BUILD LOCOMOTIVE 11 - AUGUST UPDATE!
On July 10, the Wiscasset Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum lost one of our key members. G. Wayne Laepple was one of #11's earliest supporters, helping arrange the first pieces of hardware to be made in 2008 when there was only a smattering of hand drawn plans and a big idea.
From the spring of 2020 when the Build 11 team formed, Wayne was our spokesman and fundraising chair, crafting our monthly reports, WW&F newsletter updates, and spearheading our fundraising efforts and working with donors. He frequently made the trip from his home in Pennsylvania to join us for our work sessions on-site in Alna. Usually he made the trip with patterns or castings in-tow to set the project up for the next step. Incredibly, that is still only a fraction of his impact and involvement with the WW&F, and railroad preservation as a whole.
G. Wayne Laepple, founding member of the Build 11 team.Wayne authored these Build 11 updates over the years. With his passing, members of the Build 11 team will continue in his stead.
Another productive No. 11 work session took place on July 18-19, focused on fabricating the rear draft gear capture plate. This work involved forming the 3/8” plate into a wide “C” channel which will be bolted to the rear frame located below the rear coupler. Once the plate was cold formed using our plate flanging machine small areas were cut away to provide clearance for some rear gusset rivets and for coupler pin access. The capture plate was then drilled for the attaching bolts on our large radial arm drill.
Forming the draft gear capture plate in our flanging machine.
Fitting the capture plate in place.The completed rear frame was flipped to its final orientation, that is, right side up. This allowed the team to use our Hanna riveter to complete riveting the remaining flat head rivets on the rear frame gussets.
Flipping the rear frame. Watch a time lapse video at: https://www.facebook.com/reel/3243619595929268While this work was proceeding, Harold Downey machined the finished surfaces of the rear truck center castings.
The newly machined rear truck center castings.Our next Build 11 work session is scheduled for August 15th – 17th. The team plans to relocate both forward and rear frames to the north end of bay 2, occupying the space formerly used to assemble the passenger car trucks. The frames will be cribbed up, leveled, and positioned to allow us to drill, ream and fit the fitted bolts that will bind the frames together.
The 2023 fundraising total got a huge boost over the last month. Nearly $3,000 was contributed in memory of G. Wayne Laepple. We have received a total of $29,278 to date (59% of the $50,000 goal for 2023.) We have also received $3,200 towards our $6,000 match. If we can raise $6,000, he will match the amount, dollar for dollar. Does this sound like Public Television? If we can raise that $6,000, we’ll have $12,000, putting us over the 82% mark in our effort to raise $50,000 in 2023. Remember, every dollar counts, and we need your help to keep up the momentum. You can donate directly by check to the museum or you can go to:
https://www.build11.org/
