December 2016 Work Planning

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday December 3:

* ROW cleanup: Moving the joint bars from Alna Center area; moving the ties that were used to stack rail.  Maybe even move more rail (there's some small pieces stored near AC north yard limit, probably others we could move).
* Boxcar 67
* Victorian Christmas prep (just 3 Saturdays left): general area cleanup, platforms, etc (there's a list on Bay 4 chalkboard).
* Widening the parking lot entrance

[Mike Fox]

Parking lot entrance will be widened Saturday.

[Paul Uhland]

As a would-be maintenance manager, may I suggest filling the high-pedestrian, puddle areas between the shop and depot, shallow-ditching accumulating roof/ground moisture to behind the depot platform's lower area; then, after  widening vehicle access, spread gravel or ballast over bare areas in view of drivers on Cross Road.
Moisture, bare dirt is  the enemy of attracting riders.  

[Mike Fox]

That perpetual bowl in front of the shop has been a concern of mine for years. It is getting better, and we have a little more work to do before we get rid of it. Last thing we want to do is build it up much, because then it may run into the shop.

[Ken Fleming]

Do you mean to drain Lake Sheepscot?  Be still my heart.  My scooter needs water wings to cross it.

[Paul Uhland]

Ken ...thanx for the needed laugh.
Lake Sheepscot would stay gone if Cross Road were lower, providing automatic drainage.
You'd probably have to get the county to put in a culvert under Cross toward the pond across the street. Uh huh.
Good luck with a solution.
Another concern now is the increase in campus buildings,  turntable/area, more trackage, TOM development, boiler flanging, car building...more maintenance man-hours needed.  
But, here's hoping Victorian Christmas is busier than ever.
  

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Dec 3:

* Weed whacking: Dwight worked at whacking between Trask and Alna Center.  He also did some whacking on Friday.
* Boxcar 67: Zack spent the day on starting to put down the floor.  Of course its not as easy as just putting boards down, where the bolt heads stick up has to be carved out, and there's a number of other obstacles until you get past the bolsters.  As I left mid-afternoon he had just finished the floor boards over the bolsters.
* General clean up: First thing Fred and I got joint bars at Alna Center and brought them back and unloaded them.  (Someday Fred hopes to sort them by size/holes/etc)  Then, since new victims had shown up, we went up to Albee's field and picked up all the tie piles that were used to store rail or as tie storage, and brought them back.  After lunch we loaded them in the truck and took them to the end of the road.  Then we went back to AC and picked up some shortish/lightish pieces of rail that were stored near the north yard limit, and brought them back.  The short and light pieces weren't nearly as short or light as I thought they were passing by them on the train.  Unrelated to what we were doing, Mike cut up the culvert piece he had brought back earlier this fall to take to scrap, using one piece to pop over the end of the culvert under the roundhouse track in order to pretend that it's a steel culvert.
* Parking lot entrance: Mike extended the parking lot entrance this morning, putting in an extra culvert piece that we had laying around and covering it up.  Between Steve on tractor and Mike on Kubota they got out enough fill from the piles at the end of the parking lot to level it off (the area where the fill was is very soft, so Mike got the Kubota firmly entrenched in the mud and proceeded to move dirt around, before extracting himself.
* Christmas prep: We purchased some small stone and Mike used the dozer to spread it around on the roundhouse run-through track.  This area will be a second boarding location for passengers, so it needs to be smooth walking.  Also Mike brought some newly constructed low platforms which were put down at that location and at AC.
* Magphone: John asked us to test the magphone between AC and SS, which we did.  It is A-OK.

[Mike Fox]

[Wayne Laepple]

Thanks for the photos, Mike. That was a good idea to use the end of the old steel culvert to hide the plastic pipe. And wow! the entrance to the parking lot is really wide now.

[Mike Fox]

That idea for the culvert came to me this summer. Just glad I did it. Now I have a couple other ideas to use the rest of that piece for..and the scrap that was cut off LEFT THE PROPERTY. I did not store ot in a pile in the parkinglot. Johnny the Junkman got some free steel on my way home.

[Bill Baskerville]

Double wow Mike, Great entrance to the parking lot.  Also, the space between the car barn and the coal pile really is improved. 

I didn't understand one comment, will that space be used for passenger loading?  How will that work?

Bill

[Joe Fox]

Train arrives in the North yard on the roundhouse lead, unloads the passengers while the engine is serviced. Engine uses turntable to run around the train while passengers are loading and ties back onto the train.

Two new platforms have been built for loading and unloading on the roundhouse lead that will be removed after Christmas.

[Dwight Winkley]

The free tickets will be given out in front of the Shop.

Train "A"  with #9 will leave and return from main line at Sheepscott Station.

Train "B" will leave and return from North Yard turntable lead. #52 will use turntable to run around it's train.

Both trains will meet at Alna Center.

[Bill Baskerville]

Thanks Joe, Dwight,

Will 52 be turned, or just use the turntable as a switch between the run thru track and the turntable lead?

What a class act utilizing the new turntable to give us more flexibility.  It also lets folks see the armstrong turntable in action.

Bill

[James Patten]

Actually Dwight has it backwards.  Because of servicing time/etc, #9's train leaves from the North Yard.  #52's train leaves from the Sheepscot platform.  I don't recall which designation belongs to which train.