On Saturday, July 25, volunteers Dwight, Bruce, Chris, Ben, Jerod, Dannis, Nick, Jasper, and Paul braved very warm and humid conditions and decided to replace four cross ties in our main running track. Both pairs of ties were in an area that had previously been covered with asphalt and gravel which caused the ties we pulled out to be very decomposed! The entire morning was spent working on these ties and dealing with some stubborn equipment before breaking for lunch.

After cooling off a bit in the break room during lunch, the crew split in two with half working on some brake rigging on our very old C&W flatcar A-1, and the other half working to install our flange greaser on engine 104. After a couple of hours in the afternoon heat, everyone was ready to call it a day and retreat to the break room to cool off again and then head home. It doesn’t matter what the conditions are, we always get some constructive work done at the Museum!

I have included some pictures from the tie replacement in the morning.

– Paul