December 2020 Work Reports

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Dec 19:

* Pavilion: Mike got most of the south wall done for siding.
* Snow removal: Several of us shoveled around the turntable.  Then the run-around siding and the mainline were plowed out, then a cut of cars were moved over to the run-around.  Then the crew got the coach for this evening's charter and took a ride to ToM and back.
* Boxcar 56: Marcel and Zack popped the roof off, jacked the floor up and removed the trucks and put it on blocks.

[Jeff Schumaker]

The boxcar project seems to be moving along. Hopefully, there will be more photos.

Jeff S.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Also on Saturday -
Two volunteers working for the archive committee traveled to Brunswick to retrieve a 117 year old notice poster. The notice, printed in 1903 advises of a new state law regarding people loitering around railway depots and cars as well as steamship docks.  The notice had a tag with "WSC" which is an abbreviation for Wiscasset so the framed notice probably came from the Maine Central station, WW&F depot or the steamship station down by the rail/sail transfer pier.  It's an interesting find and nice addition to the WW&F archives. 

[Wayne Laepple]

Hmmm! A notice like that at Sheepscot might become an enforcement problem. I notice people hanging around (loitering) at the station around train time. Some of them have cameras!

[Dave Buczkowski]

And also on Saturday the “Carbarn Crew” received a box of summer sausage and cheese from member Owen Beeder. We opened some until Linda came up with the idea of using the rest to make a special Mac and cheese for next Saturday.
When I checked my mailbox at the end of the day I found an 8 1/2 X 11 envelope from Pensacola, FL. It contained a W&Q mortgage certificate with payment coupons. There wasn’t any note only a return address that didn’t match anyone in our records. I will explore further to find out who our Secret Santa might be.
Dave

[John Kokas]

Had I known that summer sausage and cheese was so popular I would have sent some from my favorite Wisconsin German Deli, (Usingers).  Became familiar with them right after getting married since the wife's family is all from the Milwaukee area and Usingers is an Icon of the German old town area of Milwaukee.  I'll keep that in mind for next year.

[Keith Taylor]

Many years ago my wife and I lived in the Allentown, PA area when I worked for Conrail. One day my crew stopped for lunch at a butcher / delicatessen near Bangor, Pennsylvania. In the meat counter there was an item that looked suspiciously like kielbasa. I bought a ring of it to take home for dinner. Ginny boiled it up and served it on noodles.
That night both of us had the worst stomach aches and nightmares you could imagine. It was about that time that we found out that “ring bologna” was a heavily spiced garlicky cold cut....and not meant to be served hot!
It was years before either of us could look at the stuff....

Keith

[Dave Buczkowski]

Keith,
That happened to me years ago with blood sausage. Never been near it since.
Dave

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Dave
Blood sausage in French boudin noir made with pork blood. Outhere we eat also white sausage made of chicken meat bread and milk especially at Christmas.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Dec 26 - the last Saturday of 2020.

* Pavilion - finishing the siding.
* Boxcar 56
* Machine shop

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Dec 26:

* Pavilion: the siding got finished, and the bracing too.  Mike's got a few more fiddly bits before he will call it done.
* Boxcar 56: Marcel removed both couplers from the carbody.  The southside timbering was in much better shape than the northside.
* Inventory: I counted inventory upstairs, while Linda finished in the gift shop.
* Brendan was doing various bits and bobs.

I'm pleased to report that the Dodge truck is running again!

[Mike Fox]

I'm pleased to report that the Dodge truck is running again!

That was fixed Tuesday morning. I had read in a discussion group about exactly what the trouble was. One poster was very adamant it was the pick up coil. That was about the only ignition related part that wasn't replaced by Brendan and Jay, so I ordered one. I am not sure the motor turned over one revolution before it was running after I was done.

[Jay Barta]

Thats great. That was the next step after the rotor, cap and ASD replay was the Hall effect sensor aka pickup coil. Was it really roachy?? The rotor was fused to the post and I had to cut it off, and the cap was the worst cap I've seen in anything that was recently running. Really good news!!

[Mike Fox]

It did not look bad but there were what looked like metal shavings on it. Screws came out without much of a fight, and were not rusty, just one is in a very inconvenient spot.

[Pete "Cosmo" Barrington]

I am not sure the motor turned over one revolution before it was running after I was done.

You DO realize you nearly ripped a locomotive sized hole in the space-time continuum with the tense in that sentence... right?