|
6/25/2004 - Starting them up & testing them out!
On this Saturday, it was time to get two machines started
and tested.
First, our Fairmont tie extractor was given some attention
to its hydraulic system so it was time to start it up and
try it out. Of course, this was a little harder than it
seemed since the machine had not been starting in some
time AND someone "borrowed" the
starter for another engine at the museum. Since the motor can be rope started,
one of our volunteers lent his pulling ability to starting the engine. After
many tries, success was had and the unit was successfully tested.
Museum volunteer John Redden sets to attempt to pull start our tie extractor.
While success was not achieved on the first pull, the engine was successfully
started several pulls later.
With its batteries in place and hooked up and all the engine's
systems checked out, it was time to let EK6 stretch it legs
for the first time in a few months.
EK#6 prepares to depart from track #4 after having new batteries installed and
all systems checked out.
EK#6 passes RG&E #1941 which is receiving both cosmetic and mechanical attention
in the Industry yard. We hope to have pics of its test runs very soon.
We find Rochester Chapter NRHS President, Jeremy Tuke, at the throttle. This
was a little more fun job then his lawn mowing detail of
the previous weekend.
6/19/2004 - Digging and painting...
This Saturday saw work
on several projects around
the museum.
With the new batteries
in place, EK6 received
some routine maintenance
including a checkout and cleaning of the electrical gear including the
main generator on the working prime mover. The unit also started to get
some more cosmetic attention.
Museum volunteer, Ryan Kane, uses an angle grinder with a wire brush to clean
up areas of rust on the grab irons of EK#6 prior to priming by museum volunteer,
Jessica Stallone.
While Ryan continues his work, we can see the three recently repainted
bumpers on tracks 3,4&5 in the museum's Industry yard.
Drainage is always something
we need to continually work
on due to our multi-level property. Another group of volunteers
was working on some ditching along track #5. While hard work,
it is easiest done by hand, although I am not sure if they
would agree with the easy part. But we greatly appreciate
their efforts and hard work!
Museum volunteers, Mike Roqué, Jessica Stallone, Joe Werner and
Randy Bogucki dig dirt for a new drainage ditch. The spoils of
their work was loaded on to the two track carts and taken up the
line where it was used as fill.
Joe (left) and Randy (right) nearly have both carts filled and
ready to go for a trip up the line for dumping.
Although it was not needed on this day, the museum's BS-2, Ballast
Sifter 2, sits awaiting reloading on to the track carts and its
next assignment. Since the R&GVRRM and the NYMT mainline has
a fair amount of recovered ballast from old road beds which has
some dirt in it, this device was engineered and built by museum
volunteer, Randy Bogucki, to allow us to sift the dirty ballast
and recover the good stone for re-use.
Finally the Rochester weather has sent us a more than reasonable
share of rain this year so the grass is growing and growing and
growing. Rochester Chapter President, Jeremy Tuke, addresses
some of the lawn cutting with one of the museums string trimmer/mowers.
Rochester Chapter President, Jeremy Tuke, takes care of some
lawn cutting duties in front of the museum's custom painted sign.
6/17/2004 - Hooked up...
While over 50 members and guests enjoyed
the June
Rochester Chapter NRHS general membership meeting at the
R&GV
Railroad Museum, our Master Electrician, Jim Johnson, hooked up the
new batteries on Eastman Kodak Company 80-tonner #6. Here are two images
of Jim at work and many thanks for a job well done.
R&GVRR Museum Master Electrician, Jim Johnson, hooks up the
new batteries on EK#6. The locomotive has a 64-volt electrical
system requiring eight 8-volt batteries hooked together in series
to create the necessary power.
Another view of Jim hard at work making sure all the connection
are properly made.
6/12/2004 - A busy day at the museum...
This Saturday proved to be a very busy day at the museum.
A variety of projects were underway.
First, our Rochester, Lockport & Buffalo interurban waiting
room took a trip from its resting place for several years in
our Industry yard to our parking lot where it will be receiving
a new roof. When we acquired this small building, one of our
members, George Knab, built a custom steel frame for it and mounted
the building on the frame. With a two-wheeled axle added to one
end, the building basically has its own built in trailer.
The RL&B enters the parking lot of the R&GV Railroad
Museum with our Trojan loader providing the motive power.
A better look at the building and the axle end of the trailer.
The RL&B is positioned next to our NYC crossing shanty which
is also getting attention. The crossing shanty has already received
new structural skirting, new primer and a new roof. Eventually we
hope to place these buildings in proper locations along our demonstration
railroad.
Next, a few of our Young Railfans were out helping us on this
day. The project at hand was the prep and painting of one
of our bumpers which we recently reinstalled in our Industry
yard. At the same time, one of our track car trailers was also
getting some new paint.
Under the supervision of Dale Hartnett, our Young Railfans
work to prep our newly installed track bumper on track #3
in the Industry yard.
While two of our other Young Railfans headed off to other
projects, one of them stayed behind to paint the bumper.
He did a really great job of painting it!
Dale Hartnett paints one of our passenger trailer cars.
Finally some of our other railroad equipment was also getting
some attention. Our Fairmont tie extractor was getting some
repairs while the battery box on Eastman Kodak Company #6
was outfitted with new wood and its new batteries.
Norm Shaddick tends to our Fairmont tie extractor which was
also having some hydraulic valve work done.
Success! New paint, new wood, and new batteries leave just the hook
up of the batteries by our electrical department, which they may
have accomplished Saturday afternoon.
What a difference.
5/29/2004 - Working around the museum...
Memorial Day weekend still brought a pretty good crowd
of volunteers to the museum and finally a Saturday
without rain and with sunshine.
Recently, a new set of eight, 8-volt batteries
were purchased through the generous donations of our members
for one of our two 80-tonners, ex-Eastman
Kodak Company #6. Of course when dealing with something
that does not get changed very often, usually the job turns
out to be harder than it sounds. First, there are 8 large
batteries with all of their connections to deal with. Then
there is the box under the locomotive where the batteries
sit. Since it has been many years since the batteries were
out of EK6, the battery box was in need of a good cleaning
and repaint as some spots had grown a pretty good coat of
rust. Some of that work was undertaken today is shown in
the pics below.
We are also planning on moving our Rochester, Lockport & Buffalo
Railway interurban waiting room out of the Industry yard in the coming
weeks. We are going to be relocating it to our parking lot where it
will eventually receive a new roof. To facilitate this, the RG&E
1941 45-tonner and MDT 14053 ice reefer had to be moved.
1941 was able to move the reefer car out of the way. Pics
of it before and after the move are shown here.
Finally, a pic of the installation in progress of
the trolley substation at the New
York Museum of Transportation is shown below. The
AC to DC rectifier and some of the other electrical installation
is shown.
The battery box of EK#6 is shown before final clean-up (wire wheeling)
and priming.
The battery box with the first coat of primer applied. Eventually,
the box will hold 8 batteries used to start the locomotives.
This gives a little better look at the location of the box.
EK#6 is dedicated to
the former manager of the R&GV Railroad Museum, Rand Warner.
RG&E 1941 prior to the move north. Seen in the picture to the right is the
RL&B waiting room that will be moved out of the yard. The building was secured
to a steel frame many years back which can act like a trailer which makes moving
this small building very easy.
Another view of 1941 after the move. The track in the foreground
is the main track that leads to the NYMT.
In late 2003, a joint project between the R&GVRRM and the NYMT
was started to install a substation in the NYMT to allow the museums
to be able to turn 480 volt A/C 3-phase power into the 600 volts
DC needed to power our trolleys. The work included the building of
a special substation room inside the NYMT and is now seeing the electrical
installation including the AC to DC rectifier shown here (with the
Danger High Voltage sign on it). More work needs to be done, but
we hope some trolley operations may take place some time later this
year.
5/22/2004 - Trackwork time...
With the better weather finally here (although we wish it would
stop raining!), it was time to undertake some trackwork in the
Industry yard including tie replacement and the re-installation
of the bumper on the end of track #3 in the yard.
And while that was going on, a little restoration was also taking
place on the cab of R&GE 1941.
The control stand was getting some cosmetic attention.
Sadly, I had to head home at 1PM and missed the spring startup
of Fairbanks-Morse
USA 1843 which roared backed to life for another operating season
at the R&GV Railroad Museum so there are no pics of that. However, you can head
to our Sounds page if you want to hear
#1843.
Rochester Chapter NRHS President, Jeremy Tuke, takes a cut at preparing
a new rail needed for the installation of the bumper on track #3
in the Industry yard.
Almost through...
At the other end of track #3, several ties were being replaced.
Here four of the museum volunteers insert a new tie.
Since a fair amount of the ballast around the museum was recovered
from old railroad right-of-ways, it includes a fair amount
of dirt and stone. To be able to recover the stone to be re-used
while removing the dirt, this ballast screener was put together
by one of our volunteers. The dirt goes through and the ballast
heads into the bucket!
The two new ties are in place and ballast is being tamped
into place.
Some new paint, a rebuilt cab heater and brake system,
and a new seat waiting to be uncovered are the start of
the restoration of the cab of the museum's 45-tonner,
Rochester Gas & Electric #1941.
4/17/2004 - Spring is here...
Spring has finally arrived, and it is time for all of us at
the R&GV
Railroad Museum to come back outside. It is also time for this webmaster
to get the cameras back out and get back to more regular News updates.
Sorry for the lack of recent updates.
With the ground dry, it was time to do some work on our access
road to our Restoration Building. So out came the Cat D7, Cat
road grader and road roller to work on the road.
Meanwhile, work was still going on in other parts of the museum
including more work on our Plymouth Model BL gas-mechanical locomotive.
Please see below for some pictures of both.
The Cat D7E digs into the road to remove a hump.
The D7E makes easy work of roughing in the new grade.
Where the hump is removed, the dirt is used to fill in a low
spot up a little further up on the road.
Next, the museum's Cat grader came out to finish grade the
road and pull down some of the dirt pushed off to the side
by the dozer.
Museum Construction Superintendent, Joe Scanlon, cuts a
ditch in the side of the road to handle drainage with the
grader.
The final step in the process is to bring in the Museum's
road roller. Here it is working on the fill area south
of the Restoration Building before working on the road.
Winter set in before this area could be rolled so it was
time to get it ready for more dirt to come down soon.
It was time to check the condition of the roller bearings
on the drivewheel on the Plymouth Model BL. This drivewheel
runs against the perpendicular flywheel which is connected
to the engine. By sliding the drivewheel across the flywheel,
it is possible to tradeoff engine speed for torque and
also allows for the engine to change direction.
Many years of wear were found on this bronze thrust plate.
A deep circle had been work into it from the shaft probably
from MANY years of operation. The thrust plate was originally
a flat piece of stock.
1/10/2004 - Year End Party a success...
With temperatures never getting over five degrees Fahrenheit(it
was 65 degrees the previous Saturday!), the R&GV Railroad Museum
held its annual Year End Party. And yes, the debate again raged whether
this was a Year End or Year Beginning Party. No matter. With warm
cars and a warm depot, plus a lot good food and good cheer, a good
time was had by the over forty people who attended the party.
Museum volunteer, Dale Hartnett, chips ice off of the rail head. With the recent
snow fall and very low temps, ice had formed on the rail head. Most of it was
removed to improve adhesion for the first northbound trip of R&GVRR 1654
from the Industry yard.
Here we find 1654 retrieving the Erie C254 off of siding #6 for
the day's runs. This track will eventually be the main lead to
the museum's Restoration Building seen just to the right of the
engine.
RGVRR 1654 North... With temps in the single digits and wind chills
below zero, the perfect place to be was in the warm cupola of Erie
caboose #C254 as RGVRR 1654 heads north along the museum's demonstration
railroad.
1/3/2004 - It can't be over 60 degrees!
With temperatures breaking the 60 degree mark for the first
Saturday in Rochester in JANUARY, the volunteers of the R&GV
Railroad Museum took advantage of the warm weather to get ahead
on a few projects thought to be dormant until the Spring.
Museum volunteer, Randy Bogucki, works on a little ditching work in the wet,
but unfrozen ground. The dirt was loaded on to the push cart and taken up along
the museum's demonstration railroad where it was used for fill.
The Construction Department took the opportunity to try to push
start the museum's Caterpillar DW-15 pan. With the museum's Trojan
loader providing the motive power, the pan was pushed up the west
yard. The crew was successful in getting the old Cat to start for
a few minutes, but more work will be needed to getting the pan
running right. It was great to have a shot at it in January, however.
The R&GV Railroad Museum owns several Whiting Trackmobiles. These
unique vehicles with an apparent personality conflict can run over
the road on rubber tires to get into position and then lower the
themselves on to the rail to become a small locomotive. On the opposite
side of the #2 is the coupler which has a hydraulic ram that lifts
on the coupler of the car its is coupled to. This transfers weight
on to the Trackmobile so that it gets improved traction. #2 is fully
serviceable.
|
