November 2023 Work Reports

[Fred Morse]

Next Sat.,the Fourth of Nov. we'll be making our yearly trip to the Sandy river railroad at Phillips Me,. We'll be doing some track work and seeing the sites. Swing by the old station and repair shop in town and just have a fun time, maybe a short train ride. We leave Sheepscot station at Seven A.M. as it takes Two hours to get there. Hope to see you there.

[Brian Whitney]

Hopefully the 3"-5" of snow predicted for there will be gone by Saturday! Saturday is looking like it will be in the 50's. I'm looking forward to being there.
Brian W.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Nov 4:

* Road trip - to SR&RL Museum, in Phillips.
* Engine house - door construction

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Work done at Sheepscot on November 4th -

* Vacuum Brakes - A planning/discussion meeting was held in the Percival House.
* Archives - Linda worked on some recent acquisitions including photos taken in Whitefield during the W&Q era.
* Engine 9 - Bob L with help from Pete, Jason and Cody winterized some of the parts in the cab.
* Boxcar 56 - Marcel worked on the rolling door hardware.
* Engine House - The final pieces of trim were installed around the north stall doors.  All the new wood was painted in the afternoon.
* Campus - Pete & Cody rounded up and inventoried the water can fire extinguishers.

[Pete Stevens]

Cody and I also gathered up all the water fire extinguishers and put them in the Percival basement. There’s still one hiding somewhere. If you spot it, please let me know.

[Ed Lecuyer]

Also at Sheepscot:
* Grant Writing - Nicole. Ed, and Linda met briefly to discuss some fundraising projects.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Anticipated Work
Week of November 5, 2023

Monday:
Build11, V Brake, Loco 9 Repair, Office Work
Enginehouse doors (if Brendan is on site)
Enginehouse exterior work possible

Tuesday:
J&S Truck/ Coach 3 Truck work
Coach 9 work
Enginehouse work possible
Loco 11 machine shop work
Flatcar Canopy work likely

Wednesday:
Coach 9 work
Enginehouse work possible
Loco 11 machine shop work

At least one day this week will be a loco 9 maintenance day.  Help would be appreciated- let me know if you’re available and interested.

There’s some relatively minor track lifts to perform around Sheepscot Yard.  If interested and available please let me know.

Thanks
Jason

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Nov 11:

* Coal - A new homeowner in North Yarmouth is donating their basement of hard coal.  This is bagged!  We'll be taking the F-350.
* Engine house
* Boxcar 56
* Grounds work
* Board meeting at 4

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Nov 11:

* Coal haul: Dave, Bill R, Ed and myself drove to North Yarmouth to accept a donation of nearly 2 tons of bagged anthracite coal.  They had a crew of 5 there waiting for us!  We assembly lined it.  It was the easiest coal loading operation I've ever been a part of ("old-timers" will recall getting coal out of the basement of a house in Raymond 15-20 years ago - this was so much easier).
* Loco 10: A large crew was working on 10's spacer plate mating the new smokebox to the cylinder casting.
* Boxcar 56: Marcel was working, didn't see what he was up to.
* Engine house: Brendan finished a south door and put it up in bay 1.
* Tours: several tours were given.
* Board meeting.  We welcomed a new board member, Eric Schade.

[Mike Fox]

Some prep work was done at AC for Christmas, as well as some equipment repair. Brian checked coolant in several pieces of railroad equipment.

[Bill Reidy]

A few random photos yesterday.

Reviewing the new canopy frame above the benches on B&SR flatcar No. 34 in the early morning.






The new flatcar benches built by Wayne Boyce and Bob Lamoureaux look sharp and provide a nice ride.

As James noted, four of us took a trip down to North Yarmouth in the morning to pick up 3,800 pounds of stove nut coal, donated by a family who had recently moved into their home.  Thanks to their generosity, we picked up 95 40-pound bags,  which will help warm our shops for quite a while.  Our loaded F-350:


Other Saturday updates:
-- Working on Locomotive No. 10.
-- B&SR boxcar No. 56.
-- J&S trucks and vacuum brakes work.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Anticipated Work
Week of November 13, 2023

Monday- Wednesday:
Build11, including frame crosstie and rear truck work

Tuesday- Wednesday:
Coach 9

Tuesday:
Loco 52 prepare for winter work
Flatcar canopy work possible

Tuesday- Thursday:
Loco 9 repairs and mods.

Monday- Thursday:
Enginehouse work likely

Once again I’d appreciate help with loco 9- please let me know.  I’m sure the other crews would also appreciate help.  Thanks for help last week to Steve P for helping with loco 9, Dan for helping with a tamping job in the north yard, and Brian W for checking antifreeze values in various pieces of rr equipment.  Wes, Gordon and Roger all helped with loco 9 mods as well. 

Thanks
Jason

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Nov 18:
* Boxcar 56
* Engine house (although Brendan is out of state)
* Archives/Museum building charrette @9:00am.

Work for SUNDAY Nov 18:
* Decoration day - help decorate the Museum before Christmas trains start up next month.  Steve P is in charge.

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Nov 18:

* We found out about Fred's passing first thing, which put a big damper on the day.  A bunch of us sat around the table and reminisced.
* Jason was working on machining a piece for #9.
* Linda was working on archives.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Upon hearing of Fred's passing, the FB team spent the better part of Saturday putting a special tribute together.  This morning the post went up with photos and stories from the last 25 years showing Fred in many roles at the railroad.  We wanted to do something to recognize his contributions and friendship over the last 28 years.