February 2014 Work Planning

[John McNamara]

Godzilla!

[Duncan Mackiewicz]

The backhoe attachment alone makes a nice addition to that tractor but the finger attachment to the bucket makes the backhoe even more valuable for moving material. Moving the backhoe to this tractor was a great move.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for weekend of Saturday - Monday, Feb 15 - 17: Winter Work Weekend.

* Saturday is the Whitefield Lions Club Train and Doll House Show, at the Augusta (ME) Armory.  John R, Marcel, and myself plan to be manning the table.  Stop in and say hi!
* Snow Shoveling: A Nor'easter is forecasted for Thursday - Friday morning, so some significant snow shoveling may be required Saturday morning.
* #9: I believe Jason is working Saturday and Monday, don't know about Sunday.  Lots to do: rear underframe work, boiler jacket fitting, smokebox.
* Garage and Machinery
* Tree cutting: I'm sure Fred has a few trees he wants to cut, although with heavy snow on the ground it will make it hard to get around.

[Gordon Cook]

It would be news if there was a tree that Fred didn't want to cut!

 

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Work done Saturday, Feb. 15th, 2014:

* Garage Rats - A crew including Zack, Steve Z., Fred, Start, Bill R., and Randy finished cutting and installing the battens on the east side.

* Shop/#9 - A good sized crew including Bill F., Ed G., Jason, Jonathan and Eric worked on a number of parts and plans for the locomotive.

* Rubber tired stock - Mike worked on the backhoe lines replacing some O rings and making adjustments.  When complete, he ran the tractor clearing snow and snow piles around the garage, house and shop.  Pushing the snow banks back is important since Alna is forecast to get an additional 12" of snow tonight. 

* Train show - James left early to man the museum's table at the Whitefield Lions Club show at the Augusta Armory.

[James Patten]

Train show report: both vendor and visitor attendance was down - there were a number of empty tables and blank spots that have had vendors in past years, and the visitors, which usually throng the place at opening, did not throng.  Sales were about $200, mostly in our HO cars and buildings.

I came back via Sheepscot and noticed on #9 that good progress has been made on the jacket templates.

It looks like there won't be anybody at the WW&F on Sunday. 

[Mike Fox]

I swapped some lines to get the controls working correctly, finding air in the system. We bled what we could, and the backhoe responded better. Hoping with time more air will work it's way out.

Also, when parking the machine, care should be taken to remove the strain from the 3 point hitch. We came into garage to find a puddle of oil this morning. One of the seals may be going bad on the tractor, but to fix it would be time consuming.

And a manual thumb was donated and dropped off this morning for the excavator. It will need to be welded on. This will allow us to grab stumps or what ever else we want to lift. If I can get it ready, Jason can weld it when he has a few minutes. His welds would hold better than mine.

[Fred Morse]

Will there be a crew working on Monday, I'll get lunch if there is.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Sunday, Feb. 16th, 2014

The "big Saturday night storm" was a dud.   The forecasted 12 - 16" of snow turned out to be about 4" of powder.  This morning dawned clear and it was sunny all day with temps reaching 30.  Steve Z. plowed around the shop, house and parking lot and garage rat #4 shoveled the walks and steps.  Too bad they blew the forecast, other than some wind, today was a real nice day.

Fred,  I can be at the railroad on Monday if you want to cut the pine where the woods track will go.  It will be sunny again tomorrow with less wind so we could get that done if you feel like runnig a chain saw.

Start   

[Fred Morse]

I'd rather wait till there's only a couple of inches of snow so we can burn the underbrush too. I guess there's not going to be a crowd working.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Monday, Feb. 17th, 2014

There were about 7 volunteers at the railroad today and Fred fixed a nice lunch for the crew.

* #9 - Jason and crew worked on a number of things including the boiler jacket templates. 

* Garage - The work area was cleaned up and more tools were organized.  Most of the spare parts for the Model AA truck were brought over from the shop building. 

* Care package - Member Jeff Schumaker sent a box of goodies.  Not wanting to start a row between the shop crew and garage rats, he sent two of almost everything shipped so there would be things for the shop and garage.  New items include: 2 packs of work gloves, 2 tape measures, 3 heavy duty scissors (one goes in the office), 3 LED flashlights and a 3" electric cut off tool with a pack of extra cutting wheels.   Thanks Jeff!!   

[Jeff Schumaker]

You guys are most welcome. Just make sure Fred gets something.

Jeff

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for weekend of Feb 22:

* #9: I think Jason is planning to be here Friday (but check with him first).  He won't be here Saturday.  Monday is a regular work day for him.
* Garage
* RTV (Rubber Tired Vehicles) maintenance/playing use

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday February 22:

* Garage: See Stewart's report!

* #9: Wes continues to work on the boiler jacket templates.  Eric S was also working on something.

* Hydro-engineering: With all the melting going on the water was coming down the hill past the house and the bridge over the ditch was partially under water.  I started opening up the ditch from the drainage ditch near track 7 west toward the house.  At the end of the day the bridge was above water and it was flowing quite well.