Signal Lights

At the beginning of the week, I had received a call that a pallet of used crossing signal lights were available for the taking. This comes as many railroads are switching to LED crossing signal lights. The catch was that we had to pick them up this week. Last night, Al Goff and I met and loaded them in the back of my pick up. There were three large boxes that we had to consolidate into two boxes (all three would not fit in the bed of my truck). With these signal lights, we will be able to replace some of ours that need replacing and we will also be able to use them for parts to repair them as necessary.

Wheel Turning

This past weekend, Chris Chestnut and Pat McCann took turns watching and making adjustments at the lathe. The first of car 836's wheel sets is being turned on the lathe with the first wheel nearly complete. The flange that was paper thin is now being turned down and beginning to form.

Elsewhere in the shop, John Pelletier was busy working on getting the proper hardware to install a new air compressor on car 355. This air compressor appears to be in working order, unlike the last two that once we got them under the car, they would not function properly. The last one that we put together had a high bar.

With the help of George Contrada, I was able to repair the north gate at Winkler Road Crossing after a pick-up truck damaged it on Friday. The gate will be replaced when a new one is assembled.

The rest of the day, I spent sorting through railroad ties: the good, the bad, and the ugly; so that we can get them prepared for main line tie replacement. Once those are sorted out, I need to get the tie inserter running again. Between that and the tie handler, we will have a semblance of a production job.

And, yes it is that time of year again. Galen Semprebon was caught out behind the Visitor Center unloading materials for Rails to the Darkside! In fact, the path is nearly constructed between the mainline and the Visitor Center. I guess that is my hint to begin installing the lighting.

Winkler Road Rebuilding

Yesterday and today, crews have been working to replace the Winkler Road Crossing. When the crossing was first built, ties were used along the inside of the rail in order to create the flange way. Over time, those ties have rotten and the pavement has sagged creating a very bumpy crossing. Half of the crossing was replaced yesterday with new rubber guards and pavement. The other half will be finished by the end of the day today. Thank you to Andy Cotton, Amber Hurrle, and the rest of their crew for helping out with traffic.



John Pelletier was able to find the cause of the air compressor issue on car 355 today. Apparently, the set screw that holds one of the bearings in place had worked itself loose and caused the bearing to spin and jam. Unfortunately, he found this out AFTER removing the air compressor from the car. This problem could have been solved without removing it.

After 61 Years Outside...

In 1949, ConnCo 0309 (Fair Haven and Westville curve side 154) was moved by the Connecticut Electric Railway out of the James Street Car House in New Haven, CT to the museum. This was the last time the car was stored inside. For the next sixty-one years, the car sat at the museum outside. It was unloaded at the Winkler Road crossing on a 50 foot section of track in the middle of the woods. It stayed there until the track was extended to Winkler Road. Then it was moved to the main property where it sat at the end of Hartman Siding. Today, the car was moved under cover again by Galen Semprebon, Matty Doane, George Contrada, and Ted Coppola. And it looks pretty good for sitting outside for the past sixty-one years.




Once the car was moved under the train shed, the tarps were removed. Under the tarps were wood sheathing and tar paper that covered the car. That was removed, and we looked around inside the car. Inside the car, we found many overhead parts including insulators, and parts such as seats to other cars.




I did not see it happen, but I am told that the broken gate at Winkler Road was replaced.

Because of so much going on at the front of the property, I did not get a chance to get to the shop to see what was going on up there. Tomorrow will be another busy day starting in the morning when we go out to Mansfield to pick up some of the tables and chairs from the BAR Caboose.

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.

Insulated Joints

One of the big problems with insulated joints is, eventually they wear out. When the do so, it can create all sorts of problems with the signal system. This occurred on the west approach to Borrup Road, which was causing a problem with the crossing circuit. However, we could not just replace the insulation, because the ties underneath the joint were junk. So, Wednesday night we had a track party (one of the largest we have had in a while), and replaced the ties under the joint and replaced the insulation on the joint. Replacing the insulation on the joint took the longest. Because it was hot, there was not much room between the two rails, so we had to get the rail stretcher out and push the two rails apart. Once that was done, we were able to slide the insulation between the rails and put the joint bars (once again, with new insulation) back on the track. It was a learning experience, because most of us have never replaced an insulated joint. We started around 5pm after most of us worked our normal jobs and got finished around 9pm.

Meanwhile, up in the shop, Chris Perry was hard at work on Boston Elevated PCC 3100. He has the whole car sanded down and was able to prime and paint the roof. The idea is to get a coat of paint over the car so that it is less prone to rusting. Then, replace the panels on the car that are missing or bad and repaint the car with the proper paint and color.

Crossing Repairs

As I arrived at the museum for the Board of Directors meeting yesterday, I was informed by operations that a gate at the Winkler Road Crossing was hit during the course of the day. We have new gate components for the crossing, however, the new gates are not fully assembled. I was able to draft the help of Xian Clere, Chris Shaw, and Mike Caputo in fixing the gate. It is a temporary repair at best, but it will get us by until the weekend when the new gate can be finished and installed.