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