Track Department

Saturday's gang began with Greg Frech, JD Marzec and Adam Robillard.  We received 100tons of ballast this past week and it was time once again to load ballast cars and continue working on surfacing yard 11 (outside of the barn) as well as the tail track lead at the Yard 13 diamond.  Greg and JD were on the Model 50 Burro crane crew and sorted material throughout the yard.  We had lots of scrap, rails, timbers, etc scattered all over the yard and they spent all morning loading the gondola and stacking material.    In the meantime, Adam loaded our green CNW ballast car with the Model 30 Burro crane.  Joel Ahrendt received his first lesson on the Model 30 as well and now has a good taste at what it takes to load a ballast car.  Typically each full car takes roughly a day (8hrs) to load with the clam shell bucket.  

By lunchtime, Adam had nearly 3/4 of the ballast car full and asked to use the diesel dept switch crew to help dump ballast.  Jim West and Warren Lloyd as the crew of the ComEd 15 switched Yard 11 and dumped 1/2 of the car on the tail track lead.  Jim West ran the engine while Warren, JD, Greg and Adam ran the doors. Finished with that Greg, JD and Adam got out the Amtrak regulator and regulated the freshly dumped ballast in prep for tamping.  Dark took hold soon after and we called it a day.

Sunday's gang was made up of Steve Lewkowycz, Jim West, Joel Ahrendt, Warren Lloyd and Adam Robillard.  The day's priority - Tamp and Regulate.  Steve L and Adam R started the day out by checking fluids and starting up the Amtrak 6000 tamper in Yard 11.  We took it to the Yard 11 tail track and set up the machine.  Steve L took to the controls for his first time and made the first pass with only a minor 'cord' problem which continued to short out and trip the circuit breaker.. A quick crop of the light buggy extension cord was in order but remedied quickly.  After the first pass was through we got the Amtrak regulator out and plowed stone to prep for the next pass.  By this time we were joined by Jim W and Warren L who helped finish the next few passes with the tamper.  Jim ran the tamper for the rest of the evening and did a fine job as this was only his second time at the controls.  We made three passes on the track now it no longer resembles a roller coaster.  Warren ducked out about the time Joel A showed up to help out.  The next steps were to tamp 11-4 and 11-2 tracks from the Barn to the switches.  We split into two gangs: Steve and Joel ran the ballast regulator while Jim and Adam ran the tamper.  We did our final passes on both tracks and the crew on the regulator had them both broomed and looking like mainline track by dark!  The 6000 ran great with no mechanical problems all day long.... Looks like the hard work over the past few months is paying off.  Thanks to all who helped this weekend, especially Joel Ahrendt, Jim West and Warren Lloyd visiting from the other departments, as we get ready to open up Barn 11!

Adam Robillard

IRM Track Dept

lzeje657@msn.com

Well it turns out Veteran's Day is an Amtrak holiday... know knew? Well the weather cooperated today so I head out with a list of one man jobs to accomplish. To my surprise, JD Marzec and Greg Frech both showed up willing to do track work! Turns out they had the day off as well. So with three people the job quickly turned to Yard 11. The job was to get 11-4 track ready for another pass with the tamper so the first task was to regulate the stone that was dropped a few weeks ago. After getting the regulator fired up, Greg and JD made a few quick passes with the plow and broom. After they finished the 6000 tamper and regulator were moved to Yard 10 to clear 11-4 track. We made our way to Track 24 to fire up the tie crane and motorcar/ powerpack combo. We had to replace a ~12ft stick of rail on 11-4 track to close a 3" gap in the curve. So Greg and JD both got a walkthrough on the machines and ran them over to yard 11 while I acted as the U-man on the ground. The three of us made quick work of removing the old rail and cutting/ installing the new rail. After the last spike was through we headed for lunch at Joe's.

After lunch we spent a few hours cleaning up material and prepping other jobs. Greg ran the tie crane and dropped some old wood in our scrap pile in Yard 14 and cleaned up misc ties while JD and I moved the 100lb track panel from the connector track to Yard 13 for the next yard track. JD did a great job running the crane and we had the panel moved and the crane put away little before sundown. All of the machines were put away and our tools cleaned up at a good hour and called it quits. Not bad for a Wednesday I'd say. I'll be out this weekend but it sounds like we'll be short Tom and Frank for sure. I hope to do more misc work in Yard 11, load scrap and repair the loose switch stand. Given the weather holds up of course. We may also do some more tamping with the 6000 if there is someone willing to learn the machine...

Until next time,
Adam Robillard
IRM Track Dept