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.

Tie Replacement

On Saturday, we were able to replace 10 ties between Woods Barn Turnout and Borrup Road. Neil Newman, Xian Clere, Andy Cotton, Brian Semprebon, Dave Coppola, John Gasper, Aaron Mangan, and another volunteer helped me with tie replacement. We are hoping to get the tie handler and tie inserter running better so that we can use those machines to do tie replacement which will allow us to replace more ties in one session.

In the shop, Galen Semprebon worked on setting up the woodshop equipment in the car shop. John Pelletier repaired the hand brake on Line Car S-193. The brake cable had snapped, but luckily there was enough of it left to restring the brake cable. He also continued work on the electrical for the headlights on Springfield Terminal Railway car 16. Pat McCann repainted the bumpers on car 16 as well.

On Sunday, Camilo Santiago continued work on the Reading Caboose.

Pending weather, another track work session will take place this coming Saturday April 21st, 2012. We will either be working on replacing ties in the area between Borrup Road and the Hartman Siding Switch or removing spikes from relay ties to reuse.