Work Session

March 7, 2020

To join the fun, contact the railroad at: WorkSession @ RedRiverAndGulf.net (no spaces)

Team:
Everett Lueck, Michael Miller, Tucker Baker, David Hearne (father), & David Hearne (son).
 

We applied the stencils of lettering to the motorcars for both "RR&G M1" and "RR&G M2." They look sharp now!

Kind thank you to David and David for the great work on the M4! It runs like a champ now!

While spraying the loop with herbicide this afternoon, I noticed four very large piles of broken up concrete and concrete building piers between the planer mill and the engine house right next to the loop track. If you are riding on the loop on a motor car or railbus, they are located approximately halfway between the road crossing near the engine house and the planer mill switch on the north side of the tracks. They are easily accessible for loading on to a rail car trailer or for the tractor bucket. One pile is almost exclusively broken up concrete while two other piles are intact building piers approximately 1 ft x 1ft and 1.5ft x 1.5ft. The 4th pile is a mix. They could be used to break up with a sledge hammer for rip-rap, used for structure and building stabilization, placed in areas to provide retaining walls, placed in areas to denote parking / non-parking, or used in railroad trestle building. They have a variety of uses. So we have ample material to use for this washout and in other places around the museum. My only regret is that I didn't take a photo when I stopped to look at them!

The photos below include the stop sign placed in the tracks at the washout on the Sandersville line. The culvert underneath the track should be inspected as part of our plan to tackle the subsidence. Broken up concrete placed in the gap can indeed give us a temporary fix for several months.

-Tucker Baker
  RR&G Road Master
 

New stencils for M2

Looks really sharp!

New stencil for M1

Everett repairs a switch

David works on the M4

David Hearne, and David Hearne (the younger), completed installation of a new radiator fan assembly, installed a new fuel pump and stabilized the radiator and installed a tunnel (from the grill to the radiator, in our attempts to help the machine cool better.  

We let the M4 idle for about  30 minutes in the engine house and the needle barely registered on the temp gauge.  We then took off in the direction of Sandersville, and the temp got up to about 140 going forward.  Backing down from our stopping point, the temps got up to about 170, but quickly cooled down in the engine house with the engine off and the fan on.

The fan switch is the long handled switch on the dash board in the bottom middle, and must be turned on when the engine is running, but can be left on when the engine is off to cool things down if desired.   

We also tested all of the exterior lights, and found that they do not work at present.

Tucker and I spent the day replacing a very dangerous switch point on the switch from the Sandersville main track to the Switchback track going down the hill by the 400.  It is now safe.  We still need to install some ties in that area for safer operations.

-Everett Lueck

Saturday afternoon, after David and David repaired the M4, we took it for a test spin on the Sandersville line. Everything was fine until we got through the big cut and out on the big fill. Then we ran into the washout pictured below.

We don't know how bad the culvert is below the fill, but the fill is very broad at the base, and will require a LONG culvert if we have to replace it.

For a temporary fix, we will need to rip-rap the washed out area, and then fill back in the sunken area on top of the fill to bring it back up to grade, and replace 4 ties. We can probably drive some steel fence posts, and go behind them with ties, and then fill with rock and dirt. The only thing is that everything will have to be brought in there by rail, as there is no road access.

We have not yet worked up a plan to tackle this problem, but all input is good input at this point.

-Everett Lueck