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Team:
Mike
Doug (staff)
Tucker
Jacob Styron
Nick
Accomplishments:
- Power restored at museum -
thank you to all the hard working electricians and tree cutters who
opened up Hwy 497 and
restored power after
Hurricane Laura!
- Area around McGiffert loader cleaned up of metal, old wood, and
vegetation
- Rotten ties from machine shop track rebuild hauled off to burn pile
- Vegetation cleared on switchback near roundhouse
- 90% of main loop track cleared of limbs and debris
Track Not Yet Cleared - Need
chainsaws or heavier machinery
- Two large trees remain covering the loop track behind the dry kilns.
It is the portion of track closest to the intersection of
Hwy 497 and Long
Leaf Road
- Sandersville branch - large tree down immediately past switch for
roundhouse lead track #2. Not sure of track condition beyond that
It was a fantastic and enjoyable
weekend out at Long Leaf. The breeze was blowing which certainly made a
difference! Please correct me if I missed anything, a volunteer,
misspelled a name, or anything anyone would like to add. Thank you to
all of our volunteers who came out!
Saturday -
September 5
The electricity crews were hard
at work all day Saturday and many bucket trucks were parked on Long Leaf
Road working on the lines. Mike was able to get in before they arrived,
but I had to park on Hwy 497 and walk in. The crews had raised the power
line back up to normal height above Long Leaf Road and were locating /
addressing the remaining lines into the museum. Mike had brought the
tractor around to finish clearing some limbs off the road after the
crews had raised the line back up.
Mike and I set to work cleaning up. We started first at the McGiffert,
picking up the scrap sheet metal and old wood taken off during David and
John's restoration efforts. We picked up parts we found on the ground
and placed them up on the McGiffert to make sure they wouldn't be lost.
The old "bicycle chain" and tow bar we used the tractor and chains to
lift and place inside the machine shop behind 202. We also picked up all
the rotten ties from the machine shop track rebuild. We hauled the metal
to the scrap metal bin and the rotten wood & ties to the burn pile.
While going back and forth from the burn pile, we saw the electricity
crews coming in on a side-by-side ATV to check the power poles within
the museum grounds. Another crew came in and after speaking with Mike,
trimmed some trees and branches near the power lines near the CCC,
Caroline Dorman, and Hardtner buildings. Mike mentioned they had seen
the signs around the trees and wanted to check with us before trimming.
Mike gave the green light for any potential problem limbs and branches
to be cut off as they saw fit and they worked at it for about an hour
with their bucket truck.
After lunch, we filled up the M2 with gas, pulled out the pole saw, and
began clearing limbs from the track on the engine house leads and the
main loop. Using the pole saw, we were able to clear most anything that
had fallen across the track. However, we came across two large trees
over the track on the loop behind the dry kilns. One of the trees was
just over a foot in width. The pole saw was just not large enough to
tackle the job, we had run out of water, and Mike and I were quite tired
in the heat. We called it a day and headed back to the roundhouse. While
heading back to the roundhouse, a tree trimmer truck came down Long Leaf
Road and hollered to us that he "loved to see those machines running"
(our M2 speeder). While passing the Union Pacific main near the
Commissary, a hi rail UP truck came by to fill up the generator at their
signal box with gas. We all honked and waved at each other, seeing two
generations of maintenance of way equipment hard at work!
Sunday - September 6
Early in the morning, Mike had
come to the museum, checked the lower buildings for power, fed Domino,
and began a building-by-building check for active power. Sunday morning
was cooler and overcast than the day before so I finished weed eating
and cleaning up the vegetation around the McGiffert and the nearby
switches. Doug and Mike came back about mid morning, told me the good
news on the power restoration, so we checked and verified power was
indeed back on in the machine shop and roundhouse. After a planning and
goals discussion, Doug and Mike checked the sawmill to make sure all was
in order at the museum for reopening for visitors.
Jacob and Nick (acquaintances from the Louisiana Steam Train Association
in New Orleans) had contacted me the day before and came up Sunday
afternoon to see Long Leaf and help with any clean up. They had never
been out there and finally had the chance to visit with Labor Day
weekend. After showing them around locomotive 106, the machine shop, and
the roundhouse, we fired up the M2 and headed back down past the sawmill
to clear from the other direction than the day before. With the three of
us, we quickly cleared all of the limbs (and there were many!) off the
loop from the sawmill back to the large pine tree we could not tackle
the day before. We brought around the tractor and chains, but despite
pushing, pulling, and trying to throw it off the track, we simply just
could not get the large pine tree off the tracks. The snag is about 30
feet long and almost the whole tree itself. A chain saw or a more
powerful tractor is needed to clear the track at this spot.
After putting away the tractor and grabbing plenty of water to drink, we
mixed a tank of herbicide spray to pull behind M2. We then sprayed the
roundhouse leads, the switchback track (wye east leg) near the
roundhouse, the mainloop that was passable, and about 100 feet of
switchback track past the planer mill switch (wye west leg). Spraying
and riding the loop also allowed Jacob and Nick to see more of Long Leaf
from the best mode around - by rail! We proceeded normally around the
loop (counter clockwise) to the fallen pines, then reversed back to the
roundhouse. Jacob and Nick enjoyed their time and were blown away by how
large the museum is. They envy the machine shop that still operates!
Thank you to Jacob and Nick for your help and visiting Long Leaf.
Next volunteer weekend is Labor Day Weekend, September 26-27, 2020.
**The RR&G motel for
volunteers will likely NOT be available until October, or later.
-Tucker Baker
RR&G Road Master
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