So. African Hoppers 2806 and 2807 - Official Work Thread

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

But in this case it would be a coast to coast railroad that would cost a lot,

[Ed Lecuyer]

On June 3rd, the hoppers departed Colombo, Sri Lanka aboard the vessel “WAN HAI A07”. It will take approximately one month for the vessel to travel to New York via the “long way” around the southern tip of Africa.

Meanwhile, our friends and followers from around the world have raised $18,125 to help defray the $66,000 necessary to purchase and ship these unique cars to the WW&F. THANK YOU!

Please help, even a few bucks will be greatly appreciated. Make your tax-deductible donation at: www.wwfry.org/africa or mail to PO Box 242, Alna, ME, 04535.

[Ed Lecuyer]

So. African Hopper Update!
Our new-to-us ballast cars are due to arrive at the port of New York TOMORROW! Then they'll be offloaded and shipped to Edaville RR to be unloaded from their containers. If all goes well, we could see one or both of the hoppers on WW&F rails by the end of July!

Meanwhile, we've only raised 28% of the $66,000 necessary to purchase and ship these ballast wagons. If we had a dollar for every time someone asked us about extending the WW&F, these would be paid for! Please chip in what you can so that we can keep the dream of rebuilding the railway active for many, many more years.

Learn more and contribute at www.wwfry.org/africa

[James Patten]

FYI, the ship is in port, and the containers carrying the hoppers have either landed or will be landing soon.  Thanks to some container sleight-of-hand to avoid extra charges they won't make their way to Edaville for unloading until next week.

[Brendan Barry]

Unloading containers at Edaville this morning. We had two trucks today and the third truck will come tomorrow morning.

Extra trucks loaded at the back of the container.



Flatcars were laoded upside down on the hoppers. The flatcars are for Edaville.







One of the WW&F's ballast hoppers with the trucks for the flatcar and hopper loaded inside.





Hopper being unloaded and placed on it's trucks.



















Second truck being unloaded. The ballast hopper in this truck is Edaville's.

[James Patten]

Those trucks are in need of a good power wash.

[Ed Lecuyer]

[Moderators Note]
Brendan's photo post was delayed by one day so to correspond with todays official announcement across all our social media platforms.

[Jeff Schumaker]

Will the flatcars stay at Edaville?

Jeff

[Brendan Barry]

Will the flatcars stay at Edaville?

Jeff

Yes the flatcars are Edaville’s. The flatcars look to have been drop side gondola’s that were turned into flats to carry 20ft shipping containers. The container locks were cut off the side of the cars to fit in the shipping containers.

[Ted Miles]

This may be a dumb question; but why were the WW&F ballast cars unloaded at Edaville?

Should not they have remained in the highway trucks and be delivered all the way to Alna? 

The equipment sure looks impressive! It will do good things on the WW&F Railway. 

Ted Miles WW&F Life Member Build 11 contributor

[Graham Buxton]

Ted, by doing the reuniting of  the hoppers with their trucks at Edaville, no crane will be needed at Sheepscot as the hoppers will arrive on a "roll-off" trailer.  I understand that ML&M (based in Alna) is coordinating bringing the hoppers to Sheepscot.

Also, the containers can be released & returned  sooner, likely saving some money.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

There is also a time limit on how long the containers can be away from port for final delivery.  Delivering to Alna would have added significant time (and cost) to the container turnaround. 

At present we plan to retrieve the WW&F hoppers from So Carver using our own equipment, minimizing cost of that final leg.

Thanks
Jason

[Dante Lakin]

What does the schedule look like for their pickup from Edaville, if there is one at present?

[John Kokas]

Based on the pictures it looks like a good powerwash and even some sandblasting is needed before any type of painting and repairs are accomplished.  If there is room, some of that work would be a good winter project.

[James Patten]

The last hopper landed at Edaville after 3 blown tires on the way north