|
Volunteer Railroaders
1. Everett L.
2. Jason R.
3. Joseph S.
4. Mike M.
5. Glen A.
6. Wimbley V.
7. Nick P.
8. Isaac I.
9. Carson S.
10. Clint L. Jr
11. Kira S.
12. Ayden S.
13. Colton O.
14. Leo P.
15. Jacques D.
16. Makayla D.
17. Tucker B.
Accomplishments
1. M4 headliner installed
2. Annual Railroad Rules Clinic & test completed
3. Bar stock and plates welded to complete Engine House Track #3
4. M4 rear skirt straightened
5. Nuisance tree felled and removed near Engine House
6. Brush and vegetation cleared from front of Supply Shed near Engine
House
7. Overhanging limbs cut on Main Loop Track
8. General grounds weed eating, mowing, trash pickup, and herbicide
spraying
Thank you to everyone who made this weekend a great success!
As we go through the summer, the museum needs assistance with grounds
maintenance of mowing, weed eating, and spraying herbicide. Please
contact us if you can assist with these efforts. The museum has the
equipment, all we need is you.
Before the Weekend
We’d like to recognize all the great work that goes on outside of
volunteer weekends. Many folks are hard at work and we’d like to salute
their great efforts. Resources are needed to keep these projects going,
please contact us if you can assist.
Mike Miller has been working with the museum staff on the south-wide
planer mill clerestory windows. A few of the redone windows have been
installed and they look fantastic! Mike is shooting to have 8 windows
redone and installed by the end of August. Glen has helped this project
by cutting glass to size for Mike.
Glen continues the interior improvements on the M4. With help from
Wimbley and Clint, the interior headliner was installed before the
weekend and the interior lights reinstalled. The work is professional
and very visually appealing. Not only does the interior ceiling look
like a quality passenger car, but the material helps reduce the metallic
sound of the car. A job well done!
Friday
After the executive committee meeting, a few folks went to various
tasks. Glen and Wimbley were giving rides in the Model T to continue to
test its operation. And the rides were very well enjoyed by all! Mike
continued work on the planer mill windows. Everett took a dive in the
Archives for some more historical insights.
Up at the Engine House, the day of reckoning arrived for a nuisance pine
tree. Several years ago, its top blew off in a mini tornado and damaged
the nearby Supply Shed. The shed is actually one of three early 20th
century railroad Supply Sheds at the museum listed as a contributing
structure on our National Register of Historic Places document. With the
museum saw sharpened earlier in the week by museum staffer Gerald,
Tucker set out to fell the tree. After several hours in the afternoon
heat of cutting out a felling notch and another cut on the backside, the
tree would not seem to give. The day of reckoning will circle around
tomorrow….
Saturday
Saturday’s morning objective was the Annual Railroad Rules Clinic. Held
in the World War II Room in the Commissary, some time in the AC was a
welcome respite for the volunteers. Everett led a revision and expansion
of the Timetable and Rulebook with the Railroad Committee and Timetable
and Rulebook No. 5 was the topic of the morning. Good discussion and
instruction were held. The clinic and testing went well, and we thank
everyone for participating. Leo brought and shared some safety videos
from a Class I railroad and we thank him for his great contribution.
We are always needing more certified railroad operators at the museum.
If you would like to train, test, and certify as an operator, please
contact us today so we can arrange for future rules & training sessions.
We are always glad to train more operators. You do not have to be at the
Annual Rules Clinic to certify, we just do a big one since it's
efficient.
After the rules clinic and test, all headed up to the Engine House and
split into a few groups. Mike Miller donated a box of welding rods and
using the machine shop welding machine, Joseph did the majority of
welding on the bar stock. Jason and Everett assisted with moving
materials and “gophering” for tools. After lunch, Jason took a turn on
the welding machine, honing his welding and torch skills, to finish the
last section. With this, the third track in the Engine House is now
complete. The bar stock portion is now under the A-frame chain hoist.
This completes Phase I of our Master Track Relocation and Construction
Plan for Equipment Preservation. Eight more phases to go.
While the bar stock welding was ongoing, Glen was inside the M4 taking
measurements for interior paneling, the next step in the M4 improvement
plan.
Outside the Engine House, the day of reckoning resumed for the
aforementioned pine tree. With Jason and Jacques hammering in wedges and
holding lining bars, Tucker made the final cut and “TIMBER!” rang out as
the tree was felled, exactly where Tucker had notched it and planned for
it to fall. Vine and brush cutting commenced as Tucker sawed off the
various limbs.
After lunch, the work here continued. The tree was cut in half and with
Joseph operating the all terrain forklift, the sections were placed on
the log intake table at the sawmill. With Glen on the tractor and Joseph
on the forklift, the whole area was given a good cleanup. Various metal
was moved out, the Insley boom section moved down to the Insley, the
door to the old Ford pickup was reunited, and the whole area was much
improved. The forklift was also used to move out an injured lawnmower
from the Engine House. Joseph brought the lawnmower down to near the
lawnmower shed for repair. Wimbley, Clint, Nick, Ayden, Isaac, Colton,
Jason, Joseph, Jacques, Carson, Glen, Leo, Kira, Makayla, and Tucker all
did great work clearing away years of vegetation at the Supply Shed. The
Supply Shed was clearly visible for the first time in years. A
preliminary inspection of the shed was done to check its condition, an
enjoyable exploration time you could say. The plan is to continue
felling more nuisance trees that are tall enough to strike any building
or historic equipment.
In the late afternoon came a rainstorm, a most welcome respite from the
heat. In the machine shop, Jacques and Makayla were making links and
pins for the new maintenance of way cars now in service. Cool winds blew
as many of the volunteers moved to straighten and repair the rear skirt
on M4. The skirt had been backed into many stationary objects over the
years. Once removed, straightening was the order of the day. Hammers
were swung, boots were stomped, bench vices were used, and what a
repairing racket it was in the Engine House. Glen used one of the
coupler pockets as an anvil to get the final straightening done. The
skirt was reinstalled and after cleaning up, the volunteers wrapped up a
full day.
Sunday
A smaller crew handled the final clean up and tasks on Sunday morning.
Kira collected a large garbage bag’s worth of trash from underneath the
planer mill, getting it all to proper disposal. Ayden and Everett
installed the last of the screws on the rear skirt for M4. After that,
they secured the doors on the recently-visible Supply Shed, preventing
the wind from blowing the doors about. Everett, Ayden, and Kira then
cleaned out the water coolers from the weekend and took them back to the
lodge for storage.
Jason went out with the museum pole saw and M2 to cut overhanging limbs
on the Main Loop. With great windows on the M4, we need to keep the
limbs away. Ayden went to help Jason bring the consist back to the
Engine House. The sawdust and leaves on the herbicide car backed up
Jason’s limb-clearing report that he “got 'em good.”
Tucker ran the weedeater around the commissary, post office, along part
of the entrance road, around the Engine House, around McGiffert 1229,
and around several switches. After weed eating, he sprayed herbicide
around the switches, the McGiffert, behind the machine shop, and around
the parts warehouse. He also used the tractor to push out the vines and
brush from Saturday to a burn pile and emptied the Engine House garbage
cans.
After cleaning up at the lodge, a very successful weekend was concluded,
and the volunteers made the road home.
Our next session is August 18-20. The 3rd Annual Fall Festival & Steam
Up on October 21-22 is fast approaching. Please consider joining us
soon.
-Tucker "Who Dat" Baker
RR&G Road Master
|
