yea, short rail probably 25lb/yard were originally used. However putting these in with rail would make the ends to heavy to move with one person. Right now each end weighs 100 +/- lbs. As long as they look the part.

[Philip Marshall]

And they do look the part. Great work, Joe!

[john d Stone]

Looks marbleous!

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Day #4 of the on-site prep for the photographers special:

* Rolling stock alterations - As you can see by the photo, Joe built Monson style ends for the flatcars.  He stenciled and "aged" them to be ready for this weekend.

* Rolling stock maint. - J.B., Phil, Steve L. and Randy checked and filled the journals of the cars in the barn.

* Switching - Most of the smaller cars, along with #9's boiler and Big Joe were shifted to the Woods Track.

* Campus - The ladders, etc. next to the car barn were moved inside, out of camera view

* Motive power - Monson #3 was brought out and the boiler filled so it would warm in the machine shop over night.

[Bill Baskerville]

Joe,

With apologies for asking about a simple subject.  I noticed that, in the unloading of 3 photos, only one end of 118 had the higher end boards.  Did Monson have them on both ends, and is that what we are doing?  Is the unloading answer simply that the others were still being 'aged'?

Bill

[Joe Fox]

No problem Bill. I actually ran out of material and had to svavenge up some scraps. But both cars now have two ends, 3 boards high just like the prototype. Approx 30" tall. They also used 2×6 and 2×8 but it seems that 2×10 was the preferred choice.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Day #5 of the on-site prep for the photographers special:

* Motive power - Both engines were steamed up and #3 was turned to face northward.  #3 made some test runs on the main to qualify the MNG crew and to scout photo locations for Sat/Sun.  #9 and #3 were coaled to be ready for Saturday.

* Yard - More switching that included putting the Saturday mixed consist together and setting out the shingle mill parts.

* Boxcar #67 - Zack installed tension rods in the south end of the frame.

* Campus - With cold weather returning, portable heaters were set up in the water tower and pump house.  Sand was spread on the many icy spots including the walk zone around the turntable.

* Kitchen - The crew had hot stew, soup and sandwiches for the 30 volunteers that put in a good days work.

* Track - Brendan worked on the switchstand target for the north yard throat switch.

[Mike Fox]

9 had just finished coaling, 3 was waiting to head over to get coal.




Heading out on the second qualifying run..

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Jan 14:

* Photo Trains: We had photographers in the upper 20s and temperatures in the lower 20s.  Lots of activity, at least until the trains left town.  The coal pile was frozen so had to be freed up with the excavator.  Lunch was served by the gals for the crews.

Not much beyond the photo train stuff really happened, that I saw anyway.