Spring Work Weekend 2019

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Shovels or forks ?. It makes no difference ballast is tough to handle and a true back killer when you're ageing.

[Steve Smith]

Alain, if only we could restrict aging to fine whiskey and cheese!

[Paul Uhland]

Wow, Mike's Tool City! 
I bet that near, hanging shovel helped spread the shop's concrete floor. 

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Alain, if only we could restrict aging to fine whiskey and cheese!

For sure, but whiskey and cheese get better in aging, I'm not quite sure it's totally the same for people except for the railroad enthiousasts especially the WW&F volunteers.

[Bill Reidy]

Some photos today of ballast trains for the Mountain Extension.  WW&F No. 9 and MNG Monson No. 3 alternated bringing flatcars loaded with stone from Alna Center to the work zone.

No. 9 has delivered the first loaded flatcar of the day -- #118.


Caboose #554 had been placed at the end of the track earlier this week for the benefit of volunteers.


Unloading #118.




Caboose #320 was on No. 9's work train today.


Brakeman J.B. Smith confers with No. 9's engine crew.


Later in the morning, No. 9 brought up B&SR flatcar #34 with its first load since the car was rebuilt.


Unloading #34.




At Alna Center, Dean Copeland loaded empty flatcars as they were delivered by Nos. 3 and 9.  Work trains arriving at Alna Center from the north would pick up a loaded flatcar, drop off an empty, and then return north.  Here #34 is getting her second load.


At Top of Mountain, work trains met.  Loaded northbound trains took the mill siding to let the unloaded southbound trains pass through en route to Alna Center.  Here we see No. 9's work train on the mill siding.  Open car #103 sits on the round-around/stub siding with lunch for the crew.


Conductor Ed Lecuyer leads No. 3's unloaded train southbound through Top of Mountain to drop off the work zone crew for lunch, before proceeding to Alna Center to get another loaded flatcar.


With No. 3's train passed by, No. 9 pulls her train out onto the main at Alna Center before proceeding north to the work zone.


The Mountain Extension work crew enjoys a nice lunch in car #103.


Flatcar #126 gets loaded at Alna Center.


At the end of today, Roadmaster Joe Fox said about 350 feet of track received stone today.  Here's a couple of views.




The volunteer log book listed 70 names today when I left a little after 5.  I'm sure some had not signed in.  We had under 20 volunteers working on the Mountain Extension, and many were busy in Sheepscot.  Hopefully someone else can give an account on the work done in Sheepscot today.  I do know a lot of work was done on interior wall sheathing in the car shops.  One other work item:  John McNamara and Mark Edry were busy extended the magneto phone line on the upper portion of the Moountain Extension.

[Bill Reidy]

Oh, and Happy Birthday Jason!  Thanks for the reminder, Ed.

[John Kokas]

Fred Morse and I cut and split about 2/3 of a cord of wood.  Should be able to get it all cleared by end of SWW so Mike can get into the spoil piles to move to the woods track area.

[Graham Buxton]

There were 95 names in the log book for Saturday a bit after 6pm.

[Mike Fox]

Some photos I took today..


#3s crew pushing a loaded flat north (118) to drop of B&SR 34 for loading.


Dean Copeland brought his new skidsteer to load ballast this weekend.


9 arriving at Alna Center




Ballast work as of quitting time Saturday. This section has been jacked and tamped. Jason, Rick and I were on a surveying trip and were remarking how well this looked.


Looking North across the former slide (Location 4).


Rules review and a presentation by the Mass Bay RRE that followed.

[Bill Reidy]

The volunteer log for Friday has been updated to show 82 names.  Today's (Saturday) volunteer log listed 108 names, which I believe is a new record for a work weekend day.

Some photos from today:

A damp morning to start (it rained heavily overnight).  Looking from the Sheepscot platform, we see two steamers out on the main:  No. 9 by the water tank and No. 3 by the north yard switch.


Streams were running well after all the rain.  All the drainage work performed by Mike Fox has worked well.  Here we see the stream at location 10.




Jacques and Vincent LeRow prepare for tamping.  Our tamper Big Joe is at the north end of the track, just south of caboose 554.


Roadmaster Joe Fox sets the first jacks.


Tamping is underway!


Dave Buczkowski operated Big Joe in the morning.


Joe led the setting of jacks as the tamping crew followed.




A marker was left at the start of the tamping.


Meanwhile, stone trains dropped ballast south of the tamping crew.  Locomotive no. 52's engineer Jonathan St. Mary talks with Joe Fox just north of the slide area.


By late afternoon, tamping had reached just south of the pinch point.


After a nice dinner, Mass Bay RRE President David Brown and Leigh Webb made a formal presentation of the 2019 H. Albert Webb Memorial Railroad Preservation Award to WW&F Railway Museum President Dave Buczkowski.  The $10,000 grant aids our Mountain Extension, and we greatly appreciate their support!


After dinner and the presentation, Jay Barta provided training for the three new AEDs recently purchased for our Museum through donations by several members.  One of the AEDs has been installed in the lobby of our restroom building.


We then went out on an evening train ride to the Mountain Extension, where a walking tour was provided to MBRRE members and other friends of our Museum.  Upon return from the trip, many were attracted to our shops, which were still busy.  Here's folks walking into bay 1.


Several folks have been busy this weekend completing the wall sheathing and window trim in shop bay 1.


Meanwhile, others had been busy replacing end sills and making other minor repairs to a Maine Narrow Gauge flatcar on sort term loan.  The repaired car was flipped back over this evening and put back onto its trucks.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Thank you so much for that comprehensive report of that almost round the clock hectic busy day. Your drive, spirits and tremendous sense of organization are able to move heaven and earth, which really blows my  "French" mind.

[Bill Reidy]

A busy final work weekend day today (Sunday), but I could only take a few photos.  First, some updated volunteer numbers, based on review of the volunteer log and discussions today:
-- Friday:  83 volunteers;
-- Saturday, 110 volunteers; and
-- Sunday, 82 volunteers (75 in the log book, plus 7 I was told had not logged in as I was leaving back to the Boston area late afternoon.

From my understanding of the spring and fall work weekend volunteer counts from past years, including last fall's big Mountain Extension track building push, these are all record numbers -- a tremendous show of support by our members and friends, particularly since weather was less than ideal Friday and Saturday.

Like Friday, I was conductor on No. 9's work train.  We took 9 out with caboose 320 and stopped north of the Sheepscot water tank switch so the repaired Maine Narrow Gauge flatcar 205 could be pushed by volunteers onto the rear our our train.


We dropped off 205 at Alna Center so it could be loaded with stone by Dean Copeland.  Now that we had four flatcars in service, today's stone train service was a bit different than Friday and Saturday.  For the first two days of this work weekend we had three flats in service for two stone trains, so each train would pick up one loaded flat and drop off an empty at AC for loading before delivering the loaded car to the work zone on the Mountain Extension.  Sunday's trains each had two dedicated flatcars, which would be brought to AC for loading.  Our train had cars 118 and 34, while No. 3's train had 126 and 205.  A couple of views No. 9's train today:

Car 118 has been unloaded, and volunteers are now unloading car 34 in the vicinity of location 2.  We're looking south toward Top of the Mountain, about 1400 feet away.


The reverse view, looking to repaired slide area (location 4).  Not easily seen in this photo is the magneto phone post on the right at location 4.  John McNamara and Mark Edry were busy this weekend extending the magneto phone line.


I believe all of last fall's Mountain Extension track extension now has a layer of ballast delivered (No. 3's train delivered the last two carloads).  This was an important goal.

So much was going on this weekend, and I only saw one busy corner.  Hopefully my photos gave some sense of this weekend's accomplishments.

A strange sight today in Alna -- the sun, after two dreary weather days.  When I got home near Boston this evening what was the weather?  Rain!

[Joe Fox]

Wow. Amazing work guys. Job well done to everyone who worked above and beyond to make everything happen. Many went above and beyond to ensure things got done. What a great and amazing team.

[Fred Morse]

Had a lot of help with the wood splitting, at least 6 people, they also stacked the rest of the wood that has to be split to make it easier to get too.

[Joseph Lupinski]

Glad to hear the last of the ballast got down.  Sadly I could only volunteer for the Sat this time.  Did they manage to get the tamper running again for Sunday?