Saturday's gang completed work by 10AM... but I'm getting ahead of the story.
A
plan was hatched to get the gang together Friday night and go out to
spike and plate. Marcus arrived way early and was out plating from
around noon to 4 with Bob Olson. Around 6 the gang changed to Marcus,
Mark Gelman, Mark Riemers, with a special guest visitor Bobby Ryan, and
myself. First we loaded the last 12 kegs of spikes into the spiker ...
just in case, and then headed out onto the main setting up an out of
service at East Switch. We got out just in time for the Switch Fest
2013 to begin prep for the Trolly parade. We went out to where Bob and
Marcus left off plating, and set to work. Mark Riemers started spiking
the north rail and working his way back west, while Marcus and Bobby
Ryan ran
the plater, working East. Mark Gellman and I set plates and cleaned out
cribs for the jaws of the plater to grab the rail. We worked till
almost 10PM when we ran out of light. Somewhere towards the end Mark
Riemers turned the spiker on the wye. We tied up for the night, with
Bobby heading to his hotel in Rockford, Marcus going to pick up Gwen,
and Mark, Mark, and I going to Joes for dinner.
Saturday
Morning, The plan... Finish the job. Start time 05:30 We tied down
the machines on the main in our out of service Friday night, so it was
simply fire up and go to work. And work we did. We were slightly
better equipped for the cribbing job, having grabbed a couple picks and
the job went well. Mark went back to spiking - South rail this time,
Mark Gellman, and Marcus ran the plater, and were helped when Bobby
Ryan joined us again, and I went to cleaning cribs. Mark
Riemers helped with cribs when he caught up with the spiking. As we
reached the end of the work, I also did some tie crane work stacking the
dead wood for pick up later. In the end we completed work, picked up
the plater and put it back ont he flat, and ran back to our OOS limits.
On the way Bill Lygiros was found to be stacking old spikes as he
walked in from Karstens.
I think we surprised the dispatcher by
showing up before being called to clear up. We were in 24 track long
before the first revenue train left. He also left with a great deal of
relief on the slow orders. Thanks to the final push by the gang, we
picked up two slow orders, annulled one line of the Summary GO, and gave
them a railroad they can run on. Only one slow order remains, and that
is due to the swerve left over from the tamper losing it's mind. I'm
working on a plan to go out one evening with the a loco and
use jacks to smooth out the dipsy do, and air tamp the ties to get that
last slow order off. After the paperwork, and anulling the bulletins
with the dispatcher, the crew was off to breakfast at Dino's...
Of
course the RR gods could not let us accomplish this much without their
games. As I was rolling into 24 track with the tie crane, she lost
power and started smoking like an Alco going from start to run 8. It
was discovered the Temporary fix of the air box intake pipe had failed,
getting partially sucked into the intake. Mark Riemers delicately
ripped it off the machine, and replaced it with the proper flex steel
pipe we picked up later from Napa.
A new battery was also picked
up for the hydraulic power pack and a new battery terminal crimped
on. JD is still working on a replacement hydraulic hose to replace the
one that was damaged when it shorted to the battery.
Marcus
and Bobby were the Car line dispatchers from the tail track switch to
the S curves for helping put away the fleet. No small task to be sure.
I can honestly say, I have never seen barns 6,7 and 8 so empty before
in my time at IRM!
So
Nice work this week IRM Track crew! Job well done. We now move to
the clean up phase of the project. picking up spikes, spiking up the
last few ties on the north rail due to submarined ties, and then
regulating.
Frank D.
