On Saturday, November 7, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Bruce, Jerod, Dannis, Henry, Jasper, Nick and Paul first worked on removing and storing the Halloween decorations from our event last weekend. We then did some general cleanup work of the cabooses and Engine 104. When that work was completed, we got started on work to continue the installation of a wood stove in our C&W #3 caboose. Today it was time to cut open the flue pipe hole in the roof. There was a little work required inside to enlarge the hole in the ceiling of the car. Then it was time to get on top, lay out the position, and start to cut out a circle of steel for the pipe to pass through. But first it was time for lunch already!

After lunch, the crew got busy cutting through some real, old railroad steel! It always seems like the old steel is really steel because it dulls drill bits and consumes saw blades fast!! After a few hours, we had finally broke through and opened up a 12 inch circular hole. There was a side job occurring at the same time, as part of the crew worked to clear out the roof gutters of the car. It wasn’t dead leaves in the gutters, but scrap steel and caulking. All the scrap had rusted into a mess that had to be chiseled out. With a good start on the project, the sun started to set, and the crew had to clean up the tools and head for home.

Watch for more work on this project next week. I have attached a few photos of today’s work

– Paul