On Saturday, March 4, Colin Mellin, Dwight Maxey and Paul Brown braved chilly, windy conditions to complete work on the battery connections for the Hi-Rail truck, and to start the work on our new Caboose electrical connection system. During the week, Colin found some really nice battery disconnects that would fit within the battery box on the truck. So we did some work to make the batteries fit in the box better, and rearranged the cables before completing the connections onto the new disconnects. Now we can simply turn a knob, and disconnect our batteries to keep them from discharging.

After the lunch break, we gathered up the new electrical boxes, which were sourced by Colin, and worked to attach them to each end of our three active cabooses. This will allow us to make cleaner, safer connections for electric power to each car from our generator, when we need it for events. It will also allow us to make more permanent wiring on the cars, and simplify the application of lights such as those used at Christmas.

I have included a few pictures of each project from today to help explain what work was completed.

– Paul

On Saturday, February 25, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin and Paul Brown braved the warm temps and pleasant conditions to troubleshoot the electrical system on our Hi-Rail tool truck. We grabbed one of the batteries and made some connections to the truck battery cables, and to our amazement, we found no load showing on the circuit. We got a multi-meter reading of .005 amps. We scratched our heads because we thought we were going to find some kind of short, but nothing. We spent another hour or so turning on items such as lights to check what was working. The turn signals and emergency flashers stopped working as we checked things, but every other light and small load we could find worked well.

So we took a lunch break and came back to install all three batteries and started the truck. While running, the batteries read 14.9 volts, letting us know that the alternator was working. We did a bit more investigation work while the engine was running, and checked more light operations. In the end, we decided that we will remove the negative battery cables from each battery, to save us from dealing with whatever may be draining the batteries. We will be looking into simple battery disconnects in the future to further protect us from battery drain.

After finishing with the truck, we did a small archeological dig in the shop yard. We noticed what looked like a concrete foundation buried in the dirt where we have moved away all the stored material. After shoveling and sweeping off the dirt, we found quarried stone blocks that were probably a foundation for a very old structure that sat in this spot. We uncovered about 40 linear feet of block today. May have to keep cleaning this off on future work days!

I have included a few photos to show you today’s work.

– Paul

On Saturday, February 18, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin and Paul Brown gathered at the Museum shop to work on maintaining and cleaning up our equipment. The first task we tackled was getting the batteries removed from the Hi-Rail truck once again, to charge them due to a continuing problem on the truck which drains the batteries. We will have to continue to troubleshoot this issue until solved. We also worked to get some more tools on board the truck, so when we can rely on it, we can head out to do track work and have enough tools to do that work. Lastly, we cleaned off the locomotive battery cart and the gang car, which had gathered way too much junk being stacked on each. Sometimes it is hard to remember where you set something down and don’t come right back for it, it was probably on one of these pieces of equipment!!

I have included a few pictures to show the activity. If you are reading this email and live reasonably close to Pueblo CO, please consider coming out to volunteer. We can use all the help we can get!

– Paul

A reminder that Amazon is discontinuing the AmazonSmile program on February 20.

There is still time for you to take advantage of this opportunity. Click on the banner below, choose the Pueblo Railway Foundation as your designated charity, shop at smile.amazon.com before February 20, and the Amazon Smile Foundation will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases to our Museum. No hidden costs or fees, and the price of your Amazon items won’t change.

To get started on AmazonSmile, click on the banner below, start shopping at smile.amazon.com, and thanks for your support!

On Saturday, February 11, a small group of volunteers, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin and Paul Brown, arrived at the Museum with one plan in mind, and in typical railroad fashion had a complete change in plans! The original plan was to work on replacing some cross ties in our running track, but due to the main hydraulic pump in our Bobcat tractor biting the dust we were left without our biggest tool. We do use the Bobcat a lot, and it finally gave in. We will now have to get an estimate for the cost of repairs.

OK then, we’ll just jump in the hi-rail tool truck, and roll out to do what we can to get prepared for replacing those ties. Not so fast now! Yep, the truck wouldn’t start, not even cranking. The brand new batteries we installed a few weeks back were flat dead. Break out the battery chargers and try that. Meanwhile we took our lunch break.

After lunch, we did get the truck to start and put it on the list to figure out what is draining the batteries! We also took advantage of the situation to fire up engine 104 to charge its batteries and circulate fluids. And we hooked up the locomotive battery charger to engine 103.

So, not a lost day but not what was planned. We will have to wait to get the prognosis on the Bobcat, and see how long repairs will take. Meanwhile, if you want to learn how to change out cross ties without heavy equipment, let us know and show up to help!

I have included some pictures of the days activities.

– Paul