Yes, indeed. All it took was a can of Moxie! Seriously, we assembled at the Mount Union yard at about 9 a.m., and we got right to work. Rick Rowlands and his pal Nick Hovey did the bulk of the torch work, and Nick took great pleasure in whacking the couplers with the 20-pound sledge to drop them down free of the car. Phil Marshall was indispensable as fire watchman, and with his loppers and tree saw cleared the way. John Kokas was everywhere, carrying various tools from place to place, helping to untangle torch hoses and moving the torch cart and keeping us on our toes. I scouted the area and located the cars from which we extracted the couplers. We freed all 10 couplers before 1 p.m.
The next phase will take place in the next week or two, I hope. The EBT men will use their backhoe to move the couplers to a central location, and they will be loaded onto a rented truck. I hope then to pick up the castings for the Jackson & Sharp passenger cars trucks from a nearby foundry, and everything will come to Maine sometime in December. Anyone want to volunteer to be a co-driver?
Photos coming soon, I hope.
