On Saturday, March 15, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Bruce Davis, Kendall Crouch, Chris Pollard, Colin Mellin, Dannis Hudson, Abel Erber, Nick Walker, Dallan Farrar and Paul Brown took advantage of a warm, sunny winter day to build out some more track on our spur track project. The crew prepped the ground, and then laid out cross ties before placing tie plates to set the rail on. Once the rail was spotted, the joint bars were installed and bolts tightened.

The crew had a quick lunch, and then continued work adjusting the ties supporting the rails to get things somewhat level. The afternoon also saw Bruce doing some more work on the C&W Caboose, and Chris and Dwight worked to get the Gang Car back together and fire up the engine to test run. The crew finished up by putting tools away and then participating in a little bull session to finish off the day. Keep watching here as our track project progresses. Some day we will have a couple more shop tracks!

I have included a few photos of the track project today.

– Paul

On Saturday, March 8, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Chris Pollard, Bruce Davis, Kendall Crouch, Dannis Hudson and Paul Brown practiced their steel driving skills by spiking down two lengths of rail that were laid out during last week’s work session. Everybody took a turn or two driving the spikes home, and found out what a good oak tie can do to your arms! There was one in the mix that was like driving into concrete! This worked burned up the morning, and all took a well deserved lunch break!

After lunch, the crew worked to get some material under the ties for a sub roadbed and then cleaned up tools. We then did a bit of searching for parts for a 90# switch, and checking on some other parts for future track laying in our yard. During our search, we found a section of 141 lb/yd rail that we will set up as a display to compare this big mainline iron compared to the older 85# and 90# rail we use at the Museum.

Here are some pictures of today’s action at the Pueblo Railway Museum.

– Paul

On Saturday, March 1, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Colin Mellin, Nick Walker, Doug Milsom and Paul Brown jumped on some track construction work to continue the project started last week. The crew pulled out a couple sticks of old rail and some junk ties that had been used temporarily, and prepped the ground for a few additional ties. After setting that up, we attempted to set a couple of sticks of 90# rail, but found that we need to place 85# rail for the first length before changing to 90#. Anyway, it was an exercise in learning how to move and place rail on top of ties.

After a quick break for lunch, the crew split up, and half worked on the rail, while the other half of the crew got busy knocking dead weeds down and raking/cleaning the area around the tracks. By the end of the day, nearly the entire crew worked until sundown cleaning up the weeds to one collection. Now we just need to hope the wind doesn’t blow!!

Please see the attached pictures for some of the work down on the track construction. Even though removing the weeds is the most important job at the Museum, we were so busy that no pictures were taken. The site is sure starting to look good again.

– Paul

On Saturday, February 22, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Bruce Davis and Paul Brown got some work done at the Museum. Dwight and Chris jumped into the Gang Car engine work to figure out the next move on the rod bearings. It seems that there will need to be a little machining work done which Dwight will chase down during the week. Bruce, Ben and Paul spent some of the morning searching through the parts in our storage boxcars for some items that could be useful in the C&W Caboose upgrade. Colin did some work with our pickup trucks to start them and check out the batteries after the cold snap we just had.

After a lunch break, and with the temperature warming up, Bruce and Ben got busy to find spikes and install them in the timbers used to cap the ends of the new dirt crossings on the shop lead tracks to complete that project. Chris and Dwight attended to some accumulated used oil in the shop and contained that while cleaning up. Towards the end of the day, the gang worked on clearing some dead weeds from around the lead tracks and started prep work for an upcoming project. You might be able to figure out what that is while checking out one of the photos attached.

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Bruce Davis

On Saturday, February 15, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Bruce Davis, Kendall Crouch, Chris Pollard, Colin Mellin, and Paul Brown started the day in sunshine, and cleaned up blown in leaves and debris, while moving some materials around at the front side of the shop. But soon, the clouds moved back in, dropping the temperature, so some folks headed indoors to work on the Gang Car. The engine on the car is needing some care and clean up, and the crew jumped right into that work. The oil pan was found to have an interesting conglomeration of glob in it that was cleaned out.

After lunch, we headed back outside to work on the beginning of clearing out weeds, so that we can find the ground and some supplies we keep stored!! Just as we were finishing up, the snow started falling again, so we called it a day.

I have included a few photos of the day’s work.

– Paul

On Saturday, February 8, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Kendall Crouch, Chris Pollard, Bruce Davis, Chris Traficante, Dannis Hudson, Nick Walker and Paul Brown stayed busy working on track. Our first task was to replace a section of rail that had a piece of the head of the rail broken out. This piece of rail, a little over eight feet long, is special in that it allows a change in rail weight from 110 lb/yd to 90 lb/yd. The size of the rail actually changes from one end to the other, and we were lucky enough to have another section that matches the one that needed replaced. The crew unbolted the broken rail and bolted up the replacement. Overall a pretty simple repair, and an excellent way to teach some of the crew members about track repair.

After a lunch break, the crew headed back out to repair some damage that was done to the dirt crossings that we installed a few months back. Some contaminated material was deposited on the crossings and it blocked the flangeways. The crew dug out the offending material, and then fabricated end blocks from 6X6 timbers to box in the material. After finishing this work, the crew cleaned up all the tools used, and finished up before the cold wind started blowing.

I have included a few pictures of today’s action.

– Paul

On Saturday, February 1, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Chris Pollard, Colin Mellin, Gary Carter, Dannis Hudson, Nick Walker and Paul Brown enjoyed some nice conditions for a change to get the shop organized, and get some rail equipment switched around on the shop lead tracks. We started in the shop and moved some work tables and equipment back into place, and cleaned some debris from the floor. This work required the morning hours to complete, and the crew took a lunch break.

After lunch, the Trackmobile was started up and the crew proceeded to move some equipment on the shop leads back to their storage spots. We were also able to get the 2 speeders and the gang car moved and back into the shop. Our Trackmobile is a lightweight so it presents a challenge to those planning moves, because only one or two cars can be moved at a time. But it is always fun and relaxing to work with the old equipment we have, and to improve skills that don’t get used that often.

I have included a few pictures of today’s work.

– Paul

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On Saturday, January 25, volunteers Dwight Maxey, John McDowell, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Gary Carter, Dannis Hudson, Henry Falko, Nick Walker and Paul Brown braved very cold temperatures – and more than the predicted “trace” of snow – to do the work required to return the truck back under our Haunted Railcar. Using the pneumatic jacks we have, of course requires compressed air, and as usual, our compressor was very cold, requiring a jump start, and some finessing to get started. Once the compressor warmed up, it was a simple matter to raise the jacks, and roll the truck under the car.

While you would think that rail cars having very large parts wouldn’t need to be adjusted by fractions of an inch to be assembled, our job required just that! For some reason, the bolster was just a bit off center, and required some frustrating work to finally get lined up. And remember, it was very cold and frustration makes it even colder! Persistence paid off in the end though, and we were able to finish the reassembly work and put the tools away before running to the break room to thaw out!!

Many thanks to our volunteers today for sticking with it and completing the job.

I have included a few pictures here to hopefully give you an idea of the work done.

– Paul