On Saturday, September 6, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Ben, Bruce, Reid, Nick, Dannis, Henry, Drew, Bryan, Kendall and Paul all participated in a highly anticipated day of projects. The main project of the day was to raise our C&S Caboose to roll one of it’s trucks out to be turned around and placed back under the caboose with the brake rigging properly configured. In order to do that project, several other things had to happen. Engine 102 was started and moved out of the shop to make way for the caboose truck to be brought outdoors. Engine 102 pushed our caboose train out of the way, and while it was outside later in the day, it got some spot cleaning done and a repair to one of its air horns done. The Caboose truck was rolled out to our first grade crossing where the rotation work would be done, due to the stable ground and relatively flat surface. We used the Hi-Rail boom truck and the Bobcat skid steer to lift the truck and rotate it around. The truck was then rolled back to the shop area, cleaned up a bit and then reinstalled under the C&S Caboose.

After lunch, the crew cleaned up some of the equipment used for the morning’s lift, did a bit of clean-up inside the caboose, and moved a draft gear lift over to another shop track. Engines 103 & 104 were started, taken out of Multiple Unit configuration, and then some switching was done to rearrange the two locomotives and set up the caboose train behind Engine 104 for our next event. To finish out the work day, speeders and the gang car that were moved earlier in the day were returned to their regular storage spot. The crew was hustling all day with multiple small tasks, and we were in many places all at once. Everyone stayed safe and had fun, and some even learned a bit more about freight train brakes!

I have included a few pictures of the main truck work done today to show what was accomplished. If you don’t see the pictures, click here to go to our Blog Page.

– Paul