W.W.&F. Discussion Forum
WW&F Railway Museum Discussion => Volunteers => Topic started by: James Patten on February 29, 2012, 10:07:19 AM
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Anticipated work for March 3:
* Car 65: See Zack
* Rail cropping and moving: weather permitting, Dana will be up to run a crew for cropping and stacking the rail at Albee's field. There's a snowstorm due tomorrow and a rain storm due Saturday.
* #9: Jason will not be there Saturday, but will be there Sunday. Sunday Jason also plans on welding on Big Joe.
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Weather for Saturday sounds like it will keep me away again unfortunately. Snow to sleet to rain. No fun to drive my distance in.
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Probably a good idea Mike. There's about 12" of snow in Alna with another couple hours before it's done. We'll dig out tomorrow morning as Car 65's ship lap sheathing is supposed to arrive mid day. Should have some sun while we unload. If the precip changes to rain Saturday it'll be a mess with ice in the afternoon.
Stewart
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Good news, Bad news -
Saturday could be a tough one. The weather service is forecasting another 1-2" of snow in Alna overnight. Snow will change to sleet and freezing rain by mid day Saturday with rain moving in during the afternoon. Temps may get to 40 by late afternoon. Precipitation will end sometime Saturday evening with temps dropping below freezing by Sunday morning.
Today, UPS delivered the new springs for car 65's coupler and trucks. Taper pins for #9 arrived as well.
Stewart
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As did the interior sheathing for #65.
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Work done on March 3:
The day started with snow, then switched to rain. Generally a miserable day. I figured we'd be lucky to have anyone show up.
* Loco 9: Ed G, Rick, and Paul started in on #9, with some machining. I did some work in the cylinders, grinding away at the cylinder liner holes for steam input/output. Mid-morning the forward and rear frames were separated, and the forward frame was flipped on its side. Later in the day Rick and Paul were enlarging holes in pieces.
* Car 65: The car was hoisted up in the air on the overhead crane and the passenger trucks were rolled underneath. The car now sits on trucks, although it rocks like a boat now. Later that day the 2x4s for ladder supports were installed. In the afternoon the SW interior wall was boarded.
* Lunch was hotdogs and beans.
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I stopped by this afternoon the Museum (March 4). Stewart was applying "Harry's paint" (linseed oil) to the belt rails and door posts of #65. Jason, Rick and Paul were hard at work on #9's frame, adding some appliances to it. Some photos should follow tonight.
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Anticipated work for March 10:
* Friday March 9 is the board meeting at 4:30 PM.
* Car 65: Hopefully the windows will have arrived and can be installed. Hopefully the coupler will have been welded up and can be installed. If that happens the floor and roof can be finished. See Zack.
* #9: See Jason
* Weather and snow cover/frost permitting I plan to run a track crew in the morning. I think Jason has some welding still to do on the tamper, so I'll plan to replace ties.
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30 Seconds over Sheepscot -
This week Jason and Jonathan got more frame parts milled and set up for #9.
Car 65 - The nail holes were filled and sanded by Steve Z. Some inside and exterior sheathing got primer paint. The car was marked off for placement of the numbers. The windows and frame trim arrived and the window openings were cut into the car by Zack and Steve.
Stewart
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If this pace continues we're going to need webcams in the shop building!! ;)
Stephen
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Yes, lets get those ties out of Rowmow's way. ;D
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Much progress on several fronts today, March 10
* #65: The north end coupler was installed, and after that the remaining floor and roof was put in. The west side window was put in. Then it was switched out to the station platform and underwent some painting. The number is there, I think because the red was not painted around it. Zack fixed something on the north end truck and now the car is much less tippy.
* #9: Work continued on attaching appliances to the forward frame. The rear frame was turned right-side-up and the rear truck was put under the end of it, and another 4-wheeled car put under the other end. Then the rear frame was moved over to Bay 1 behind the boiler and now one end rests on ties. The cab was moved into Bay 2.
* Tie retrieval: A trip was made north with a flatcar to the end of the line as a line inspection, then one of the guard post tie piles was put on the flatcar and taken back to Sheepscot, where they were piled at the south end of Bay 1. These will be used as cribbing for #9's boiler when the time comes to mate boiler and frame.
* Tie replacement: The ties that were identified as needing replacement during the mainline rail replacement project were finally changed out.
* Lunch was Shepard's Pie from Brigid, Cindy and Dawn.
* #10: Joe was doing some work on #10's valves.
* Tamper: The stabilization project that was done a few weeks ago didn't work out, so I undid the welds that held the new pieces.
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A bit more on #65 -
The floor and roof work was done inside. This was after we lifted the car to install the coupler and rolled the north truck out to adjust the center pivot casting. The truck was then put back in and the car sits level. When the car made it's first trip outside many photos and video were shot. We put 65 on the main at the station to use the platform to work on the car. Zack and I installed the rest of the frieze boards and shadow boards. We also cut the port in the floor to access the north bolster center pin. The end of the side sheathing was sanded (on the north end) so it would match the reveal of the end boards. A small bit of primer paint was applied to the north end around where the car's number goes. More painting will be done next week when the temps get back into the 50's or higher. The next thing will be installing more ship lap sheathing inside. Zack and I rode the car when it was switched back inside. It rides some nice on those J&S trucks.
Stewart
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Forgot to mention that Josh was doing some electrical work. He was changing out light boxes in the gift shop. He might have been doing more that I'm not aware of.
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Josh also removed the light on the north end of the shop building. The goose neck light is an 80 year old fixture that came from a PRR freight house. Josh plans to repair or rebuilt it. He also looked at ways to get power to the water tank building for lights (inside and out) and outlets for a possible water treatment system.
Stewart
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Anticipated work for Saturday March 17 (St. Paddy's day!):
* #9: I've heard that Rick and Paul will be up again for the weekend, so this weekend looks to be another one of fitting and attaching items to the frame.
* #65: Probably painting, and boarding.
* Track: I'm hoping to run a track crew using Big Joe. So we'll probably need to spend a couple of hours getting the compressor running and making sure all the machinery is working.
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Add removal and machining of North Coupler of #65 to you list. May require lifting a floorboard or 2 and If lifted with the crane will be blocked up on the truck.
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Regarding #9: it's not this weekend but the following weekend that Rick and Paul are up. So Jason is at the Museum on Saturday, not Sunday.
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30 Seconds over Sheepscot -
This week Jason and Jonathan got the pillow blocks, cross rod and reverse link installed on #9's frame.
RC4 was inspected and the leaking oil sight glass repaired. The oil was changed and the railcar taken out on a test run to EoT and back.
Car 65 received more work with interior sheathing installed on two sides. The southwest (side) wall is done and most of the south end is done.
Stewart
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Work done on Saturday March 17:
* #65: Mike removed the north coupler and removed some material from the rear so that it would swing easier. When it was put it back it then moved side to side much easier. Stewart kept working on the inside boards.
* Big Joe: One of the angle irons was removed and a sliding pipe arrangement was installed which greatly stiffened the whole arrangement. Some other stiffeners were welded to it. In the afternoon it was taken out and used in tamping up the ties that were replaced last week.
* #9: Ed G was working on something
* Lunch: Cindy and Brigid gave us a New England Boiled Dinner in honor of St Paddy's Day.
* Jason and I discussed the next timetable and planning for the drill and rules reviews.
* I took RC 4 out to get the new length of the railroad after the work done last Fall. Mike actually walked the wheel from Rosewood to the end. The track is actually 2.47 miles long.
Today was the Alna Town Meeting, so Steve and Stewart disappeared for much of the afternoon
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Anticipated work for weekend of March 24:
* #9: I say "weekend" because I think Rick and Paul will be up, working both Saturday and Sunday on #9. Jason will be there with them on Sunday. I'm assuming there will be work on the frame, but there may also be work in preparing the boiler to be jacked up and supported with tie cribs.
* #65: More painting, interior boarding.
* Track: With Big Joe all welded up ready to go, I'm taking a track crew out to work on track north of Davis Curve in the morning. Might also go in the PM if there is interest.
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If everything is ready to be put back together on the 10, I hope to work on that tomorrow, and get it all ready to go for the Easter event. I will call Jason tonight and see what else needs to be done, such as last minute valve lapping, etc. but anyone interested in getting dirty is welcome to join. However, I plan on leaving the drain plugs/hand hole covers out as well.
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30 Seconds over Sheepscot -
This week more work was done on #9's main frame by Jonathon and Jason.
Zack built the first set of doors for Car 65. The interior sheathing was completed and more than half of it was painted with primer.
Vern got all the information to fabricate the rungs for Car 65's side ladders.
John R. brought the latest newsletter (March/April) They will be mailed Monday.
Stewart
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Work done on March 24:
* #65: Zack finished building the doors and started installing them. The east set of doors were on by the end of the day. They look really nice.
* #9: Led by Mike, the boiler was lifted off the floor gradually with cribbing being put under as it went up. The smokebox of the boiler is now about 6 feet in the air and the firebox is 4 feet high. Rick worked on removing the heads of the bolts tying the two frame pieces together from the inside of the frame, so that the boiler would fit. When I left, the rear frame was being jacked to meet the boiler, with mixed results. Some rivet heads will need to be ground down a little.
* Lunch was chicken soup by Cindy and Brigid.
* #10: Joe was working on lapping valves.
* Clean up: Joe and Fred took a trip up the line to clean up ties, including the ties we replaced two weeks ago. They are on a flatcar at the end of track with a "Free" sign on them.
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James;
Aren't you concerned someone will think the flatcar is included? ;D
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The sign says Free Ties. All the other free ties near the parking lot have been taken. If these ties are not taken this week we'll probably put them where the others were. These's still one more pile just North of the trestle and the big pile of trash. Hope we can get it all cleand up this spring.
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And this small project has drastically improved the overall appearance of the trestle area. Thanks to Fred wanting to get this area cleaned up, it looks a lot better, and makes the railroad look better.
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Anticipated work for Saturday March 31:
* Clean up: Some boy scouts will be on the property from 9 - 11 as part of a service project, we'll be doing some clean up around the property. I don't know exactly what that means, but a train trip might be involved.
* #65: See Zack and Stewart
* #9: See Jason
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Steve Z. and I talked about cutting up the dry wood for the steam engine and having the scouts put it on a car and stacking it between the tracks near where the engine is fired up. A train ride is also a possible.
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35 Seconds over Sheepscot -
Steve Z. and Cindy took Easter train flyers to a bunch of businesses along Rt 1 from Wiscasset to Damariscotta.
Most of the BoD election ballot envelopes got stuffed. Look for a ballot in your mailbox next week.
Jonathan did more machine work on #9's frame/brake mounts.
Zack installed the steel door sills on Car 65 and the rest of the interior sheathing (except doors) got primer. Tomorrow we plan to build the other set of doors and hang them on the car.
Stewart
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Work done on March 31:
* Thanks to Steve, Cindy and Stewart for stuffing ballot envelopes and stamping them earlier this week.
* Zack and Stewart worked on the doors for car 65.
* The Waldoboro Cub Scouts Pack 142 arrived with about 10 kids and 6 adults. While Steve split logs and Fred sawed, the kids stacked wood on the yellow car, then moved it to between Bays 3 and 4 tracks and restacked it. The kids had great fun riding on the car back to the wood pile. Later they got a train ride.
* Loco 9: The other brake mount was mounted on the frame and bolted into place. With these pieces all mounted up there's not a lot of room inside the frame.
* Mike did some work on the tamper, removing the jitterbugs and reworking the clamping system then remounting them. Later he was inspecting and repairing cars.
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Big Joe also recieved new plugs this morning, and I made a new priming device. No more DD straw.
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The Model AA truck got some attention today. The truck was started, fired right up after sitting all Winter thanks to Leon's tune up. The generator's position was adjusted so the fan belt would run tighter. The oil was changed and the radiator and gas tank checked. Everything tested well so the truck is ready for service this year.
Stewart
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Most of the old ties brought down from up the line were taken during the week,so Dwight, Leon and I went just beyond the trestle and picked up more. Hopefully they will be gone next weekend.