W.W.&F. Discussion Forum
WW&F Railway Museum Discussion => Work and Events => Topic started by: Dana Deering on September 22, 2009, 06:01:07 AM
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Hi All,
We all knew that this fall would mark a kind of "breathing space" where track laying is concerned. We are almost ready to begin the yard expansion, but not quite, so that will come at a later work weekend. The work weekend is going to be a bit more "diverse" this year. We have some rail on hand that we can lay if it is cropped and re-drilled. It is the Chair Factory Rail that has defects on the ends which require cropping before the rail can be used. A crew will be working on getting some of the rail cropped and drilled prior to the work weekend and the balance will be done on Friday of the Work weekend. We only have room for 390 feet of new track on the graded ROW and I am not sure we even have that much salvageable rail. We will do what we can. Also on Friday a crew will be working on cutting ties at Sheepscot and moving some of them to EOT and piling others in the yard for use on the future yard expansion, which could begin in the spring, emphasis on could. On Saturday we will lay whatever rail we have. If we get the rail down and have time to spare on Saturday we'll do some ballasting and tamping on the new track or we will complete some long overdue track work on the track from the top of the Ladder all the way to Albee's crossing. This section hasn't been touched much since it was put down and it needs some major surfacing and lining. Since we'll have Big Joe operating we could get a lot of that done. We'll continue on Sunday and Monday with either work on the new track or work on existing track. I'm sure there will be other projects going on, too. So even though there isn't a lot of track laying scheduled for this fall there is a lot of important work to do. I hope folks will still show up. See you then! As always, the plan is subject to change as conditions may warrant.
Dana
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Dana;
Just because I'm not expecting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas doesn't mean I won't come down to open gifts on Christmas morning anyway. Of course I'll be there! See you about 7:15 on Friday morning. Naturally, I'll expect you for Albion Day....
KD
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Naturally, as long as you can guarantee that I won't feel like I'm in the movie "Groundhogs Day" when I pull into the yard. ;)
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Guaranteed. I'll put up a case of Vitamin Y as collateral!
Dave
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The Weather Soothsayers are predicting cloudy skies but little precipitation for Saturday and Sunday of the work weekend with 60% chance of showers on Monday.
0 % chance of snow.
They are probably right on that last one...
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Gordon, we are 5 days away and this is New England. Do you really want to jinx the weather for next weekend? Geez, now we will probably get rain,snow, lightning, high winds, etc. Just kidding.
Duncan
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Dana,
What time do the festivities start on Friday, 7 am?
I will be up to work Friday-Sunday. Moe Mechling will be along and will hopefully be able to find stuff to measure.
Jeff Schumaker
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On our way at 0600 (Weds.) and will make Thursday my "keep the wife happy day". Take her to Bar Harbor for lunch and some shopping. See you all Friday morning. Maybe I can Hy-Rail my mobility scooter while there. LOL
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Some picture from this weekends activities:
Linda, our newest brakeperson:
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-10/1221509/IMG_0628.JPG)
First steam train to the Old Oak Tree:
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-10/1221509/IMG_0648.JPG)
#10 backlit by the sun at AC:
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-10/1221509/IMG_0630.JPG)
And, a trainload of happy passengers in Coach 8 with #10's cab reflected in the window:
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-10/1221509/IMG_0622.JPG)
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Sure would be nice to get some daily updates for us folk who are "away"
16* and snow yesterday as I went to the Colorado Railroad Museum to watch steam pile driver OB in its first workout. It did not work! Back to the drawing board.
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I can supply you with two days worth of updates, and an educated guess at what will be accomplished today.
Friday, Dana had a crew cropping and Drilling the Chair factory rail. Managed to get 150 feet of it. Some gravel was put down also (I think). most of the Ties for Machias were cut to length and stored North of the Water tank. Big Joe was worked on.
Saturday, the rail was laid and spiked and more gravel put down in the low spots. Big Joe modifications were finished and a trial run was made at Alna Center. It was returned to Sheepscot for modifications. It now has up and down as well as a sqeeze action.
Sunday, Dana wanted to finish with the gravel and possibly lift the ties out of the gravel. Then the ballast operation will start.
If time permits, Dana also plans on working on lining in the area of Albees field and a little surfacing on the ladder.
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Thanks, Mike.
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A couple more projects completed Saturday:
- Telephone pole erected between Percival House and Shop. Light attached to it and wire ran to it (underground). Wired and functional by Saturday night.
- Magneto Telephone system extended to past new end of Track.
I heard a rumor that they were hoping to paint the shop on Sunday. Scaffolding was erected out front to get that job done.
Also, during the week grading was started for the septic field and new yard trackage. Brad's pit is now filled in, debris is desposed of, etc.
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As I was leaving yesterday Stewart was on the staging priming the front of the new addition, Bob Longo was repairing the self-feeding rail drill and the excavator had pushed through to the main line. Bill Reidy reported this morning that Big Joe, Version 1.2 was making a second pass over the newly ballasted sections at end of track but was down for a leaky hose. Jason and Jonathon St. Mary along with others rigged up Big Joe so the compressor could be controlled by the operator for his seat. Rube Goldberg would be proud! Also yesterday, a big swath of right of way near end of track was hit with brush hogs by Bill and I. It didn't appear that much of it had been cut since it was originally cleared as I cut some new growth trees at least an inch thick.
Dave
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Some of the work done this weekend:
-- there was 158 feet of new track laid this weekend, bringing the head of rail past the old oak tree and within about 500 feet or less of the Top of the Mountain switch;
-- 400 feet of track was put into service, and stone had been put down all the way to the end of track;
-- Big Joe performed very well -- just some minor issues with hose chafing and a loose air valve on one of the tampers;
-- Stewart was very close to finishing painting the front of bays 1, 2 and 3 on the extension;
-- the excavation contractor was busy on the grading of the car storage building lead and had rough graded all the way from behind the Percival driveway to the main line where the switch will be installed. Work remaining includes burying the sewer pipe and building the leach field. A lot has been done in the few days he has been on site so far.
-- Brush was cut from the north end down to Rosewood crossing. A narrow 5 - 6 foot swath right next to the tracks was also cust south of Rosewood down to MP 7. Brush remaining to be cut is mostly just south of MP 7.
- Bill
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Never did get that picture of you Dave...oh well, next time. Here are a couple more images from this past weekend.
Cutting and drilling rail (and not necessarily in that order!) from Friday...
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/342468/drillingcuttingwidesm.jpg)
Josh Recave as the Wichita lineman...
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/342468/JoshRecaveinstall2sm.jpg)
The fall 2009 version of "many hands make light work!"
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/342468/allhandsraildown_sm.jpg)
And from the Saturday evening photo session...engineer Bob Longo and fireman Joe Fox contemplate their next move.
Special THANKS to Bill Sample, Jon Chase and Bill Reidy for their assistance in the lighting deptartment...and to Bob, Joe and Josh on train crew...and to Jason for setting it all up!
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/342468/BobJoenight1_RP2sm.jpg)
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Steve, that last B&W shot is classic. You outdid yourself on that one.
Duncan
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Excellent phots Steve! Doesn't the engineer sit on the other side of the cab?
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Not in this country! So are there any photos of the grading for the yard extension?
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Thanks guys!
Here you go Eric...this one was taken Sunday morning - so it must look quite different by now!
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/342468/grading1med.jpg)
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Here's a larger version of the black & white from above, uploaded to railpictures.net
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=300317&nseq=0
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Hi Steve,
I have both of O. Winston Link's N&W photo books and have long admired not only his style and composition, but also his ethic of placing railroad subjects within a human and temporal context. I honestly feel the caliber of your photo would not be out of place in either of those books!
Sincerely,
Glenn
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Here's a big shout-out to everyone who worked over the past weekend. In spite of a number of nearly-last-minute obstacles, a crew prepared rails for Saturday's adventures in track building, many people helped unloaded gravel and ballast in somewhat trying conditions (You try keeping your balance on a 60-degree slope while shoveling material off a flatcar -- not for the faint of heart!), and folks who worked Big Joe Sunday and Monday. As has been noted elsewhere, 400 feet of track placed in service and the track laid on Saturday is covered with ballast and ready for surfacing, either later this fall or next spring.
Ties are stacked and ready when it's time to build the north yard lead. Some serious painting got done on the shop extension, a night light was erected over the parking lot, our contractor has graded most of the new yard area, brush and weeds were cut.....and there were probably some other things that occurred that I forgot. And high praise to cooks for the fabulous meals. I can't wait for April!
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Excellent phots Steve! Doesn't the engineer sit on the other side of the cab?
Only when he is fireman! Bob is facing North while the 10 is facing south. Excellent work Stephen.
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Here's a picture of Big Joe while it was being operated on Saturday afternoon:
(http://www.wwfry.org/pics/Oct2009-13.jpg)
Here's the excavation on Monday afternoon:
(http://www.wwfry.org/pics/Oct2009-18.jpg)
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Mike and Eric;
I realized my mistake when I saw the photo full size. I was looking at a much smaller size. Interesting that I made that mistake as I was there when Steve was taking the photos...
Dave
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Looking at Steves pictures here and on the NGDB looks like big joe could qulife as an honnorary steam locomotive with all those dails valves and plumbing running all over the place. Cool but the fact it works is the inportant thing.
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To echo what Wayne said - it was great to see everyone at the work weekend. Seeing old friends and meeting new ones is the best part of the event. I was on the rail crew Friday and we drilled and cropped 12 sticks by that afternoon. I joined the track crew until noon Saturday when it got warm enough to paint more of the shop addition. (There's still some of the upper front wall to finish.) The weather was nice but about 10 - 15 degrees cooler than normal. Most mornings were in the 20's with frost, warming to the mid 50's by afternoon. Bad weather for painting but good for track work. We were lucky because a storm came in Tuesday with rain and a bit of snow. There were wind gusts over 40 mph all day.
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Here's another scene from the same evening: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=300950&nseq=0
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Steve, another classic photo. It could just as well have been shot 100 years ago as when it was just over a week ago. It speaks volumes about railroading in the steam era. Just a beautiful shot. Well done.
Duncan
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Now that I am back on line after a week away let me just say thank you to all of those who showed up for the work weekend and second much of what has already been said about the progress we made. The tie cutting and rail prep on Friday worked out great and the rain held off long enough for us to get 158 track feet of rail ready to go. We had just enough cutting disks to finish the job! Track laying on Saturday went smoothly and we reached the big oak tree and the 2400 foot sign (distance from Albee's crossing). Then came the hauling and unloading gravel and raising the low spots, one of which we raised well over a foot, maybe closer to two. Then came stone, jacking, surfacing, tamping, lining for Sunday and Monday. At the end of the weekend we had placed 400 feet of new track in service and the rest is all ballasted and waiting for the jacks. Great job, everyone! Watching the progress on the grading of the yard expansion is inspiring me for the spring. I hope we can start on that project come April. We have rail, ties, and joint bars all set to go!
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Do we have the mainline switch and what # and rail weight is it?
I am all ready looking forward to next spring.
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Steve, that pic looks like it's straight out of NG in the SV, with color!! :D
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We have some frogs. Not sure what weight they are. Must be one to fit there someplace.
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What happened? last night I wanted to have a second look at the group of Steve's work weekend pictures pasted in below, but in place of the photos were some little thingees, sort of like icons. Tonight I tried again, and now there's a series of little blue boxes, each with question mark inside. Steve, did you change the format somehow? Perhaps you did, Ed? I have a Mac so am wondering if it's some incompatibility issue between Windows and the Mac OS. I can see a couple of Gordon's shots plus the one of Joe Tampiere by James.
Cutting and drilling rail (and not necessarily in that order!) from Friday...
Josh Recave as the Wichita lineman...
The fall 2009 version of "many hands make light work!"
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No changes here. In fact, the photos aren't working for me either (on a PC) so its not a Mac issue.
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I think the site Steve uses to store the photos, villagephotos.com, is having problems.
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James;
Village Photos seems to have disappeared so I've moved on. Here are some belated photos of the work weekend:(http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/dbuczkowski/IMG_2148.jpg) WW&F's own Michaelangelo
(http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/dbuczkowski/IMG_2123.jpg)
Leon in his natural element.
(http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/dbuczkowski/IMG_2134.jpg)
Surprisingly there was some activity when I was stationed at Alna Center(http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/dbuczkowski/IMG_2149.jpg)
The beginnings of the North Yard excavation
(http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/dbuczkowski/IMG_2151.jpg)
Dave