August 2014 work planning

[Mike Fox]

Well, what is this?





All of what is left of a tie.




But I made another 115 feet today, bringing the cleared section to 331 feet. After it dries out I need to try and smooth up what I revealed today, hoping I can do it during the picnic, but may take a break from it to enjoy the festivities.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Work done Sunday, August 3rd -

* Parking Lot - Brendan spent a good part of the day grading and measuring the lot to be ready for the picnic.  He marked off where the rows would go and figures we can get 5 rows of vehicles in the lot. 

[Mike Fox]

That's great. Hope we can keep them from parking in between the restroom and the house. Makes for tight going sometimes, if they park on both sides.

[Dana Deering]

     A big Thank You! to all who showed up for track work on Friday and Saturday.  We had two very productive days.  On Friday we eliminated the big sag just north of Cock Eye Curve and lifted and leveled a section near the northernmost retaining wall south of the trestle.  This piece of track was starting to lean toward the brook and now I hope the train crews can breathe a little easier there.  Next we went to MP7 and lined a section that also needed it badly.  Then we loaded some rail onto 126 and brought it back to Sheepscot.  In the Upper Yard we cropped and drilled a piece of rail and bolted it in place next to its western mate at what was then the end of the roundhouse lead.  We spiked the east rail and then safety spiked the other rail to gauge.
     On Saturday morning the track crew went north and, in a downpour, loaded rail from the pile at Albee's Field and brought it back to Sheepscot. Ichabod once again earned his keep (Nice work Mike!).  Afterward, Stewart and I laid out ties for another 60 track feet for the roundhouse lead.  Then we used the tractor to unload the rails from 126 and set them in place on the ties.  We were joined by Dillon (not sure if this is how you spell it) who was visiting from Nevada and John McNamara and we bolted all the rails together and then "insta-tracked" the newest 60 track feet.  We then did a lot of switching (thanks, John!) and the car load of rail and the crane are now at the end of the roundhouse lead and we are ready to spike down that last 90 feet and to begin work cropping and drilling rail for the next leap forward.

     Great work track crews!  If you can please join James on 8/8!

Dana

[Brendan Barry]

Parking lot marked out. There is room for 62 cars in 5 rows.

[Bill Baskerville]

James,

I am planning on arriving mid to late morning Friday the 8th to work with your crew. 

We won't need it for aligning and surfacing but I have a new rail joint bolt impact wrench that can be used up the line or in the north yard for future track work.  Coupled with Dwight's annular drill it should help speed up track work in the yard, at TOM and down the other side.

Bill

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for weekend of August 9: Picnic weekend!

Friday:
* Picnic prep: put up tents, get out the supplies and utensils for cooking, arrange tables and chairs etc.
* Track work: Looks like I have enough crew to do some Tamping.  I'm going to aim for a 12:30 PM departure from Sheepscot.
* Board meeting: monthly board meeting at 4:30 in the Percival house.

Saturday & Sunday:
* Picnic: Need food support, yard sale support, gift shop help, train crew, and tour guides.  See Facebook or the website for everything that's going on.
* #9: Probably work will be occuring.
* If there's enough people to do it, it would be nice to be working on building the new roundhouse run-through track.  Give people an idea of track building.
* Grading Top of Mountain.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

On the roundhouse track -

* There's 120' (60 track feet) of rail to spike then we can add more sticks.  We can also do some lining to follow Ricks' center line.
* More ties can come down from the pile(s) just above the culvert. We can probably use the tractor to reach across the spur and load ties in the bucket, then just pull one off at a time as the tractor is backed along the grade towards the coal pocket.

[John McNamara]

On Saturday a group of 20 from the MassBay RRE will be arriving at Wiscasset at 1:35 and returning there by 4:35. They will be transported to/from the WW&F by bus, so I anticipate their arrival at Sheepscot to be around 1:45-1:50, and that they will want to leave by 4:00. I assume that someone else (JB?) may have more details. This visit is part of a trip MassBay RRE is offering in conjuction with the Downeaster and Maine Eastern.

-John

[Mike Fox]

I would like to see a length of track laid down from the north switch in the North yard, so we can get the transition joint in, stepping the rail size down before the switch that needs to be installed. This will ultimately be headed for the woods track, but will also be the lead to the 2nd and 3rd bays of the car barn.

[James Patten]

Events of Friday August 8 & Saturday Aug 9:

Friday:
* Mowing: Fred, Dwight, Bill R, and Bill's son Brian mowed by Trask Crossing.
* Track work: Bill, Brian, Ed L, Bill B, and myself took the tamper out Friday afternoon.  I forget how s-l-o-w the tamper is when self-propelled: 1.5 mph, maybe 2 going downhill.  Doing the math, I wanted to work near 2 miles out which meant it would take the better part of an hour to get there and get back.  So I revised my plan and worked on another area near the brook that Dana had wanted to hit.
* Picnic prep: Tent set up, yard sale work, etc.

Saturday:
I left at 2, so I can only report on part of the day.  Crowds weren't huge but we had some mostly full 3-car trains.  The yard sale was popular.  There were some one-lungers, examples of Fairmont speeder engines, plenty of photographers, some good food (cooked by Steve Z).  Mike worked at Top of Mountain and we helped him place a culvert.  In the afternoon Stewart placed his truck on one of the flatcars, which will be in the evening freight.

[Bill Reidy]

A few notes today -

- Fred, Brian and I went out early to brush cut the east side of the ROW embankment at Head Tide just south of Head Tide Road.  At Fred's insistence, we left a small bit at the corner with the road for KD on his next visit.

- The new parking lot was completely full around lunchtime -- someone took my parking space as soon as Brian and I left around 12.30.  Looks like the configuration marked by the cones and tape worked well.

- Both Brian and I agree the burgers were very good.  Kudos to Steve Z. and the entire food crew!

- Great to see the machinery exhibits at Sheepscot and glad to hear the yard sale was busy.  It looked like donors were very generous, as the yard sale was well stocked.

[Dave Buczkowski]

Also on Friday KD cleared some brush behind Percival House and in the North Yard. Thanks Fred for leaving something to do at Head Tide. KD can now walk to work.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

The evening freight train had about two dozen riders with a number of photo stops.  Some scenes were run at Alna Center with the freight and the railroads AA truck.  One scene featured the train spotting box 309 at the crossing so the truck could pick up barrels of goods from the train.  The LCL handling took 2 minutes but the lively 1932 era discussion between the train crew and a local farmer was the best part.  There may be photos on here later and there will be images posted on the museum's facebook page in a day or two. 

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Work done on Sunday, August 10th - Annual Picnic, Day 2

Quiet start but crowds were good by mid-morning.  Trains and railcar had good ridership.  There was much switching at the end of the day.

* Engine 9 - Gordon C. worked on the steam delivery pipes, reworking the sealing surfaces on the ends.

* Upper Yard - Stephen Piwowarski and Annie Baron worked on the main stem of the spur that will feed the roundhouse.  They lined up ties and spiked about 30 feet of the east rail. 

* Food - Grillmaster Steve Z. had plenty of burgers and dogs for the crowd.  The food service crew did a wonderful job both days providing great chow for visitors and volunteers.