W.W.&F. Discussion Forum
WW&F Railway Museum Discussion => Volunteers => Topic started by: James Patten on July 29, 2015, 05:58:56 AM
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Anticipated work for weekend of August 1 - 2
* Mowing & Strimming
* Loco 9
* Car barn
* Bulldozing
Just 1 week left before the Annual Picnic!
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Hoping the tractor is back. We have some rototilling to do.
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Work done on Saturday August 1:
* Car barn - more work on the trim.
* Loco 9 - Marcel worked on the cab, Megan, her sister and Stewart painted. Now multiple cab pieces have been joined together (not on the locomotive).
* Kubota repair - Mike repaired the Kubota (I think he put on a muffler).
* Driveway culverts - Mike installed 2 culverts under the driveway by the head of the ramp (where one was before). Still a big pile of boney dirt there.
* Mowing - Mike mowed north of Alna Center after the last train.
* Strimming - Bill R strimmed around the yard.
* Magphone repair - John M replaced some blown fuses on the magphone line and reported it works between AC and Sheepscot.
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Ed Lecuyer and myself mowed with ROWMOW from Alna to end of track and made it back to almost phantom crossing before a crucial piece broke. This was the last of a few break downs, none as serious as this. Pitman rod broke. On the bearing end, also splitting the race. So some machining necessary. So now that Ed has been christened into the ROWMOW world, he has a new appreciation of the terms technical glitch and field maintenance, or as I put it one stop, line side repair. I think that was when we stopped for the bar. At that point, the serving kind would have been better.
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Mike, I have a very bad streak of luck with anything mechanical at the WW&F. Almost always, something breaks when I am using it. At this point, Jason almost won't let me near anything. This time, it was ROWMOW1s turn. I should have known better.
On the other hand, I'm glad that my curse didn't come to pass while I was up on the scaffolding on the new car barn!
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Ed, At least the walls didn't come tumbling down. Yet!!
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Anything mechanical can break. You did nott have any adverse affect on it.
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I also accompanied Bill on the strimmers. Once we find a good drummer we'll be going on tour. I also did some lumber pick up and arranging in advance of the coal truck and picnic.
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I will attest Kielbasa Dave did do a lot of work blade trimming yesterday. Even though once again he used my name.
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Anticipated work for the weekend of August 8, 2015: Annual Picnic!
* Friday is prep day: put up tents, get the grills, tables and chairs ready, etc. Help needed on this day.
* Saturday & Sunday is the picnic: food is 11 - 3, music by Bitter Brew 11 - 1 on the platform, yard sale in the Percival basement 9 - 4 (proceeds benefit the Archives), steam both days on the regular schedule. There'll be a memorial unveiling mid-afternoon at Alna Center station for Julius Stuck (take the train to get there). Lastly a Saturday afternoon/evening photographer's train. Alas #9 will not be available for operations, but perhaps we can roll it out in the sunlight for everyone to admire.
* Other things might be occurring (such as car barn work) but most of us will be busy enough operationally.
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Work done on Saturday Aug 8:
* Picnic: Steve Zuppa was primary cook, I think I saw another person cooking but didn't catch who it was. Joan, Sue, and others helped take orders and serve. Meanwhile train operations went full swing, with lots of switching going on to move cars around and make up the freight for later. Crowds weren't huge, but they were good size. The Evening photo train was to be a fund raiser for a Portland Company-style passenger canopy for flat cars. Someone else pledged to match any donations made in the donation box, up to $250!
* Loco 9: Marcel and Eric S were working on putting canvas on the roof of the cab, and putting epoxy on it. They got one course on both sides, and I think the top course on the front. Meanwhile #9 had to stay in the paint tent, as the final coat was not on and putting it out in the sun would require sanding. Megan and Ericka with Greg worked on the brakes.
* Driveway: Mike repaired the culvert that had been put down a week ago at the head of the driveway and smoothed out the rest. Earlier this week the ditch between the Percival driveway and the parking lot next to the shop was filled in.
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Work done on Sunday, August 9th - day 2 of the Annual Picnic.
* Car shed - Zack, Fred and crew installed bird screening along the soffits. Both east and west sides are done. Zack built concrete forms for the north end door posts on Saturday.
* Yard sale - Linda advised that we made about $1,500.
* #9 - Marcel worked on the cab roof, finishing the coating around the roof hatch frame.
* Barry Lane - A tractor load of coal was taken to #10 near the tool house. This is possible by driving the tractor through the new crossing next to the car shed. Loading coal at the tool house/water tank location is better than right in front of Sheepscot station as we have done in the past.
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In reference to the Saturday work, we are in the process of re-directing the water to get the surface water drainage away from the future turntable area. We are awaiting some plans for the turntable and surrounding walls to determine where to place a culvert, that will carry the water away from the footbridge area (or more like where it was) to the ditch next to track 7. We also will need to extend the drain pipes from the pit in Bay 4 and the perimeter drain around the shop building so we can use the material from the pipe installation to grade for the eventual track 7 relocation.
The driveway had to be widened for the tractor trailer loads of coal we get, which prompted the removal of the original culvert, which Brendan found to be rotted and would need replacement soon anyhow. This also led to replacing the other culvert in the driveway, as it was suffering the same fate.
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Thanks for the explanation. Drainage can be a bear, especially when things like turntable pits are planned, and new roadways are put in for easier servicing away from train riders.
Also, congrats to Linda for the big souvenir cash haul.
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Did anyone take any photos of the various picnic activities?
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Several of the high-end hobby photographers were there (I'm assuming they are hobbyists... people like Kevin Madore and Wayne Disbrow), as well as Steve H (professional). Hopefully they will be posting something. Keep an eye on railpictures.net, I guess.
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Wayne, Go WW&F Facebook page for photo's of annual picnic.
dwight
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Anticipated work for weekend of August 15:
* Board meeting on Friday evening starting at 4:30, all members welcome.
* Car barn
* Loco 9
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Should be putting in those
crates forms this weekend if everything is ready. Also finish the driveway project, lay a length of track, build a ramp and what ever else we can think of
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Work done on August 15. Caveat: I got there at noon, so I'm probably missing some morning stuff.
* Loco 9 - Hauled out in the sunlight in the morning, then put back in. Marcel was working on the cab - 4 of the uprights are done, he is working on one, and has 2 more to go. Wait a minute, that's an odd number of uprights, I must be missing one.
* Car barn - The roofing material arrived (I almost got the delivery to my house because that's where the bills go). Zack has marked out on the ground where the digging has to happen for the concrete forms for the door posts.
* Landscaping - Mike did some sculpting for a shallow ditch along the driveway west side. Driveway continues to get smoothed out but is still a little rough. Bulldozer is sidelined while some worn fittings get replaced.
* Basement - Cleaned out of the yard sale stuff that didn't sell, which was put back in the attic.
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Morning stuff. Hmmm. What did we get done in the morning.. Oh yeah. See the #9 thread...
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In the morning a bunch of us unloaded the roofing material while Fred coordinated our efforts. The leftover yard sale items were removed from the basement and trucked away to the place where all such stuff goes.
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"Coordinated..." Yes, how very Fredly...
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On Sunday, 8/16 new volunteer "Troy" and I did blade trimming between the Yard Limit and Brook Crossing - on the West side of the ROW. Small trees are starting to grow in the cleared ROW - especially on the West side (which, IIRC, was not cut in 2014.)
We worked about an hour then gave up due to the heat and equipment. One of the blade trimmers was not functioning well (giving off an unwanted shock.) Both trimmer's blades are pretty dull. And we are very low on 50:1 gas.
Unfortunately, with not much else to do, Troy left before noon. I hope he comes back.
It would be helpful if we had a list of smaller projects that we can plug new volunteers into when there is not a lot of larger projects going on.
-Ed
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Anticipated work for weekend of August 22:
* Car barn - Zack and Fred are going to start putting up the steel roof on Friday. We can really hit it on Saturday, although I'm not sure we'll finish it.
* Loco 9
* Mowing and strimming
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James!!! Your wishful thinking. Now if more people show up Fri. it might be different.
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James...More power to the roof gang!
So let's see--it's a ~30x110'=3300 sq ft roof, 33 squares in rooferspeak.
The panels will be hot, sharp, unwieldy.
I'd say finishing one side will be more than adequate for this weekend's work , depending on help.
But, don't let my estimate stop you guys! ;D
Will door post footings work also happen?
Those forms look so artsy. ;)
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I tend to doubt door footings will happen. But I have been wrong before.
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Footings depend on if the proper cement products show up. Don't want to dig them before we are ready.
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Work done today, August 22:
* Car barn - most of the rest of the east roof was done, there's about one or 1.5 cycles of clear and metal panels left on one side. It looks really spectacular.
* Loco 9 - Marcel worked on the cab roof and posts. The roof has been primed.
* Bulldozer - Mike and Brendan spent the day tearing it apart to fix/replace a cylinder on the dozer.
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Can't wait to see da roof, so far...likewise da cab.
Hope the dozer feels better soon.
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FYI, a side discussion regarding gas (which is not one of the issues we have with the string/blade trimmers, FWIW, other than we need(ed) more) has been split off and moved to General Discussion.
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Anticipated work for weekend of August 29:
* Car barn: roofing, perhaps the door post footings.
* Loco 9
* String trimming
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Work done on Saturday August 29:
* Car barn: Yesterday Brendan dug for the east door post footing, which was placed and buried. Today Mike dug for the west door post footing. There was concern that we would encounter the effluent pipes for the septic system, however we did not find them. Concrete for both footings were poured today. Before the footings were poured, some more roofing went up on the west side, yesterday and today.
* Loco 9: Marcel continues to work on the cab. Sand blasting continues with the tank.
* Landscaping: The bulldozer got fixed, and Mike pushed some dirt around for the car barn switch and tracks.
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And the constant-progress, WW&F beat goes on.
Love it!