W.W.&F. Discussion Forum
WW&F Railway Museum Discussion => Volunteers => Topic started by: James Patten on August 04, 2010, 06:05:36 AM
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Anticipated work for weekend of August 7. With the picnic next weekend we'll probably have not a lot of volunteers around.
* More brush cutting. There's still over half the railroad to do.
* Final tweaks on the railcar.
* I'd like to run a track crew in Sheepscot yard starting about 7, using Big Joe. We'll jack and tamp the mainline north of the wellhead.
* I'll also be having a brakeman training class starting around 8:30
* General prep for the picnic.
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Work done weekend of Aug 7.
* Several people brush cut around Alna Center.
* I used Big Joe to tamp 30 feet of railroad in the yard.
* I had a brakeman class
* Zack and others tried to get the railcar started.
During the past week, our contractor Jeff Verney completed our leach field, and completed the first half of an access road to our right-of-way on The Mountain.
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James is too modest, Bill and Dave helped out with Big Joe while Bill Fortier provided field repairs.
Dave and Bill were the Greens Crew on Saturday at Alna Center and were joined by Fred Sunday morning for trimming north of Trask Crossing.
Meanwhile, Bill made the first WiFi connection from AC Station. Maybe Steve H will post a photo of this.
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Dave, let me know when the Direct tv dish comes in, I'll help you with the install up there...
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/342468/BillRontheairatACsm.jpg)
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Stephen: Thanks for getting my best side.
So glad technology lets me be available to work 24x7. On the other hand, if I didn't have the air card, I would have been stuck Saturday morning at home 180 miles away waiting to perform 60 minutes of work, rather than being able to visit the museum and complete it there.
Mike: Dave liked the new seat on Big Joe.
To keep this work planning related, a lot of brush cutting has been done, primarily by Fred and 2 to 3 other regulars, but a lot more needs to be done, particularly north of Alna Center. Anyone available to visit one or more days over the next two months would be more than welcome to help with this task, I imagine.
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Hey Bill, Way to take one for the team. The ROW south of AC will look good for the picnic. BTW - seeing a laptop and crank phone in the same view makes an interesting photo!
There's been alot happening at the railroad this week. Much has been done to the railcar by Leon and Jason. The Model T has been tested within Yard Limits and some adjustments have been made. One modification is a shaft guide for the lifting crank. The guide keeps the shaft true when extra pressure is applied to the jack as the car is lifted the last 2-3 inches. The transmission bands have been adjusted, especially the reverse band. The floor and seats were installed and the permanent gas tank installed and connected to the carburetor.
Coach 3 has been cleaned and the windows washed. The exterior of coach 8 has been cleaned and the car will be painted Thursday. About 20 feet of the east wall of the shop has been cleaned and painted (around the door). This part only had primer from the time the new windows were installed.
Dale R. worked in the Archives room. He spent a couple of hours sorting and organizing donated materials.
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Anticipated work for weekend of August 14.
This is the annual picnic. We're hoping for lots of people and a big crowd. We'll need help with parking, crowd control, food service, and so forth. Any other work done will be incidental.
Friday typically people get together to set up tents and otherwise prepare the property for the big weekend.
Hope to see lots of you there.
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Work done on Thursday 8/12 and Friday 8/13 -
Most of coach 8 was painted in fresh Essex green. The South door knob set on coach 3 was repaired. Finishing touches were done to the rail car including installation of the Model T hood and cleaning/polishing of the front end. Dale R. and Bruce W. worked on the Archives. Engine 10's flues were punched out and smoke box cleaned. The tender was filled with coal and water. The coal pile was covered with a new tarp, this keeps the sun from bleaching the coal. The yellow line on the station platform was repainted. Josh R. did more wiring on the second floor of the shop building. Much switching was done to clear track 7 for the rail car to use for short rides. Zack mowed the field at AC. The food tent was set up and the south end of bays 1-3 were cleaned to make way for the dining hall tables and to have room for the band.
Should be great weather for the picnic.
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Please take lots of photos and post them for those of us that are unable to attend the Annual Picnic. Thanks in advance!
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What a great picnic!
Weather was awesome (relatively cool and humid-free, sunny, with a southerly breeze). The Saturday morning Director's Special was well patroned, and on Saturday the 3-car regular trains went out around 2/3 full every trip except for the 4 PM trip, where there were 10 people. The kitchen crew ran out of food Saturday, and had to buy more. The Roberts (the group from Spring work weekend) played for about an hour.
The only fly in the ointment was the railcar. Dwight ran it out of Bay 2, toward Bay 1, then it stopped and wouldn't start. There were many heads being scratched over the problem. It was eventually solved and I heard it operating on Sunday when I stopped in for a bite to eat.
The photographic masters of Steve H, Kevin M, and many others were there, so I'll let them show us their posts.
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James said it well, the Picnic was a resounding success. Perfect weather, good crowds, good music and great food. Yes, there was a problem with the railcar's distributor system on Saturday but Gordon C. and Rick S. repaired it Sunday morning. The car ran well for the rest of the day. No visitor rides were given but a number of test trips were run to the north Sheepscot yard limit. The crowd pleaser was a demonstration of the car's built in turntable. The car was turned on the new planks at the north end of the passing siding as a large group of visitors watched. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures as I didn't have a chance to take any.
Two projects got attention during the picnic. More weed cutting was done and a new brick pad was built for the wood stove in AC station.
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Work done on Sat Aug 21.
* Fred cut more grass out on the line
* Railcar had some work done during the week.
* Today was a Class 4 fire danger day, so we ran a fire train behind every steam train. The first was pulled by Loco 51. The second fire train was the railcar, but it got to Alna Center and stopped running, so 51 had to go rescue it. 51 ran the fire train after that, but it also had problems and the diesel was used instead for the rest of the day. We set no fires.
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Anticipated work for weekend of Aug 28.
* Brush cutting. Still got a lot of ROW to cut.
* Envelope stuffing in order to get the annual fund drive letters out. There's over a 1000 envelopes to be stuffed.
* Hopefully the railcar will get more attention
Not sure what else is happening.
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Work done this week - Steve and Fred cut more weeds along the R-O-W and Leon and I worked on the railcar. We began with more tests on the ignition system then replaced the distributor cap, rotor and wires, trying to start the car after each new part was installed. We were not successful. The only thing left was to change the coil. We didn't have a spare 6 volt coil so I decided to take the one off of the Model AA truck. The AA coil was temporarily hooked up to the Model T and I cranked it ...it roared to life. We ran it for 15 minutes then shut it off to put the good coil into the mounting bracket on the engine block. After about 10 minutes we started it again. It ran well and I got it to idle down. We decided to leave the Model A coil in the railcar and I'll get a new coil for the truck Saturday morning. We will be testing the railcar Saturday but I don't know how far up the line we will go.
Other news - a new refrigerator was donated to the museum by the Sangers. It was delivered to the house Thursday afternoon. The new fridge will help Sue and the kitchen crew with food storage during large events like the picnic and work weekends.
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That coil problem is just Ol' Henry speaking from the grave about messin' with HIS ignition system.
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Work done on Saturday Aug 28th
* Fred, Mike, Dwight, Ed, Dave and possibly others spent the day brush cutting between Alna Center and Albee's Crossing.
* Courtney, Dawn, Rider and his father John, Bruce, Bob C, and possibly others spent a great deal of time stuffing envelopes for the annual fund drive. A huge thanks goes out to them!
* The railcar made a successful run first to Alna Center & back, then to Rosewood Crossing and back.
* Zack started working on getting the form ready for a base for the doghouse to the Percival basement.
* Dale R has spent many hours over the past month working in the archival room turning chaos into organization.
Dwight and Fred anticipate continuing brush cutting on Sunday, and hope to make it so the railroad from the trestle to the north end is done.
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Monday the 30th, Fred, Steve, & Dwight cut brush this morning near Mile post 7.
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Forgot to mention that Steve Z, Ed, Stewart, and maybe others worked for a couple of hours on Saturday to clear off some hardwood from the site of the future parking lot. Our contractor will be in this week to start stumping.