Car shop extension

[Matthew Martin]

Looks great! It will be good to have more room. Are there any plans to expand the machine shop?

I like the glowing word features!

[Fred L. Kuhns]

Mike,  Thanks for the up date on the roof work on the Car Shop.  Looking forward to James latest pictures of the progress.  Thanks again,  Fred L. Kuhns

[James Patten]

The machine shop structure will not be expanded (we wanted to restore the lines of the car shop from before the machine shop was added), however we poured a concrete floor and a few machine tools will end up in that area (namely a very large lathe that we acquired last year).

There has been talk to also expand the car shop north about 15 feet or so, but with the purchase of the Percival house and its property next door and subsequent plans of a car barn in that area, there's probably no need.

[Matthew Gustafson]

Hows the work going on the car shop. I heard that you guys are building a turntable?

[Ed Lecuyer]

The land for the car shop (and roundhouse/turntable) is being cleared. We have also laid out where the tracks will go. We hope to do some preliminary grading soon.... but so that we can construct a leeching field for a large public restroom facility.

In case you haven't visited us yet, we have no proper public bathrooms - only a porta-potty we refer to as "the greenhouse." We also have very limited parking. These are problems for many of our guests, which include young families. In fact, we can not be listed in some attractions publications (like AAA) until we construct proper restrooms.

So, the long range planning committee came up with the brilliant idea of first constructing the access road for the leech field, then eventually using it for the car shop (after the bathrooms are constructed and the parking lot created.) We're probably 5-10 years away from the completion of the whole site plan. Of course, that could change if we got presented with a bucket of money.

[Fred L. Kuhns]

  Zack,  Hope you and all the car shop builders have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.   Fred L. Kuhns

[Matthew Gustafson]

Where will the new turntable go at the WW&F yards?

[Ed Lecuyer]

There was a map published in one of our newsletters. Are you signed up as a member? For only $30 a year, you get the bi-monthly newsletter (which is the official source of information about the WW&F museum, as opposed to this forum.)

But, to answer your question, the centerpoint of the turntable will be in the existing parking lot, to the west of the shop building. Of course, we have to move the parking lot first. Before we build a parking lot, we need to construct the restrooms, etc.

[Matthew Gustafson]

Will the turntable be hand power or machine power? 

[Ed Lecuyer]

Armstrong (hand power) ... just like the original railway.

[Stephen Hussar]

nm

[Matthew Gustafson]

Ive seen clips of men moving the engines on the handpower turntable at the EBT and is it really hard to operate the turntable by hand with a heavy steam engine on it? Hope the engines at the WW&F are lighter in weight then the EBT engines!

[Mike the Choochoo Nix]

Matt,
 With good roller bearings the turntable should turn real easy.  I'm sure the gang will do a great job on it.
Boy the shop extension looks a lot bigger once it's roof is on. And the rest of you SMILE in the photos so we can wonder what you're up to.
Mike Nix