November 2017 Work Planning

[Ed Lecuyer]

* ToM Phone box: I don't have a report about that, I know a train did go out for that.

John McNamara placed new phone box in service at TOM. Tested and Passed. Even Fred said it sounded good.

While John was busy tinkering, Fred, Dwight and I stacked 75 ties on the Mill Siding.

[Paul Uhland]

Betcha it would make ordering lunch pizza a lot easier up there.
Will the phone line be eventually extended to 218 EOT?

[Ed Lecuyer]

Considering that the Magneto telephone system is our primary communication device between stations, train crews, and dispatcher, I fully expect that it will continue to be extended as the track proceeds northward. The mag phone is far more reliable than cell phones along our railroad.

[Mike Fox]

Yes. Hopefully buried. I am planning on building a knife that would hook on the bucket of the excavator and bury all new wire. This will hopefully eliminate some of the trouble we have been having with loss of service.

[John McNamara]

For a long time I was very discouraged by magneto telephone line problems, but Brendan's replacement of the Sheepscot to Brook Crossing wire, Fred/Jason/SteveZ's line extension, and Fred's trouble shooting north of Alna Center have breathed new life into the system and boosted my enthusiam. During Fall Work Weekend, I temporarily installed the phone box that had been the object of vandalism and rodent damage at EOT into a new location at TOM. Since then I have refurbished the box and attempted to prevent the incursion of insects that would tempt rodents. I have left the box unlocked for ease of emergency access and to reveal to vandals that the interior is very uninteresting (no iPhone10 within).

There is further work to be done. The telephone mounting within the box needs improvement (shorter non-Phillips screws), and the weather-tight conduit needs to be painted or otherwise made less-modern. The insect-proofing could be improved with weather stripping around the door.

Given the now excellent transmission (replacement of the old F-1 transmitter element), I see no reason that the line couldn't be extended to 218 (and beyond).

-John M

[Paul Uhland]

As kids on Staten Island, we discovered a phone magneto box in my grandmother's cellar that put out quite a zap when cranked. A really snotty, curious kid up the block got two bracelets wired to his wrists by my bro, let out a helluva  wail!
 
Never bugged us again. 

[Paul Uhland]

My uncle was a NY Telephone tech in the Wall Street area, taught us kids basic phone practice; I later helped the overworked tech at Philips' now-closed 2400-phone, Abq chip plant; also did some installation at Intel's nearby, newest Rio Rancho plant.
Phone work is interesting and  necessary.

[Mike the Choochoo Nix]

Years ago I worked for a farmer here in Minnesota. Back in the late 40's there was little rural phone service. His neighborhood got together and built a magneto phone system with old phones. 10 or 15 years later when the phone company came through they made sure that they " bought them out" even though it was an informal arrangement. I guess they could have formed a company and been competition to the big boys because they were there first.
Mike Nix

[Paul Uhland]

You DO NOT argue with 'the phone company'!   

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Nov 18:

* Car 67
* Bridge
* Top of Mountain
* Storm clean up - there's still a lot of debris left alongside the track that should be cleaned up before Christmas/snow.

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Nov 18:

* Bridge: Tim the Bridge Guy was there, notching out some of the under timbers.  I ran the tractor for him.  He got 4 timbers notched.
* Storm clean up: the tree by the water tower was cleaned up and reclaimed for #9's firebox, then more trees further up the line were dealt with.
* Store merchandise: Linda and I made a concerted effort to consolidate some boxes of merchandise upstairs, enough so that we could bring over the Two Foot Musings boxes that have been living in the kitchen for the last several months.  Meanwhile Bob helped rearrange the gift shop for Christmas refreshments.
* Archives: Linda did some archivy stuff.

[Mike Fox]

Some finishing touches were done off site early this morning on the permit notifications our abutters will be getting.

[Paul Uhland]

How's almost-done 67 doing with its coming roof, doors and hardware in the 'new' repair ship/dance hall?

[James Patten]

67 is waiting for a forging day.  Some of the existing metal for ladders/etc are bent and need to be straightened, plus there's some missing.  I think we still need to build a track for the door, too.  I don't know when any of this is happening.

[Dwight Winkley]

The steel for 67 has arrived from our suppler. It is on the floor of bay 3.