On Saturday, September 24, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Tyler Seeley, and Paul Brown gathered at the Museum to do a bit of track work, and switch some of our equipment to get things ready for the fall events. First, we did some work to measure, locate and prepare a couple of long ties to go under our switch. We then had to verify where the tie crossed under the rail so we can notch out the wood to accept plates that go under the switch points, as well as under standard rail on the adjacent track. This is not a standard set up for track, but we have some strange things at the Museum! We then went back to the shop yard to use the chainsaw and adz to make the notches. We were not able to finish that work before we needed to fire up one of the locomotives for the afternoon work, so we will continue next week.

After a lunch break, the crew switched our cabooses over to another track and set them up with Engine 104, which we will be using through this fall. Engine 103 and the AT&SF waycar were set out of the way on the lead that holds the Patriot, which is stored indoors. We also cranked up Engine 104 to make sure the systems where all working, and that the batteries got a recharge. After checking things out on 104, we cleaned up our tools and finished our day of work.

I have included a few pictures of today’s work so you can see where the equipment moved.

– Paul