January 2020 Work Reports

[James Patten]

Bryce, 2nd James, Gordon, Eric, Jason and Brendan were all Up To Something.  Most of them not on the same thing.

[Bill Reidy]

Some photos inside the shops Saturday.  People smarter than I spent the day indoors.

James Noblini was preparing a repair to one of TCDA dairy car No. 65's couplers:




Gordon Cook was preparing tools for the riveting of No. 10's smokebox.


The smokebox is about ready for the work.


Zack was working on the straps for the tank on B&SR SOCONY tank car No. 14.


Eric Schade was inspecting the newly arrived sill timbers for planned coach No. 9.  That photo will appear in the January/February Newsletter.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Jan 11:

* Car barn extension
* Pavilion
* Photo weekend prep
* Coach 9
* Meeting with Alna selectmen regarding moving the Archives to the town office basement 10 AM.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Saturday: I will clean the railroad of snow- every inch of the railroad even if I have to use a spoon.  It’ll be warm and rainy- this is our best opportunity to prepare for the first Grand Reunion weekend.

I would appreciate help- train will leave 10ish, as I want time to get in and connect with a few folks before going.  Bring your spoons...

Thanks,
Jason

[Dave Crow]

Is the basement of the Alna town office climate controlled? Will only paper archives get moved, or is the intention that other, larger items get moved, too?

Dave Crow

[James Patten]

The basement has been built out on one end as a climate-controlled, Fire Marshall-approved archival space for the Town's archives.  The other end is getting the same treatment for us.  I think only the paper gets moved.

[Bernie Perch]

I am curious as to what is being moved and will the current archives rooms be used for something else?  I spend the work weekends doing caption work on the photo albums and wonder if this material will be accessible.

Bernie

[James Patten]

The Archives are moving because we're running out of space.  Bernie, you'll be able to access it because Linda will have the key to the downstairs of the Town Office and will let you in to help out.

The current archives room has no official post-archives plan, but I am hoping it will be turned into the business office - as I am also running out of storage space for our records.  Need to scan everything, I guess.

[Paul Uhland]

Just what youz guys need...another project!!

[James Patten]

Actually somebody else is doing the build-out, hired by the Town.  All we have to do is move in when they are done.

[Bill Baskerville]

Actually somebody else is doing the build-out, hired by the Town.  All we have to do is move in when they are done.

What a deal, the town is been really good to us..

[James Patten]

Well....yes, but we still have to pay for their time and materials.  The meeting on Saturday is to negotiate how much time we have to pay them.

[Bob Holmes]

It's a win-win for both of us.  I suspect the negotiations will be fair to each...

[Paul Uhland]

Any chance of No. 10`s new smokebox being ready for this summer's train-pullings?

[Alan Downey]

Paul, ordinarily I prefer not to discuss speculative completion timelines for major projects including #10. But can I say that regardless of the progress on #10's smokebox, the rest of #10's boiler will not be ready for the summer. The bulk of the work still remains ahead of us.

I am generally planning on making progress on #10's smokebox this winter/spring. This will likely include rebuilding the squeeze riveter to rectify some issues we've had with it, making our own rivets for the non-code work, and performing the actual riveting. And all of that will fit in between photo charters, crew availability, and other shop concerns. We're just going to pick away at it as we can.