Type 5 Almost Ready!

My apologies to my readers, as I have not posted in quite some time.  Unfortunately, work has taken a considerable amount of my free time and posting here was lost in the shuffle.  There has been a considerable amount of work accomplished in my absence.

Boston Elevated Railway Type-5 5645 - Galen Semprebon, along with Scott Kritzky and John Pelletier have been working tirelessly on the car in order to get it ready for Rails to the Darkside.  The motors are back in its trucks and they have been tested and all appear to be working correctly.  Once the motors were tested, the trucks were pushed back under the car and wired up.  Inside the car, Kelly has been working on pieces for the heating loop system.  We were able to find the proper door motor seals and John has been able to repair the door motors.

Brooklyn Rapid Transit car 169 - Scott Kritzky has taken on the project of the cosmetic restoration of car 169.  In the past week, he has made some great headway removing the paint from the exterior clerestory of the car.  When the car has been completed, we will be able to move the car out of the shop and put it on display in the Visitor Center.

Boston Elevated Railway PCC 3100 - Chris Perry has been working on car 3100 just outside the shop.  Over the years, many of the window posts have deteriorated around the bases.  One by one, he has been removing the old window posts and welding in newly fabricated ones.  A new front step well has been fabricated as well, but has yet to be installed.  In the rear of the car, a new left rear fender support has been fabricated and welded in place as the original support was in pieces.  Although Chris only is able to work on the car one week a year, each year he makes considerable progress on the car.  In a few years, we should have a display-worthy car.

Illinois Terminal PCC 451 - Kevin Mitchell and the Boy Scouts have just about completed the repainting of car 451.  There is some minor detail work to finish but overall the car looks much better than it did when the project commenced.

Visitor Center Train Shed - Thanks to Louis, the walkway along the edge of the building in the Train Shed area is progressing nicely.  The framing has been installed and the walkway planks are being cut to fit.  This will be an excellent alternative display area for the 2013 season.

Progress

It is amazing to see the progress that has been continuing at a fantastic rate.  Work has been accomplished in a number of places by a range of volunteers.

In Kelly Barn, Illinois Terminal car 451 received its first coat of paint.  This project has been a long time coming.  On Saturday, the primer coat was finished.  First thing Sunday morning, those helping Kevin Mitchell on his Eagle Scout Project began to apply the green base coat.  By the end of the day, I was told that the whole car should have the green finished.

Up on the hill, almost half of the roof was replaced on The New York New Haven & Hartford coach (also known as the "Dining Car") by John Pelletier.  This has allowed us to remove some of the tarps from the car, thus making it look much more aesthetically pleasing.  Once the roof on the car is completed, we should be able to re-purpose those tarps to replace the failed tarps on Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee car 162.


Under the Train Shed, The Bangor & Aroostook Caboose wood is getting primed.  Most of the wood has already been completed thanks to the hard work of a group of volunteers in the evening.  In addition, a couple of our "Community Service volunteers" have been working on priming the wood as well.  It shouldn't be long before we can start to pull the wood off of the roof.

Inside the Lusa Car Shop, one truck set has been fully tested for the Boston Elevated Railway car 5645.  We have had our resident machinists hard at work manufacturing some of the missing parts for the car (clips, covers, etc).  Next weekend that truck should be pushed under the car and the car lowered back down on it.  Then we can slide the car down the track and do the same with the other end.

For the past couple of weeks, Fair Haven & Westville Railroad car 355 has been sitting over the Maintenance Pit.  Work was completed over the weekend on the brake rigging of car 355.  Bits of the underside of the car had to be "re-engineered" because of a problem where the brake rigging was chafing one of the motor leads.

The Things You Can Learn To Do!

Saturday was a very busy day at the museum.  The shop has become an increasingly busy place, with the addition of a new volunteer, Kelly.  While up in the shop, she was able to learn quite a few new tasks with the help of our shop staff from welding to drilling holes in the motor support bearing covers.  Scott Kritzky brought her into the pit under Fair Haven & Westville car 355 where they were working on the brake rigging on the car.  He was also busy with his project in Boston Elevated Railway car 5645 of removing the seats to replace the flooring under them.

In the machine shop, Brandon Slane spent the better part of the morning machining a new bracket for a gear case cover on 5645.  It is amazing the precision that can be seen in machining new parts.  I, for one, can see what I need and will know what it should look like in the end, but would have no idea how to begin to decide what cuts need to be made to get there with a part so intricate.  I say intricate because I have no idea what to do, but it really isn't much.  That is why machinists are necessary at the museum.

I spent some of the morning packing the motor support bearings with waste for 5645.  When you look at the packing, it looks like you just shove some balls of "thread" into the oil wells for the bearings.  That is not he case at all.  There is a very specific way of doing this so that it will wick the oil properly.  The strands of waste must be dropped down into the well so that the go from the bottom of the well to the top.  They must be in coils in there so that there are no ends that can be "grabbed" by the rotation of the axle.

This is just a sample of what types of work that we do in the shop.  Each weekend it varies.  Stop down some weekend and help out.  You will be sure to learn a lot!

Rainy Day

The downside of this weekend was that it was a complete washout.  The upside, a lot of work was accomplished in the shop.

First, Vacuum Impregnation.  We knew it worked, but did not know how well it actually worked.  We were splicing ends of wires on the Field Coils for the Boston Elevated 5645 and had to cut a sizable length of wire off.  When we cut about 4 inches of wire, we noticed that the varnish had worked its way up the wire between each individual strand.  Now we know why it took a half gallon of varnish for one set of Field Coils.

Second, Floor Replacement.  Also in the Type 5, Scott has been hard at work replacing the floor in the car.  One side is completely finished.  The seats have been put back in place but not completely bolted down.  He has begun to remove the seats from the other side of the car.

Third, Milling.  While this was for the Fire Museum, it was still work that was accomplished this weekend.  Pat McCann had a piece of metal stock in the lathe and was working on milling a new piece for one of the fire trucks.  What the piece was, I am not sure.  The only thing that I am certain of is that it was broken.  It is amazing what we now have in the shop for abilities.

Fourth, Engine Repair.  Now we have migrated over to the Bus Museum.  One of the Buses had developed a leak which we thought was due to a blown head gasket.  While John Gasper was tearing down the engine, he found out that the cause was only a missing bolt, which happened to be laying in the engine compartment waiting to be installed.  Luckily he did not pull the heads yet and was able to replace the bolt, put the engine back together and get he bus running.

It was quite a busy day at the museum for the shop staff.  In addition, many small things were accomplished.  Two seats for New Orleans car 836 were repaired in the shop by John Pelletier.  George Contrada assisted me in removing the rest of the metal straps from the side of Brooklyn Rapid Transit car 169.  I was able to get a coat of primer on more wood for the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose.  Xian Clere installed new seats in the rear of the newly acquired 1975 American-LaFrance from Ellington.

I wouldn't be telling the whole story if I did not talk about the work that occurred during the week as well.  Work on the Dining Car...No, I cannot call it the dining car.  I hate that term for it since it never was a dining car in service, even though everyone knows it as such.  Work on New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad combine 2765 is progressing.  The new sill has been installed on the east side of the car which will stop the rain from entering the car from under the windows.  The car still needs to have the sill on the west side replaced and the roof repaired.  At that point it should once again be watertight.  Then, we will need to replace some of the siding on the car to make it look aesthetically pleasing.

I will close while telling you about something new.  Starting this week, I plan to start hosting Thursday evening work sessions.  The work session will begin around 5pm and we will work until we decide to call it quits.  Quite a few railroad museums do this, because we cannot get enough done on the weekend.  Our primary project will be working on the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose.  However, if we get enough people, there is plenty else to work on.  Any questions, or if you wish to help out, please let me know...tlesniak@ceraweb.org.

Many Projects

It was amazing to see the many projects that were occurring on Saturday.

In the Track Department, Larry Lunden assisted me in preparing ties for installation on the mainline.  Our ties are relay ties that still have the old plates and spikes on them.

After we were finished, I went to the Fire Museum building to collect the battery that I had on a trickle-charge for the Tie Handler.  The once-dead battery once again held a charge so I brought it over to the Tie Handler TH-2, and installed it.  I also drained the fuel from the fuel tank and cleaned the rust and other debris out of it.  Then, I filled it back up with new fuel.  The machine started right up and ran great for a while.  With Xian Clere, I took the machine out on the mainline and loaded ties on the Tie Handler's flat car.  Unfortunately, there must still be something in the tank because after around a half hour of running, the machine started to sputter and I had difficulty keeping it running.  Once I got in the clear in the siding, we got it running well again.  However, I did not want to chance it starving for fuel again on the mainline in front of passenger service again, so we left it in the siding and planned to continue working after operations ended.  However, we never had the chance to do so because of so many other things going on.

Xian Clere, Aaron Mangan, and John Gasper worked on the Tie Inserter.  They re-installed the newly repaired fuel tank.  In addition, they installed a new fuel bowl and inline fuel filter on the machine.  Unfortunately, they could not get it started.  An hour or so later after everyone else had given up, I heard the familiar putt-putt of the motor after John finally got the machine started.

In the shop, John Pelletier and Scott (Unfortunately I do not know his last name) were hard at work on various projects with Rio de Janiero car 1850.  The car is in the shop for routine maintenance.  With the help of Pat McCann, a workbench was brought into the shop and brought into the woodworking area.

In the back corner of the shop, Galen Semprebon was working on the newly impregnated field coils for the Boston Elevated Type-5 5645.  He was peeling back some of the taping around the fields and replacing it.  In doing so, it appears that the vacuum impregnation of the field coils was successful.  We now have the ability to vacuum impregnate in our shop!

In front of the shop, Camilo Santiago completed the work on one end of sanding the Reading Caboose, and began to work on the other end of the interior.  The exterior of the caboose was completed by an Eagle Scout a few years ago.

Inside Kelly Barn, our current Eagle Scout project is underway.  Kevin Mitchell and his crew did some more preparatory work to get ready for the painting of the Illinois Terminal PCC Car 451.

The doors of the barn got some attention too.  One of our community service volunteers spent the day painting the interior of the doors to the barn.  Hopefully in a few weekends, he will have this project completed.

In the section house, George Contrada, Dillon Worth, and another volunteer were working on the speeder.  They flushed the radiator and did preventative maintenance.

The one project that I had hoped to work on, I ran out of time.  I had hoped to work on the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose beginning to prime the new tongue and groove side panels.

In the Fire Museum, members were hard at work on preparing a Motor Coach for a head gasket replacement.

Finally, the big event for the day was the filming inside and outside of our Chicago North Shore cars, 162 and 710 respectively.  A student from New York University brought an entire film crew to the museum from the city to do filming for a senior film project.

Caboose Work

Work has been progressing quite nicely all around the museum.  Camilo Santiago is back and is working on the Reading Caboose in front of the shop.  It will be great once the interior of that caboose is completed.  Just inside the shop, John Pelletier is leading the shop in getting the Boston Elevated Railway Type 5, 5645 put back together.  We now have the ability to vacuum impregnate our own field coils in the shop.  The floor in the type 5 is also coming along quite well.

Coming up this Saturday, we will be having a Track Work Session commencing at 0800 to work in the vicinity just east of Woods Turnout.

Floor Replacement

Work on the floor of the operator's vestibule of Springfield Terminal Railway car 16 has commenced. The floor between the controller and the step has been removed and replaced with new wood. Over the years, the floor has worn paper-thin from the foot traffic through the car. The new tongue-and-groove flooring has been installed and will be painted once the warmer weather in the spring allows. This winter, we hope to assemble a complete set of heaters for the car and wire and install golden glow headlights on the car.

On the other track in the shop, Boston Elevated Railway car 5645 has been jacked and the motors removed. One armature was sent out to an electrical repair shop and repaired. Now that it was returned, a second will be sent out. Meanwhile, inside the car, the floor is being replaced where it has buckled.

Back in the Visitor Center, work is progressing quite quickly in disassembling Winterfest. The G Gauge table is almost completely disassembled. Soon, we will be able to move cars back into the Visitor Center.

A Year in Review

This year has been quite a busy year with many accomplishments, least important for this blog is my own accomplishments in my personal life. Those are what have been keeping me from having time to post on here. As a new year approaches, I plan to be posting much more often and will try to post at minimum once a week. If I am not posting that often, feel free to let me know; remind me to post.

January: Work began on Springfield Street Railway car 575 (Montreal Tramways car 2056). Paint was scraped from the sides of the car in hopes to repaint it in Springfield, MA colors. Work was also accomplished on Connecticut Company car 65.

February: The northeast was hammered with snow which really slowed down work at the museum. It was difficult to even access the property.

March: The Main Hall was set up for opening day. The fourth motor was repaired and reinstalled in Montreal Tramways car 2600.

April: The front lawn was cleaned up of miscellaneous materials. Track 1 under the Visitor Center Train Shed was built and ties were replaced in Kelly Yard.

May: The museum received approximately 700 relay ties to be used in the Train Shed and on the main line. Work began on the floor and roof of the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose.

June: Work progressed on the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose. Work also began on the interior of the Reading Caboose. Work began on New Orleans car 836 to turn down the wheel set with a thin flange.

July: Work continued on the Reading Caboose and car 836. In addition, Illinois Terminal car 451 had work continued on it as an Eagle Scout Project.

August: Work on many projects slowed due to planning our special events - Rails to the Darkside, Pumpkin Patch, and Winterfest. New Orleans car 836 still had members working on the wheel sets. At the end of the month, Hurricane Irene hit the museum resulting in the museum being closed for a week.

September: The finishing touches were in the process of being completed on car 836. Repairs were made to the infrastructure after Hurricane Irene. Work was accomplished on the cosmetic restoration of Boston Elevated car 3100. Cars were tarped to protect them from the elements.

October: New Orleans car 836 was returned to service, however, Connecticut Company car 1326 was removed from service due to motor issues. Winter Storm Alfred hit the museum at the end of the month resulting in the museum being closed for its typically two best days of Pumpkin Patch and Rails to the Darkside.

November: Repairs were made to the infrastructure once again. The museum was set up for Winterfest.

December: Work was progressing on the Boston Elevated Railway car 5645 with interior woodwork and motor work. Tarps are going on the Dining Car to protect it from the winter snow. Next year, money will be spent to repair the car.

Over 700 Visitors for Rails to the Darkside

Rails to the Darkside was packed Saturday night! We had over 700 visitors. The first run is scheduled to go out at 7:00pm, but by 6:45pm the parking lot was full. Thankfully we had Andy Cotton and his crew in the parking lot. I don't know how they were able to go it by they found parking spaces for just about everyone. They utilized all of the main lot, the volunteer lot, and in the area behind the Fire Museum.

The first car was sent out 15 minutes early. That still left us working until well after 11:30 at night. All of the volunteers at both ends were amazing. George Barreto and Xian Clere both received a crash course in Conducting in the Main Hall. Even most of the kids that are volunteering made it through to the end. Luckily, when the volunteers at the end of the line were done, they helped at in the Main Hall.

The closer we get to Halloween, the better it gets so it should be a very good year.

During the day, John Pelletier took a look at the Type 5. Unfortunately, it appears that a nut came loose on one of the field coil bolts. This allowed the bolt to drop down onto the armature and dig into the armature. This will require the motor to be pulled from the car and an armature will have to be found to replace the damaged one.

Pat McCann spent the day working on car 355's air compressor. A couple of months ago, 355 was pulled from service because the air compressor armature was unraveling. Once the compressor is taken apart, we will able to figure out what the extent of the damage was and repair it.

With the problems that we have begun to have with some of the operating equipment, we really need to get car 836 back in service. In order to do this, we still need to raise the funds to repair or replace the wheels that have thin flanges on them. Please consider making a donation to the New Orleans Public Service Car 836 Fund!

In the Fire Museum, members spent the day rearranging their Main Hall. This was done to get one of the trucks in the rear out and put in the shop. While this was happening, I was able to get a quick look at the Connecticut bus that was just repainted.



Pumpkin Patch did well this weekend too! All day Saturday, the parking lot was filled with cars. This year should be a good year for our Halloween events.

Tornado hits Museum's Trailers

Actually, it wasn't exactly a tornado, but it sure looks like one has hit. On Saturday, Todd and Paul Chicoine spent the day getting another trailer ready to be removed from the property. One of the main goals this year has been to clean up the property. We have accomplished quite a lot by getting rid of the trailers in the parking lot, the scrap metal pile inside the loop, the junk stored underneath the train shed, and moving the three Connecticut Company cars out of the Hartman's Siding Lay Up track. In addition, we cleaned up the gardens in front of the Visitor Center and installed a fence between the parking lot and front lawn. Paul and Todd emptied out the trailer of the materials stored in it. Everything inside the trailer was moved to the storage room off of the gift shop. Then, with the help of the front end loader, the trailer was crushed. The trailer should be removed from the property by next weekend.

Xian Clere used the afternoon to continue to clean out the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose. He brought a vacuum out to the caboose to clean the floor and cushions. We are still looking for donations to help offset the cost of moving the caboose and the work that the caboose needs.

Rails to the Darkside has progressed much over the weekend. The set up of the main hall is almost completed with all of the curtains in place and the lighting set up. The Graveyard posts have been set up with the gravestones, lighting, and fencing. We gained a couple of new cast members at the Rails to the Darkside Casting Call, however, we are still looking for more cast. A rehearsal is scheduled for Thursday night. If you are interested in helping out for Rails to the Darkside, contact office@ceraweb.org.

Up in the shop, John Pelletier and Pat McCann began setting up the storage pod. The storage pod will be used to store paints, oils, and other flammable materials so they are not stored in the car shop. Boston Elevated 5645 has been released from the shop. While in the shop, whistles were installed on the car, door motors were repaired, and missing windows were replaced. Springfield Terminal 16 was moved up to the shop to have windows repaired and the motor support bearings repacked.

Rails to the Darkside Preparation

By the time I arrived at the museum on Saturday, the trolleys in the main hall were already moved into position for the Rails to the Darkside Setup. Many people were hard at work throughout the day. I began the day running electrical to the trolleys for power. Brian Semprebon, Erica Babbitt, and another younger volunteer were hard at work hanging the blackout "curtains" inside 1201, 2056, and 65.

Bill Babbitt and I spent some time cleaning up the interior of car 65. Because restoration of the car started but was never completed, many components of the car were simply being stored on the floor of the car. There were also piles of seats in the car that don't even belong to the car. Everything in the car was stacked along the walls of the car so that there is a clear walkway through the car.

Other volunteers, including Larry Bryan, Galen Semprebon, Matty Doane, George Contrada, and Larry Lunden, were all hard at work on other Rails to the Darkside projects. Unfortunately, I cannot give away too much because it will ruin the show.




By the end of the day, the Main Hall was cleaned up and the exhibit boards were put in place. They will be used to create a wall to separate the Rails to the Darkside area from the Pumpkin Patch area.



Matty is already getting into the Rails to the Darkside spirit as seen here by his companion in his van. Anyone who is interested in coming down to help out with the setup for Rails to the Darkside is encouraged. We can use all the help that we can get. Also, September 25th is the Rails to the Darkside Casting Call from 3 to 5 pm. Anyone who is interested in scaring for Rails to the Darkside who has not done it in the past is encouraged to come to the casting call.

Elsewhere on the property, work was being done as well. Xian Clere was able to get the Tie Handler running under its own power. He moved it closer to the Sweeper and swung the boom sideways to make room for the Bangor & Aroostook Caboose when it arrives this week. Larry Lunden also spent some time outside cleaning up the west end gardens of the Visitor Center. They have been overgrown with pricker bushes for the longest time and he was able to remove the bushes.

Up in the shop, John Pelletier found the issue plaguing the Type 5's motors. One of the motor support bearings was worn and it was causing the motor to jump when power was initially applied. This resulted in the bull gear and pinion not making contact. John will be looking for a spare set of motor support bearings next weekend to replace the worn ones. For the time being, the car will be out of service.

Member's Picnic

Today was the day of our yearly Member's Picnic. So, needless to say, I spent a lot of time preparing for that today. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so if anyone has any pictures of today, feel free to forward them to me. I did spend some time working with Galen Semprebon, George Contrada, John Arel, and Xian Clere on the 0309 (154). We removed the clerestory boards that covered the windows. The windows are glue-glass windows in the clerestory, unfortunately, they have been painted over. One of the big problems is that the car is stored with seats that retain moisture and will continue to rot the car. Not anymore. We spread the seats out underneath the train shed to dry. Then they will be stored in a boxcar. I am not absolutely certain what the seats belong to. They definitely do not belong to the car. Some of them were possibly extras that we obtained in the early years of the museum when ConnCo went out of service. The others look like they came from a passenger coach. Now, we just need to remove all of the overhead and high-line hardware from the car and it will only have parts belonging to the car left in it.

Up in the shop, John Pelletier finished re-plumbing the Type 5's whistles. We just need to install the whistles, and that car will be finished.

Next weekend, we will begin work on setting up for Rails to the Darkside.

Car 771 Moves to Covered Storage

When I arrived at the museum Saturday, I went to the Train Shed and noticed the tarp was back on car 154 (0309). I was about to question why the tarp was put back on 154, when I realized that it was actually car 771. Car 154 had been moved into the Visitor Center and car 771 was moved under the Train Shed. Although car 154 is not the greatest looking car, it was moved into the Visitor Center to prepare for Rails to the Darkside. The car will probably get a coat of primer in the coming weeks and be cleaned out. Unfortunately, there is a lot of weight in the car from overhead components to seats.

Car 771 was moved under covered storage just in time. The car will need some work to stabilize it. It has a nasty twist in the car partially because the track it was sitting on was not straight, and partially because the northeast corner post is just about non-existent. Ben Wallace and myself spent some time pulling the tarps and pulling the clapboard siding off of the car. While tarps are great at keeping the rain and snow out of the car, in New England summers they trap the humidity inside the car. The clapboard siding on the cars did the same thing. Unfortunately, its a decision that we have to make when a car is sitting outside. Do we want the humidity to rot the car or the rain and snow? When we were taking the clapboard siding off, some of it came off way to easily, and actually took the covering of the corner post with it. Looking inside and outside the car, it was noticed that the corner post and post between the first and second set of windows on the north side of the car were both gone. Currently, the wall between the car and the vestibule seems to be bearing all of the weight. We will need to clean some space inside the car and put a 4x4 in place to brace the car until work can be done to permanently replace the corner post.

Galen Semprebon, Matty Doane, and George Contrada worked on removing the former Hartman Siding Lay-Up at Powerhouse Crossing. This had to be removed immediately in order for us to recreate the walkway from Powerhouse Crossing to the Visitor Center for Rails to the Darkside. Once the rails were removed, Matty began working on regrading it with the bulldozer.


When Larry Bryan showed up, we had an impromptu Rails to the Darkside meeting in the parking lot discussing plans for skits and animated props. Larry is working on a few things for Rails to the Darkside at home including designing a new poster. I will keep those all under wraps, so you will need to come to the event.

By the end of the day, George was working on cleaning up car 154. Galen, myself, Mike Savoie, Xian Clere, Amber Hurrle, and Andy Cotton worked to push the cars back in on Hartman's Siding and move the Long Island car back on to Hartman's. Car 451 is once again on the North Road Lay-Up.

John Pelletier was busy in the shop all day working on the type 5. The doors are opening and closing better and the gong on the west end of the car is working. Next weekend, he plans to install the whistles on the car.

Hartman Siding Lay-Up Almost Clear

Saturday began with the goal of moving ConnCo 771 (Consolidated Railway 189) off of the Hartman Siding Lay-Up and on to the main siding track. Galen Semprebon and I started off the day by positioning the excavator and bulldozer to move ConnCo 1739 further down the track. After taking a break for a meeting, we were joined by Pat McCann, Matty Doane, and George Contrada and got 1739 into place.

We had decided to hook up the trucks of 771 with the trucks of ConnCo 0309 with a chain and pull them up together. Then we hooked a chain, actually a length of 4 chains, from the excavator to the front truck of 771. We pulled the consist about a half of a car length until we found out that the hooks on the new chains had exceeded their capacity and were bending. At that point, we disconnected 0309 and pulled 771 up the hill. We had to be very careful moving the car because the trucks were not totally complete. They were missing a few parts, such as a Journal Box.

Once we got to the special work, we had to hook the bulldozer up to one side to act as a brake, and the excavator to the other to keep the left wheels against the rail. This is the area where the Lay-Up was joined into the Visitor Center Lead. In order to accomplish this without cutting rail, we connected one rail at a joint. The other rail just ends and the wheels ride over a series of greased tie plates until it falls onto the stock rail of the siding. Its not built for high speed operation, but it will work to get the cars out. The whole Lay-Up track will be removed after this is done anyways. Car 771 made it through the special work much easier than 1739 had. 1739 took a couple of weekends to do, whereas 771 took only a few hours.











By 2pm, 771 was parked and we went after 0309. This was a little more difficult. We ran into a problem where the rails at a joint did not exactly line up. The rail that 0309 was sitting on was about an inch lower and an inch outside the rail it had to run onto. After greasing the end of the rail to allow the rails to slide along each other, I took a large rock and dropped it on the rail that was sitting too high. The good news is, the rail dropped into place like I was hoping for. The bad news is, the rail also cracked. To make matters worse, the wheels on the rear truck would not turn, and with the growth, it was very difficult to get to them. After taking a spike maul to the brake shoes, the wheels seemed to loosen up a little, however they were still dragging some. We then greased the entire tread of the wheels which greased the brake shoes and allowed the car to roll. The first wheel to go over the misaligned joint rode up on the head of the rail. We had to get the jacks out and jack the wheel sideways. However, the other three made it through fine and by the end of the day, 0309 was sitting just before going through the special work.

John Pelletier was busy in the shop replacing broken windows in the Type 5. With the help of a Community Service Volunteer, he made considerable progress in cleaning the shop as well.

After finishing the car moves, I found Ben Wallace building a new gate in the Main Hall of the Visitor Center. This gate will be replacing the broken one at Winkler Road. Xian Clere and I decided to stay and help finish the gate. We had hoped to install it, but by the time we finished building it at 10:30 at night it was a little too late.