On Saturday, July 22, Dwight Maxey and Paul Brown braved a warm and humid day to keep some projects advancing at the Museum. Despite the small crew size, we were able to get a number of things done. First thing in the morning, we headed out to identify ties we will be replacing, since we didn’t have enough volunteers to actually replace ties today. While marking the ties, we were able to pull a good number of weeds, and watch a few trains roll by on both the BNSF and UP! Before heading to lunch, we emptied all the trash cans in the platform area and with all the rain soaking the accumulated trash it made for an aromatic experience!!

We took a long lunch break to cool down before we started to investigate our Gang Car and what it would take to get it back in operation. After sitting for something like 4 years, we had to drain the fuel and do some minor repairs before starting the engine. The engine in this car is very old and has babbit rod bearings in the engine, which may need some work as there is a slight knock while running. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the shop for some additional project ideas.

At the very end of our work, we had a group of visitors swing by the shop. They were with the Inter-mountain Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. It’s always nice to have visitors who have as much interest in trains as we do! It’s too bad we couldn’t recruit them to volunteer with us!

– Paul