January 2018 Work Planning

[Mike Fox]

If you say so Steve. I have never heard it before.

Anyhow, some of the photos from today. Jasons pictures are first.











And here is a coulpe Joe took of JB using the steam hose to blast Albees Crossing clear in the afternoon.

[Joe Fox]

Heres a video Stewart took of todays plowing adventure.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155427104091871&id=147279126870

[Bob Holmes]

Fantastic pic of Eric and Joe...should be in the WW&F Museum Hall of Fame!

Amazing amount of work done today to plow the line to ToM and most of the south yard, plus Mike and the Randy crew clearing trees in the north.

It's truly amazing how much can get done on a non-descript Tuesday...

Bob

[Bill Reidy]

Great photos and video -- thanks Jason, Mike and Stewart!

So I guess I should weigh in on the "bomb cyclone" debate, since my undergraduate degree was in meteorology and mathematics about 100 years ago.  When in school a severe New England winter storm was described as a nor'easter, based on the direction of the howling winds during the height of the storm.  Not so many years after I graduated, the term "bombogenesis" became popular, describing the rapid development of the storm as it travels up to New England when atmospheric conditions are right to develop a particularly severe nor'easter.  Apparently "bomb cyclone" is now a very recent term to describe a severe storm that rapidly developed by this process anywhere in the North Atlantic.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/bombogenesis.html

As far as I'm concerned, when it's along the eastern seaboard, it's a nor'easter.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Jan 13:

* Trout Brook tree clearing.
* Mountain Extension tree clearing.
* Boxcar 67
* Board meeting at 4.

[Mike Fox]

With expected icy weather Saturday, tree clearing at Trout Brook may be just burning brush..may cut a tree or 2 to get the piles going..

[Jeff Schumaker]

Heres a video Stewart took of todays plowing adventure.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155427104091871&id=147279126870

Nice video. How long did it take to clear the mainline?

Jeff S.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

The actual clearing of the main line took maybe 30-40 minutes.  The hand cleaning of switches and crossings took hours more.  The steaming helped- we need to develop this technique further.

And we need a real flanger.  An unflanged railroad quickly fills with more ice and snow.  My rail scraper functioned, but didn’t add tremendous value.  It could be modified- but we may be looking at other options instead.

See ya
Jason

[Joe Fox]

After using the steam cleaning device, and having the pressure, is there a way we could make the "nozzle" be able to be used with an air compressor as well? Then in the fall we could blow out all the dirt in the flangeways on a few crossings.

[Bob Holmes]

I think we've learned that we need an industrial strength flanger, not just a couple of light piston operated blades.  Ice and snow are formidable adversaries!

[Mike Fox]

Would be easy to make a long wanded blow gun for the compressor.

[Wayne Laepple]

I used to invoke an air wand to clear snow from switches. After seeing a recent photo of the Strasburg RR guys using leaf blowers to do the same thing, I wish they had been around during my railroad career. That said, I'm not certain an air wand would clean dirt out of flangeways, at least not without some preliminary work with a pick or lining bar. Steam will clear snow out because the heat melts it.

[Joe Fox]

During my time at Conway, an air wand with 100 psi will blast out any dirt packed to the top of the rail head right down to the base of the rail. The pipe nozzle was about a half inch wide and had a blast shield on the end. Although the shield did not shield all the dirt, it did help some. Each year we would go to the crossings in Hazens and work our way back. The crossing at Hazens was dirt, and over the course of the winter, you could not even see the rails. After a half hour of using the air wand, the crossing was usable once more. No picks were used, only shovels to help clear the debree blasted out.

[Joe Fox]

And yes, leaf blowers work great for light fluffy snow, and or lightly packed drifted snow. At Conway we used leaf blowers, or the air wand if needed to blast heavier wet snow away. The only problem with the air wand was we were usually restricted to the yard in North Conway and Conway where switches are easily accesible by plowed out areas.

[Paul Uhland]

Beside swappable plows, Cumbres and Toltec 2-8-2 locos have oem flange chisels mounted on their pilot trucks, activated by their freight car-size  air cylinders; ran year-round over 10015-foot Cumbres Pass  through frozen, DEEP snow!
These days, only short distance Christmas trains run from 8000-foot, end-towns Chama and Antonito, flangers not used nor needed.