W.W.&F. Discussion Forum
WW&F Railway Museum Discussion => Volunteers => Topic started by: James Patten on May 02, 2012, 06:26:44 AM
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Anticipated work for May 5:
* Saturday is the Annual Meeting, at 2 PM in the Alna Meeting House.
* #9: See Jason
* #65: See Zack
* Restroom work? See Steve or Zack.
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If it's not raining Sat. I hope to pick up some more of the old ties North of the trestle.
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Work done on May 5:
* Stewart was doing more painting on Car 65, and had painted the window frames and housing, and was trying to get the car warm enough to dry the paint. Meanwhile he also painted the south truck of Car 65, the north truck is still waiting for a few more parts.
* Crossing planks were reinstalled at Brook Crossing. The crossing of the brook (at Brook Crossing) has been redone and the property will undergo logging.
* Ed the Fearless Forum Moderator began working on building some whistle signs. He was using the jigsaw upstairs to cut fancy shapes, and later he and Courtney painted.
* Mike and Fred took a flatcar north and cleared out some more stuff from the junk pile.
* Jason and several others worked on #9.
* The Annual Meeting was at the Alna Meeting House and was over in about 45 minutes.
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Sat. Steve Z. and I put up the walking path sign on the South end of the path, it can be seen good from 218, I hope it stays.
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Anticipated work for Saturday May 12:
* There's a board meeting on Friday evening.
* Fred would like to continue clearing things off the junk pile.
* #65: See Zack and Stewart
* #9: See Jason
* Restrooms: See Zack
* There's also scraping to do behind the freight shed
* Rules Review after lunch. If we start on time we can be done by the 1 PM train.
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Work done on Sat May 12.
* Stewart led the painting of 65. The new trucks were rolled out and eventually rolled under the car. I think Jason and Leon had the forge going to create some parts for it.
* Fred took a crew up to the junk pile and completed filling the flatcar with junk wood. It was spotted at the end of the spur for Leon to cart away.
* Zack and Steve discussed the restroom project. I think the building permit applications will go in this week.
* With the trucks out of the machine shop it looks empty now. It was decided to take a look at the crane car and see about bringing that back from the dead. Two foot gauge wheelsets were made out of the standard gauge wheel sets, and the frame of the car was dug out of the wood pile.
* All of the split wood was moved to the wood stack for #10.
* A rules review was done after lunch.
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Also,
Saturday the flat was repaired on the AA truck. Just needs to be put back on and aired up.
Monday all the annual passes were sent out.
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When my father first put air in the remounted AA truck tires he always wrapped a logging chain around the tire and rim. Just incase the locking ring was not seated.
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Years ago I was driving AA Truck through a hay field and the left rear locking rim passed me. My father had told me that was a common problem. Re-installing the rim out in a field was great fun.
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Anticipated work for this coming weekend:
* Thursday evening we're hosting the Wiscasset Region Chamber for Business After Hours.
* Car 65: See Zack
* Loco 9: See Rick
* Restrooms: See Steve
* Track crew: I'd like to take advantage of the last weekend of the shoulder season schedule to run a track crew. It would be nice to leave at 7:45.
* Sunday is a charter through Hub division NMRA.
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30 Seconds over Sheepscot -
Jonathan and Jason worked on #9 plus a new coupler toe (that latches the knuckle closed) for #10. The old toe will go on car #65.
Car 65 - Most of the lettering has the finish coat of white paint. The west side is done and east side is nearly complete. The ice bin tray was made from new 28 gauge sheet metal by Steve Z. Parts for the ice bin drain, flange, bolts, pipe and gasket were purchased or made. The drain system may be installed Saturday. Friday afternoon Zack lifted the north end of #65 and rolled the truck back out to install a shim. The work was completed and truck back under the car by 3 o'clock.
Machine shop and shop extension - about 4 hours was spent cleaning each area for the Business After Hours reception and the NRHS tour this Sunday. Engine 10's boiler jacket, domes and cab were cleaned as well.
Business After Hours - About 40 members of the Chamber of Commerce, Business leaders and Wiscasset town officials enjoyed a visit to the railroad on Thursday. Guests started arriving around 4:30 and continued to show up until 6:00. Our cook, Linda Zoller set up 3 tables of food. A punch bowl and cooler held drinks. Many attendees toured the shop building and inspected the new milk car. Everyone complimented the work. At 6:30 most of the guests took a train ride to EoT and return. Engine 52 was on the point. A brief chamber meeting was held when the visitors returned. The officers said many good things about the museum and thanked us for a wonderful evening.
Members who helped this week include; Jonathan, Jason, Zack, Fred, Linda, Bill H., Steve Z., James, Dennis, Cindy, Vern, John R., and yours truly.
Stewart
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James asked me to do the Saturday report so here goes -
- James took a track crew out in the morning. Tamping was done near milepost 7. When the crew came back most of the volunteers went to jobs on other projects.
- Zack, Fred and Leon installed rough-in plumbing at the restroom pad site.
- Mike worked on ROWMOW 1.
- Leon hauled more rotten tie debris away with his trailer. The ties had been gathered from up near Humason Brook trestle and were on a flatcar at the end of the spur.
- Marcel worked on #9's cab.
- Car 65 got the final coat of white paint on the east side letters and number. The truss rods were painted and the ice bin drain installed.
- Joe and Dawn worked a table for the museum at the train show in Bartlett, NH.
-The kitchen crew fixed a nice fish and chips lunch for everyone (about 20 people)
- Brigid and Jodi worked on the garden around the Percival house.
- Steve Z. mowed the field at Alna Center with the museum's riding mower which Leon took up on his trailer.
- Courtney cleaned the windows on coach 3 and some switching was done for special steam trains to be run on Sunday for the NRHS charter.
Stewart
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Candid Courtney was at it again.
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/WWandF%20Ry/100_3394.jpg)
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/WWandF%20Ry/100_3395.jpg)
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/WWandF%20Ry/100_3400.jpg)
And even a family of geese was spotted by Courtney.
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/WWandF%20Ry/100_3403.jpg)
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Also, Big Joe is in dire need of a new lift pump. The starter motor that drives the pump was very hot this morning and stopped working. I then grabbed the only available single tamper and finished tamping what James had ready by hand. Isaah and his friend Thaddeus (sp?) did a great job keeping up supplying me with stone.
We had been working on converting to a hydraulic pump to drive the lift, squeeze and motion. We will need to step up the progress on this to get rid of the starter motor lift. The motor we have we think lost it's spark and thought to be due to a bad circuit board. I found a plugged gas line for it also. Need to find a way to bypass the circuit board.
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Mike I have a new circuit board sitting in my truck I need to bring up. I was going to bring the board up for the work weekend but the board never made it into the big truck. I'm still waiting to see if I can get that hydraulic drive fairway mower with the kubota. I intend to come up next weekend if I'm mobile just got two shiny new crutches from the emergency room.
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Gee Brendan, Don't know what happened but I hope you get better soon.
Today was the NMRA (not NRHS) Charter. There were about 80 members from various places including ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, NY, OH and PA. The first train went out at 10:15 with 66 passengers. The consist was coaches 8 and 3, box 309 and flat 118. Engine 10 was on the point with Gordon running and Joe firing. Note: Today is Gordon's birthday and we're glad he wanted to enjoy it with his narrow gauge friends. Happy Birthday Gawdon! The visitors who stayed at Sheepscot toured the shop and rode the railcar within the Yard Limit. Milk car 65 was pushed outside for photos. The exterior painting is now almost complete (need some touch-up) and the tin roof man stopped by to measure the car.
When the first train came back to Sheepscot many visitors stayed for the second trip with coach 8 removed so the consist was all original WW&F. The railcar followed the second train for the meet at AC. Photo run-bys were held on each trip and good comments were made by the guests. The other attraction enjoyed by the guests was rides on handcar #2 on bay 3's track. The gift shop did a brisk business, keeping Cindy and Dawn busy. Many people left with new WW&F hats and shirts. I had 2 NMRA officials in the railcar with me and they said that everyone had a great time. They are planning another visit to the museum, possibly in the Fall or Winter.
Stewart
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I bet the great weather today helped with the good time. Glad things went well.
Brendan, whenever you can make it, we will start tinkering again.
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Wow guys everything looks great!
I hope to be able to get back there sometime in the near future and make myself useful
Really nice work, thanks for the pics
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Anticipated work for weekend of May 26:
* Loco 9: See Jason
* Restrooms: See Zack
* Car 65: See Zack (although I think we're waiting for the roofing guy to come)
This is the first weekend of Saturday & Sunday operation. We'll be in need of train crews for both days from now until October. See Jason's thread in the Operating section.
We're not officially open on Memorial Day although I'm sure people will be there working.
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I hope a small crew can pick up trash North of the trestle for about an hour Sat. Then I'm supposed to get the lunch B.L.T.'s , Beans and hot dogs, Potato salad, Ice Cream and anything else I can find. Then it will be time for a nap.
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If time and weather permits Saturday morning, I would like to go to AC and Return with the Rowmow. If Fred would like to follow, we could go to EOT while he loads. I want to run it to make sure it is fine before I let someone else break it.
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Joe & Dawn took these pictures Sunday. He asked me to post them so here they are. He can explain if he'd like.
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/DSCF0256.jpg)
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/DSCF0261.jpg)
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/DSCF0252.jpg)
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Mike;
DB and I will be there Saturday. We were hoping to try out RowMow 1 so your plans will mesh with ours.
KD
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Well, maybe you can observe how to do it.
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The middle photo in the photos my dad posted was really neat. You get the train, model A, Model B, and #9 under reconstruction, with a little boy in front of it taking a picture of the railroads Model A truck, just out of sight to the left of the picture.
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If the picture was in black and white, and the boy was wearing knickers and holding a Brownie box camera, you'd have a perfect 1930s era image.
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Nice photos. We had the old Fords lined up in order with the railroad's 1930 AA in front of bay 2, Leon's 1931 coupe and the 1932 Model B. We thought about putting the Model T railcar at the end of the main but it would have been in the way for engine 10's run around move. Maybe we will set this scene again at the annual picnic.
Stewart
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It really made for a nice shot. At some point I will take one of my other pictures, that is almost period, with the exception of two people, and change it to be black and white.
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Well, if you can't fix it, cut it out.
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/Antiqued.jpg)
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The B&W version looks great! Thanks Mike.
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Report for Saturday May 26:
* The RowMow Express left Sheepscot around 8:30 with Loco 52 pushing the mower car. The Humason Cleanup Crew followed close behind as second section. The Express got past Sheepscot Mills before parts came off and the mowing stopped. We continued on past Humason Trestle and helped the clean up crew with removing the last of the junk ties and wood from the area. We returned to Sheepscot and Mike started fixing the mower. After the 11 AM train departed, we mowed the eastside mainline between the platform and the water tank, then turned it around and mowed the west side of the mainline from the yard limit, then onto Track 7. After some more maintenance, we got permission to follow the 2 PM train to AC, where once that train returned south we started mowing north to the end of track then back to AC. Along the way more parts came off, but we could continue mowing. The 3 PM train was anulled and we were given permission to continue south, which we did mowing the west side of the line all the way back to Jayne's Way crossing.
* Crane car - Mike (and others) loaded up the frame parts of the car onto his trailer.
* I had a rules review for 3 that missed the others.
Unfortunately most of my time was taken up with the RowMow Express, so I didn't observe too much of other stuff. But here's what little I recall seeing.
* Josh did some wiring Friday, rewired the machine shop circuit box (and wrote it all down!) and got the shaper wired up too (the shaper is between the Cincinnati mill and the Bridgeport mill).
* Jason, Rick and others were working on #9. Marcel spent part of the last week removing paint on the cab.
* Mike did some renumbering of the 4-wheeled cars, based on a numbering scheme I came up with.
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Due to the renumbering, 1197 received a Dupont overhaul, the color now being Marigold yellow. The new number being 1005.
Also, Dave and HWMNBM fired up a couple of trimmers and did some trimming around Sheepscot.
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On Monday, May 28:
* Dwight, Fred, and Steve Z mowed the ROW trail from Rt 218 north to Head Tide.
* Jason and Brendan were working on #9
* I did some office and file organizing
* Late in the day a couple of folks stopped in and got a tour.
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Since we now have signs at each end of the walking path we thought it would be good to keep the grass cut at least 4 feet wide. The grass was about a foot high already. With 3 people doing it, it took about Two hours to do the job. After lunch Steve and I took the deisel to Alna Center and filled the low spot in the field we cut with gravel. There are still a few piles of wood laying around up the tracks to pick up. I would like us to get the joint bars back down to Sheepscot this year and also get all the junk under Alna center station out of there. All in do time.
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Lets not clutter up Sheepscot. They are not near the eyesore that the Humason Pile was. I would like to see a designated and orderly permanent storage location for them, someplace out of the way.
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Remember, the REAL Maine two-footers weren't Disneyland. They had piles of junk lying around the yards and shops. Be careful not to over-sanitize the rebuilt WW&F. You're trying to present a real experience of early 20th Century railroading.
To be sure, you don't want a mess all over the place, or anything that would endanger guests. But don't hide everything. That takes away from the reality you're trying to create.
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Well, if you can't fix it, cut it out.
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/Antiqued.jpg)
Good job with the people filter