Track Department

Thanks to the CN, and a malfunctioning crossing, I was up and out of the house by 5AM arriving at IRM at 6AM.

First task was to inspect Volkmann's work on the East switch. As Pete P reported earlier in the week, Volkmann was out and changing most of the long timbers in the switch. Overall it looks much better than before. There are a couple ties in wrong order, but not too bad. This switch was in really rough shape before they changed the ties. This switch should give many more years of good safe service with this work complete.

Next I got started with a much needed oil change on the Model 50 burro crane. I had originally planned to alter the drain plug with a 90 degree angle to provide a more down angle oil flow, so I don't ruin any more clothes, but I was doing this task so early, Napa and Ace were not open yet. A project for another time... I did manage to get the oil changed without soaking myself again.

Next task was to fuel up and clean out the Santa Fe truck. Lots of scrap wood, old boxes, cups, and bottles, along with one dead battery, were cluttering up the bed of the truck. Time to clean up. Once the trash was dumped, and the battery in 24 with the other dead battery, I went to pick up the smudge pots from the Santa Train weekends.

Task number next was to pull the radiator off the tie crane. Seems we have a very generous donor to donate an engine for the tie crane. They are even going to put it in for us! That saves us two days worth of work for us volunteers!!! When the engine let loose and ventilated itself in November, it blew the starter off the block, the oil filters off teh block and threw a chunk of cylinder liner into the radiator, puncturing it. So... off it came. 8 bolts, a couple hose clamps, and she was out. Once we had it out, I was amazed this thing was cooling anything! The vent fins were full of dirt, a large section clearly came in contact with the fan at some point, plus the new hole. I will take this to a radiator shop in Joliet and get it re-cored.

About the time I was getting the radiator out, Adam showed up. He went to talk to Dave and found him back by yard 10. He then discovered the 10/11 switch (not the one off the carline!) was gapped by almost 1 inch! YIKES! Had to fix that. In order to fix that, we decided it was time to put the switch tamper to work and see what's what after it's long battle back to restored service. Tom showed up shortly after we made our discovery. We pulled the 6000 into yard 3, to clear up for the switch tamper. Tom ran the tamper back to yard 10, while Adam gathered tools, and set up our work zone. We had a minor altercation as we took the tamper through the carline S curve. A push cart pin fell off the cart and wedged itself between the stock rail and guard rail, derailing the welding cart and hydraulic cart. By the time Tom got the tamper stopped, both carts went across the frog and re railed themselves. Best kind of derailment is the one you don't have to
clean up! We did knock the welder out of it's seat on the cart, which would require the burro to fix, but it wasn't so bad that it could not wait. On to the job site......

Since I had to leave at 3PM, I will leave the rest of the day's festivities to Tom or Adam in Saturday Track Report - Part 2.

Photos will be posted later.....

Frank D.