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Team:
Michael
Miller, Tucker Baker, Gerald Winegeart
On Friday I was at the museum and
first inspected switches #9 and #10 (in regards to a minor derailment
earlier in the week), the switches to the engine house tracks. Gerald
was mowing nearby and wanted to see how the switches were as well. He
watched as I went over both switches multiple times with M2 (A4 motor
car) and both switches appeared in good order and the car ran smoothly
over both. I did rake out and remove a great deal of leaves and pine
straw from both switch points before hand (photo attached). While ties
are needed in the area, both switch points are in good order, in good
condition, gauged decently, and operate smoothly when closed and locked
properly. Switch #10, to the second engine house track where the M4
railbus normally resides over the pit, does have a switch stand that
moves when the switch is thrown, but closes and locks securely when the
bar is properly int he down position. The whole area of track is
formally on my radar for improved maintenance.
While I had the M2 out of the engine house, I gave her a good sweep out
and cleaned all windows (photos attached). You have problem, fix it with
Windex! The wasps were not pleased to loose their home, but I certainly
removed them promptly...
Speaking of varmints, I did take a gander at Mike and team's great work
on 106 and found a benign king snake sitting next to the log car coupler
to the tender. I will admit, his rodent work is needed but shoot dang it
gave me quite a jump!
I didn't have nor could find a key to the M4 railbus to run her over the
switches as test and to clean her out outside of the engine house. I'll
try to get that down next weekend when I'm back at Longleaf.
I did a quick inventory of rail material available on hand and discussed
with Mike. We agreed that the existing rail in the machine shop track
can be reused and will be sufficient with good material underneath solid
and fresh ties. We have enough ties on hand and new nuts, bolts, and
washers for this track relay work. Friday afternoon, using Rust Buster
spray and track wrenches, took apart half of the nuts and bolts on the
track joint bars.
Saturday, Mike used a smokeless wrench (cutting torch) to remove the
remaining nuts/bolts on the track bolts I could not budge. Using the
tractor and chains, we removed and placed inside the machine shop 4
rails (2 panels in length) and their joint bars. We then used the
tractor to remove the loose sand material. Mike is working on sourcing a
small amount of pit run gravel to use as base fill material underneath
this track we'll rebuilt. We have about 2/3 of the old fill material
removed via tractor. We placed the taken out dirt behind the engine
house near the camping area, but out of the way and right behind the
damaged storage shed. It can be used for other projects as needed. The
machine shop rail is light, about 45 pound rail or 50 at the most. We
figured 2-3 inches fill material height, 8-9 inches for tie height, and
4 inches for the rail, so we dug down 16 inches. We will taper off to
either end , so primary area to bring in new fill material will be where
202 will rest once returned back to place.
Saturday afternoon, tractor had 1/4 tank diesel and finishing mowing
blade was still on, so we could get the tractor in to remove the
remaining dirt we wanted to take out. I will be returning next weekend,
so Mike and I will finish the remaining dirt work. It should take less
than a full day to get the site dirt work prepped to how we'd like it.
Other notes:
Only 3 ties were underneath two panels of track we removed. Where 202
used to sit, these three ties more than likely prevented a 202
catastrophic rollover.
Upon removing dirt, we noticed that apparently the machine shop track we
see had been re-laid over an existing grade, as multiple old ties about
4-6 inches underneath the dirt were found and no where near close to
being gauge-holding ties. Many are cracked and can't be reused, but
solid enough and Mike and I decided they would make excellent erosion
controls placed adjacent to the wall pillars to keep machine shop dirt
floor in. Will be incorporated into the track relay work.
The water drainage in the shop is under control, but a small amount
still comes under the coal pile. To funnel out this trickle, Mike had a
great idea to insert a small pipe between track ties on the new track to
do directly out the shop. Upon inspecting the plastic nursery pipes in
the engine house tender, these are irrigation pipes filled with small
holes to let out water. Not good enough. Mike is searching for a good
pipe or basin to use. It would be another good drainage improvement to
the track relay.
-Tucker Baker
RR&G Road Master
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