January 2024 Work Reports

[Bill Reidy]

High powered leaf blower? Nice idea. Might not work if it was sloppy wet snow but the Jan\Feb stuff is usually pretty light and fluffy.

Thinking the same thing.  Fluff, yes; heavy wet snow, no.  Particularly if there's a hard freeze after the storm.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Folks, you might reserve judgement until you see this thing in action.  It readily blows ballast rocks away after it’s done with the snow.  I’m the afternoon we used it on some stiffer snow that the sun had worked on and it didn’t care.  We think two people working together- one with a switch broom and the other with the blower will keep the system effective for all but straight up ice.  This winter is the experiment year for this device.

Thanks
Jason

[James Patten]

If it's the one I'm thinking about, it almost blew me over when I used it last year to clear the condensation off the seats of the open cars.

[Bill Reidy]

I have seen the blower in operation, so on second thought, I do think it might likely handle a heavy wet snow.  A heavy wet snow followed by a hard freeze, well, I'm reserving judgement. 

[Carl G. Soderstrom]

Get the Weed Burner out with the blower for ice.

Weed Burner IN the blower tube = jet engine

[Gordon Cook]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1owFQgSPIsY&ab_channel=Tcostello105

[Steve Leet]

leaf blower worked great on powder but when we got to AC run around which had been in the sun, it was not quite as good with stickier snow.
we need switch covers as we will not get an entire winter of powder!

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Jan 13:

* Brush/tall grass/etc trimming along the ROW somewhere.
* Boxcar 56
* Engine house
* Completion of annual gift shop inventory
* Paperwork relating to change of the year
* Board meeting

[Steve Leet]

how about adding "make switch covers" for saturday's work projects. a sheet of 'plywood' and 4 blocks to hold the cone!
pretty easy and very necessary!

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Respectfully, Steve, I plan to try the next couple of storms with the blower.  I believe we have a good chance of minimizing the need for switch covers, which was an unconventional idea when I first proposed it about 5 years ago.  I am perfectly prepared to run the blower for our experiments- I appreciate you tackling it on Monday, Steve, and don't in any way mean to saddle (literally) you or anyone with the ill-effects of my ideas.  We're continually learning and refining- that's my goal anyway.

Thanks,
Jason

[Mike Fox]

The Saturday brush cutting is being cancelled due to the impending storm. This is not expected to be as bad as Wednesdays storm, but will have some wind driven rain with gusts close to 50mph on the coast. It is supposed to be over by mid day, but the traveling in the morning may be an issue. We will try again next weekend.

[Ed Lecuyer]

We will try again next weekend.

Note that steam loco 9 is scheduled to pull the work train on 1/20 and 1/27!

[Towa Matsumura]

Are volunteer days only Saturdays? I would really like to volunteer but I am never free on Saturdays.

[Benjamin Richards]

Tuesday and Wednesday you are nearly guaranteed to find someone doing something. Other days occasionally. Jason has been trying to post the plan for each week so people are informed.

[Ed Lecuyer]

Hi Towa,

As Ben said, we generally have volunteers working on Tuesdays and Wednesdays - usually on specialized projects. Depending on your level of interest, we'd love to have you help out. Just let us know here or via email and we'll take it from there. Other days (Mondays and Thursdays) tend to have fewer volunteers present; Fridays and Sundays are typically pretty quiet. Again, let us know your availability and we can usually work something out.