A few photos from Saturday...
First, Al Michelis assists as Fred Morse tends to one of our Stihl brush trimmers. Dwight Winkley had been busy the latter part of the past week cutting portions of the active railway, so Fred tuned additional trimmers so others can assist in the work.
Fred explains the finer points of the trimmer maintenance work to Al.
While Fred and Al worked outside, Leon Weeks worked on the trimmers inside the garage.
A photo of the planned ramp track retaining wall as it stood Saturday. Maybe not be clear from the photo, but the right-of-way from the woods track switch to the ramp track wall looked ready for track.
Prior to train time at 10.30 a.m., crews prepped their trains. Conductor Ed Lecuyer worked with No. 9's steam crew to pull out two cars of the first class train consist from the car barn.
While fireman Roger Whitney added water to the tank for No. 3.
In the afternoon, we see (left-to-right) brakeman J.B. Smith look on as engineer James Patten oils No. 9 and fireman Bill Piche adds waters to No. 9's tank.
A couple of notes:
I saw the yellow flag northbound early in the day as we approached Sheepscot Mills but since I was busy talking with passengers, I didn't see the reason for the flag. I had assumed it was Dwight brush cutting in the area. It wasn't until the last train southbound, when crowds were less, that I saw the Kubota parked and the ditching work completed by Mike south of the crossing. It looked terrific.
While on train crew I didn't have a chance to visit the displays and events staged at Sheepscot, Alna Center or Top of Mountain stations. I was disappointed, but I did have a chance to speak with many of our guests during the day. They all greatly enjoyed the Alna Day event, which speaks volumes of the work by Steve Piwowarski and other Museum and town members to make Alna Day a success.