December 2017 Work Planning

[John McNamara]

We no longer need to send pictures to Alan Downey to show him winter railroading. He gets to see (and feel) it first hand! 

[Jeff Schumaker]

Great photos, Bill. How long did it take you to get to the museum in that weather?

Jeff S.

[Fred Morse]

Sat. is supposed to be a good day according to the weather channel. Great day for cutting and burning, if someone gets a permit.

[Ed Lecuyer]

How did the flanger work?

I'm guessing it worked well for VC. Yesterday (12/27) not so much...
We started plowing the yard and the retraction mechanism failed. (Jason can explain the details.) We struck the tank switch frog at a good clip. No one was hurt, but the flanger was destroyed. We plowed the railroad to TOM without it, leaving a good bit of snow within the gauge. Meanwhile, the mainline in front of Sheepscot station looked great with the snow flanged out.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

A little follow up- while it felt like we were going at a good clip, it was actually about 2-3 MPH.  I had a nag that something wasn't right, so had our speed down.  Plowing was tough without the flanger. 

Failure was the screws mounting the air cylinders to the plow frame stripping out of the cylinder housings.

We won't rebuild this design.

see ya
Jason

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Mike will lead tree clearing at the bridge site this Saturday.

Check the Mountain Tree Clearing thread in Work and Events for details on this sub-project.

see ya
Jason

[Ed Lecuyer]

while it felt like we were going at a good clip, it was actually about 2-3 MPH
It certainly felt faster than that; it was cold out there on the running board. And now I do recall slowing down before excitement struck.

[Gordon Cook]

Re: Pictures of Victorian Christmas Part Deux....
I think I prefer snow

Good job and congrats to all that made VC1 and VC2 happen.
 
Not rain, not sleet, not dark of night stops the WW&F!

[Mike Fox]

I was hoping to do some tree clearing at the bridge site, but with the extreme cold today, the dozer and the Yeti decided not to start. So, we can cut and burn at EOT, or there is some downed trees at Sheepscot to burn.
If, during the day Saturday the dozer starts, we may move that to the bridge site if the Yeti starts..

[Paul Uhland]

If we had bacon, we could have bacon and eggs, if we had eggs. 
Seriously, sometimes the bear gets you.

[John Scott]

From my standpoint, here enjoying a wonderful Australian Summer, I can only express admiration and appreciation, given the dedication and skill of the strong men from Down East.

John Scott

[Steve Zuppa]

If we had bacon, we could have bacon and eggs, if we had eggs.

Note to self: Refrain from drinking coffee while reading the forum. Sudden laughter is bad for the screen.

[Ed Lecuyer]

So you had coffee with your bacon and eggs? Was this at Ships'?

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Dec 30, 2017:

(It was very cold this morning: -18 on the car thermometer on the way over.  It might have made it to 10 above).

* Getting stuff started: After several days of sub-zero temps, we made some valiant efforts at getting things going.  The truck and the tractor were the first things.  They helped get first the Yeti going, then the dozer.  The Yeti wouldn't move (parked on ice) so the dozer had to push it.  The dozer was loaded in the parking lot, then Fred and I followed in his van while Mike drove Yeti and trailer to the 218/WW&F crossing.  The dozer was unloaded and plowed some snow in for a couple hundred feet, then we returned to Sheepscot.
* Boxcar 67: Zack was working on the ladder verticals and installing the bolts for the rungs.
* Inventory: Linda did most of it during the week, she and I did the rest of the counting upstairs in the morning.

[Mike Fox]

James makes it sound so easy.. We set the torpedo heater and battery charger going on the Yeti at around 9 this morning. At 11:15, I decided the charger wasn't doing enough, so I put the pick-up on it during lunch. After lunch, the Yeti started. Unhooked the cables and it died. Hooked cables back up and restarted. Left the pick-up hooked to it while I tended to the dozer. Torpedo heater was aimed at that. Then the new battery installed and tried to start. Would not go. So got the pick-up and gave it a little extra charge. A sniff of starting fluid and away it went.

I think we are ready to cut trees..