W.W.&F. Discussion Forum
WW&F Railway Museum Discussion => Volunteers => Topic started by: James Patten on April 02, 2014, 06:08:36 AM
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Anticipated work for Saturday April 5:
* #9
* Track inspection - snow and ice should be pretty much gone from the track after Sunday's storm. Time to check out how the railroad fared over the winter. A chain saw is recommended.
* Percival basement
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Sorry Fred I got this one before you. The bottom section yielded two nice logs for the trip to the sawmill. If someone can get a new burn permit I can take care of the brush next week on my day off.
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/bbarry74/image-10.jpg)
I walked into Brook crossing Wednesday night and there was still 4 inches of ice over the rail.
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A couple more logs in the back ground that were cleared for take off too. Did they miss the flight?
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The flight is scheduled for May.
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Work done on April 5, 2014
* #9: Zack and Stewart finished the cab deck. Cab assembly can start any time. Eric was machining something and forging something else.
* Tree trash: Fred and crew cut up and burned up the branches etc left over from the tree that Brendan felled earlier this week.
* Lumber: Some of the lumber west of the garage was moved behind the garage.
* Hydro engineering: More ditching, although with shovels not heavy machinery.
* Basement: There was lively discussion after lunch about the layout of the kitchen in the basement.
Several folks walked up the track on Friday and found that ice still rules Brook and Sutter's crossings. We decided to let one more week go by before trying to get through.
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The start of the ditch at the West End of the parking lot
(http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/miketrainnut/NewDitch_zps6849599c.jpg)
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As the photo shows, the ditch is taking much water away from the parking lot. This is a big help because the water used to run across the lot towards the house and the original driveway making a muddy mess. Atta boy Mike!
Start
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Anticipated work for weekend of April 12:
* Friday board meeting
* Touch a Train Event: The WW&F will be represented at the Touch a Train event at the Rockland Station of the Maine Eastern Railroad, along with the Creamery car. The car has to get to Rockland, not sure if that's occuring on Friday or on Saturday morning. I'm assuming it's going to be off the trailer, but again I don't know that.
* #9: Jason around maybe Friday (not sure), and Monday. Probably not Saturday.
* Percival basement
* Track clearing: Need to make sure the line between Sheepscot and Alna Center is passable, for Easter Eggspress trains the following weekend.
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And for those hungry railroaders ...
The Alna Fire Department will hold their Ham & Bean Supper on Saturday evening 4:30 - 6:00 PM. Ham, Baked Beans, Salads, Rolls, Pies, Coffee and Milk. As usual there will be a pie auction and 50/50 Raffle. Admission, $7 for Adults, $5 for ages 12 and under.
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Car 65 is scheduled to leave Sheepscot Saturday morning around 6:30 am. We are unloading and setting up in the Rockland station parking lot.
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I plan on getting there by 6 to make sure we have what we need.
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I'm planning on Friday at Sheepscot and Saturday in rockland- sick baby willing of course. My time each day may vary based on that sick baby... Monday at Sheepscot.
See ya
Jason
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I just made a 65 photo slideshow for the display at Rockland. I have no player so I will take a laptop to play it on. They cover the build to the Amherst show.
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Hooked up and ready to go. Remind me to put the winch on the truck Saturday morning.
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/bbarry74/image-11.jpg)
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This week -
* #10 - Gordon, Joe, Jonathan and Jason worked to ready the locomotive for the Easter trips next Saturday.
* #9 - Eric worked on parts and may have helped with #10.
* Percival house - Zack installed baseboard heat elements in the cellar.
* Woods track - Much clearing of brush and scrap wood with a burn pile that lasted all day Friday.
* Car 65 - As noted in Brendans photo, the dairy car/trailer was positioned for the trip to Rockland for the Touch A Train event at the Rockland Station. The WW&F away team will man the car for the day.
* 25th Anniversary - Starting this week the museum facebook page will feature a photo from the museum's early days. Every thursday another photo wil be posted. The first shot is one of the earliest known images showing Don Perham, Roger Whitney and Harry Percival as they plan to build bay 1 of the shop in June of 1990. The gravel pad and timber frame sills are in place with framing wood stacked on both sides. Next week the fb site will have photos of the framing being constructed.
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Nice crew today for the first Touch-A-Train event held in Rockland.
First off, thank you to Brendan once again for transportation.
Unloading crew was
Brendan
Dave B.
Bill R.
Zack
J.B.
Steve Z.
Steve H.
Fred
Eric S.
And myself.
It went pretty smooth. Accept the platform we were on was at a slight high South to low North tilt, making the car lean just a bit.
Plenty of visitors, and many familiar faces. Some of which we expect to see in about a week. 470 did well with the donations at the Dairy car. We did not collect any donations for the museum, as it was a 470 day. But we did pass out brochures, with Linda taking care of business in the broad gauge passenger car, selling T-shirts.
Members manning the car during the day were
Brendan, Zack, John R, JB, Dave B, Steve Z, Jason and myself.
After noon, the crowd lightened considerably, and we started packing up 10 minutes early. We were loaded and ready to leave shortly after 5.
Loading team was
Brendan, Zack, JB, John R, Jason, Galo and myself
All went well, but the consensus is that we would prefer to set up and leave it rather than set up, stay with it for the day, and re-load. Makes for a long day for some of us. But it was worth it. Especially the free ice cream.
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Rockland pictures.
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/bbarry74/image-12.jpg)
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/bbarry74/DSC_0331.jpg)
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/bbarry74/DSC_0344.jpg)
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/bbarry74/DSC_0336.jpg)
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/bbarry74/DSC_0381.jpg)
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/bbarry74/DSC_0395.jpg)
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The Sheepscot report for 4/12 (at least for the morning):
* Wes checked calibration of #10's gauges and declared them good.
* Stewart and Hansel continued burning branches and leaves and such near the head of the woods track
* I took the backhoe and tried my hand at ditch digging, with limited success. I continued the work with a shovel. I was trying to improve the drainage by the bridge between the house and the shop.
* Fred and Bill R went to Alna Center (walked in from the road) and righted and cleaned up the blown-over outhouse.
* Later Fred and Bill took the loco to AC to get joint bars for Davis Grade.
At that point I left.
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More about the woods track grade prep:
We ran two burn piles, burning the brush from the poplar tree near the garage and cut up most of the pine tree that was where the woods track diverges from the spur. The area was cleaned up to be ready for grade work and track laying. Pine logs were stacked west of the grade for anyone who wants them. The main trunk of the pine (about 10') was left intact. Brendan, please look at it and advise if it is good enough for a trip to the mill. If not, we'll cut it into logs and stack them with the rest.
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I know it is Easter weekend but I am hoping for a couple of us to be able to work the ground this weekend there, removing from septic heights to add what we need for fill so it is ready for work weekend.
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I know it is Easter weekend but I am hoping for a couple of us to be able to work the ground this weekend there, removing from septic heights to add what we need for fill so it is ready for work weekend.
Please don't disturb a grave site thereon, cherished by us old-timers - the final resting place of Buttercup, the Railway Cat. It is marked by a hand-lettered shingle placed upright. I'm sure that Stewart can point it out.
-John
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Harry's cat, Buttercup (1990-2006) is buried on the east side of the hill up behind the oil house.
Mike, There are some high lumps of ground between the woods track grade and the car storage building location. They look like large ant hills and make for tough walking in that area. They could be cut down so the dirt can go to the low spot where the woods track grade goes into the woods. Probably not enough material for the whole job but it would help both places.
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Buttercup is safe John, far side of the heights from where we will be removing material.
Also, another ditch will be dug through the woods track area, providing more fill, but we will need a pipe to go under the tracks. This will provide drainage from the East side of the garage, to get it to the north culverts.
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Hi Mike, Not sure the size or length of the pipe you are looking for.
Last fall there was one or two plastic culverts laying along the ROW. maybe near mile post 7. Zake may know if they are earmarked for a job.
dwight
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Thanks Dwight. No hurry yet so I may be able to use one we are removing from the driveway. I also have some hard pipe that I can get that is about a foot diameter that would be perfect for that.
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Anticipated work for April 19:
* Easter Eggspress: Trains operate 12 - 3, ostensibly 4 trains. We need a crew at Alna Center, crowd control at SS, parking control, gift shop, and train crew. Like Victorian Christmas, but smaller.
* Rules Review: Bob Longo will be leading a rules review at 9.
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Brought Two metal bladed trimmers home last weekend and put new blades on them and got them running. Will be a great summer for cutting bushes. Will start on the string trimmers next.
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I've heard that some publicity had the first train on Saturday at 11 AM, not noon. So we should be prepared for an early train.
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The AC crew should probably go up at 10.
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This Week -
* #9 - Jason, Jonathan, Eric, Leon and Steve P. worked on various parts.
* #10 - Bob L., Gordon C., Jonathan and Eric worked to ready the locomotive for service tomorrow.
* Water tank - Fred, Zack and Start cleaned (swept and flushed) out the silt. The tank was filled to be ready for operations on Saturday.
* Parking lot - The Garage corner was cleaned of wood and blocks so the area can dry out. Part of the area has gravel and may be usable when dry, the rest, back towards the garage must be dug and gravel filled to be used.
* Cellar - Zack installed the baseboard heating units, pipes and zone controls.
* Track crew - New track bolts arrived along with a nice new piece of equipment. Come see the new toy in a week!
* Easter - Don and Jeanne S. and Cindy counted and loaded thousands (yes, thousands) of eggs for the hunt on Saturday. We will need help in a number of areas during the event.
* Photo Archives - Cindy has scanned hundereds (yes, hundreds) of images from the museum's early days starting in 1990. The digitized images will be stored on thumb drive modules. Every Thursday, she posts some of the views on the museum's facebook page. This week features shots of Harry and crew framing bay one in June of 1990. Please check it out and <LIKE> the page. 8)
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Also,
Brendan did some work at septic heights, removing some of the hill side to make room for the run through track. The fill will be used for the approach to the woods track.
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Thanks Mike!
It's been such a busy week, I knew I'd miss something. Here's a few other things -
* Machine shop - On Friday there was a major clean up along the outside of the west wall with lots of scrap hauled away.
* Internet - A technician from Time Warner cable did a presite inspection of the museum to draw up plans for a broadband connection in the office and voice service for the phone system. The data package includes telephone service up to 2 lines so the tech inspected the Executone system mainframe in the machine shop. He got a full tour of the buildings and some Maine Two-Foot history. He saw the rotary telephones in the station and machine shop and advised that TWC would have circuits that will work on the 80 year old phones. The cutover may happen early next week. The museum's main phone number will remain the same.
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Work done on 4/19:
* Inspection: A crew took a trip on the entire line for an inspection. It doubled as a staging trip for the Easter egg "yolks".
* Easter Eggspress: We ran 5 trips 11 - 3, we had about 370 people for the day. The noon trip was chock full (3 cars), the others not as much.
* Work weekend prep: Mike used the excavator to remove material from ex-Septic Heights for the track, and put that material in for the woods track. Fred dragged rail strings away from the area.
* Mike took off the backhoe and put on the grader blade on the back of the tractor, and smoothed out some of the parking lot.
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Good turn out today, the volunteer log book has 58 names. The AC crew was about 15 with a number of kids helping. There was a team for each field, the 0-4 yrs south of the depot and the 5+ yrs in the north field. The station stove was started early since it was below freezing with a few snow flurries in the morning. By 10am the sun was out but we kept the stove going to (A) heat water for hot choclate and (B) burn more of the scrap wood in the lot across from the station. By afternoon there were clouds and a stiff breeze so the stove felt good.
Easter egg hunt anouncements were made by James and other train crew advising passengers where each group of kids should go upon arrival at AC. Dawn greeted people on the platform and repeated the directions to help visitors. Each field had "starter" people who lined the children up and then shouted for them to go get the eggs. When the hunt was over, people were called back to the train. Each time the train left the teams went back to their fields to set eggs and hide the golden egg. If there was time to spare, the crew came back to the station to warm up, have some chow and rest. As each northbound train approached Trask's Crossing we'd yell "show time" and everyone would go back outside to be ready for the next group.
Things went well although it was very windy at times. Many thanks to Nancy Weeks who made a wonderful lunch for us. Special thanks also to Leon who walked the Averill Road and cleared all the branches that were in the road or hanging in the way. My truck is grateful!!!
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Also of note, spotted on this afternoons "Extra 52 South", the turtle is Eastman Lake was out and about.
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Yes -- I saw him last weekend when Fred, Hansel and I were heading back to Sheepscot.
I guess that means spring is finally here.
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Anticipated work for weekend of April 25 - 27: Spring Work Weekend!
Probable projects:
* Loco 9: cab, running gear, boiler jacket, etc
* ROW clearing: mowing ROW missed last year, cutting & burning at Sheepscot and elsewhere
* Track: Alna Center crossing plank replacement, Davis grade tamping & joint bar replacement, North Yard track construction
* Food: Prep, cooking, cleanup for the volunteers
* Sheepscot Yard: Cleanup, organizing, etc
* Rules Review: Saturday afternoon around 3
There'll be a special announcement (or two) on Friday morning, but of course if you miss the announcement I'm sure you'll hear of it later.
Weather is currently forecasted to be clear/sunny on Friday, periods of rain on Saturday, and cloudy on Sunday. Temps in the 50s during the day, dipping to the 30s at night. Spring in Maine! At least the black flies aren't out yet.
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Is the Blue Ribbon on ice yet?
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Unfortunately, sounds like work for me Saturday at this point. But I still have 2 days to convince them otherwise...
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To recap the Spring Work weekend:
* Track: A couple hundred feet of track was laid on the spur, which included the majority of work for two switches. Crossing planks at Alna Center were replaced.
* #9: Work was done on the cab and firebox door.
* Food: A great spread was put on for lunches and suppers over several days.
* Creamery car: The car was cleaned of the Springfield show equipment and readied for delivery to the Wiscasset Waterfront this week.
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...and the Alna Center crossing planks were replaced.