On Saturday, February 11, a small group of volunteers, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin and Paul Brown, arrived at the Museum with one plan in mind, and in typical railroad fashion had a complete change in plans! The original plan was to work on replacing some cross ties in our running track, but due to the main hydraulic pump in our Bobcat tractor biting the dust we were left without our biggest tool. We do use the Bobcat a lot, and it finally gave in. We will now have to get an estimate for the cost of repairs.

OK then, we’ll just jump in the hi-rail tool truck, and roll out to do what we can to get prepared for replacing those ties. Not so fast now! Yep, the truck wouldn’t start, not even cranking. The brand new batteries we installed a few weeks back were flat dead. Break out the battery chargers and try that. Meanwhile we took our lunch break.

After lunch, we did get the truck to start and put it on the list to figure out what is draining the batteries! We also took advantage of the situation to fire up engine 104 to charge its batteries and circulate fluids. And we hooked up the locomotive battery charger to engine 103.

So, not a lost day but not what was planned. We will have to wait to get the prognosis on the Bobcat, and see how long repairs will take. Meanwhile, if you want to learn how to change out cross ties without heavy equipment, let us know and show up to help!

I have included some pictures of the days activities.

– Paul