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.

...will keep the track department from completing their scheduled tasks.

So it was a typical spring day at Union today... Cloudy, with peeks of sun, occasional rain, and yes Virginia, Hail. For the most part it was simply cloudy and dry.

The day started around 8:30 with myself showing up and getting the Model 50 Burro fired up. Given the cool 40 degree weather, I needed to cut out one of the hydraulic pumps to get the engine to turn over and warm up. Tom showed up at 9AM and about the time the 50 was warmed up. We shut down, engaged the hydraulic pump and off to yard 13 for more work setting out track panels.

We had to work some strategy to the task today. We planned to set the last two panels already stacked near the broken rail for 13-4 track, set the remaining panels for 13-1 and 13-2. We needed to use lighter panels (read missing more ties) on 13-1 so as to not overload and tip the crane when setting those panels. We also had to stack the panels near the broken rail. The plan was to stack em, cross the broken rail light, and then lay them out.

We broke for lunch around 12:30 with only the panels across the broken rail to set. We came back and made short work of setting the panels, and adjusting a few more on the good side of the break. Some OTM was picked up, a few loose ties moved out of the way, and we headed back to the barn. Upon our arrival back on 11-2 track, we found the track cart from the dog pull last week. We set that off, and parked the crane. About that time, Steve showed up in time to help fuel and add hydraulic fluid to the machine, and get the rail tongs on the hook for tomorrow.

The panels for yard 13 are now all laid out, with one spare for filling in some gaps. Cropping and drilling are next. We will have to get the hydraulic cart moved over to yard 11, so it is close to the work. Adam and Marcus will be the Sunday gang.

New photos have been posted on the IRM members photos website at http://www.irm.org/gallery/album247

Frank D.

Today started later than usual with Tom and myself as the crew. We started around 9:30 with a fuel up of the 50 burro, the 30 burro, and the regulator. We then set to work to fix the starting circuit after the wiring harness melted on the overheated engine a couple weeks ago. A replacement low voltage circuit was installed with a new starting switch installed in the battery switch compartment. Much easier than trying to use jumpers under the crane. Once installed we tested the fix, and then went to work with the 50.

Today's plan was to set out more track panels back in yard 13. Last week we set out enough panels for 13-4 track. This track is laid out with mostly 100lb rail, with some 112 panels at the end. During our work we found two more 100 lb panels, one on the Rock flat, and one at the bottom of one of the stacks. These were dug out and set aside just before the rail break on 13-3 track. Once the rail break is fixed we will finish setting these two panels. During our work to get to the panel on the rock flat, we had to lift 3 rather difficult panels off the flat. We elected to pick them and set them over for 13-1 track. The first panel was not too bad. The second took multiple attempts and some heavier chains due to crossing panels and asphalt on the panel, to pick the panel off the car. We set that one, and found the next to be even more covered and much much heavier. We rigged the panel and began the lift. we swung it around and got ready to set it for 13-1 track. As Tom was lowering the boom to get the panel into position, the two wheels opposite the load lifted off the rails. Quick work by Tom got the load set down and the crane settled back down onto the rails. For a few brief seconds the back wheels were a good 4 to 6 inches off the rail!!! Talk about an E ticket Ride!!!! Tom had approximately 16 thousand pounds on the hook at that time. We decided that we would NOT do that again! We took the opportunity to stop and get lunch around 3PM.

As we were cleaning up for lunch, we got NICK'd. We were volunteered to help move a rather large painting in a crate over to the Strahorn Library. Nick, Buzz, Tom and Myself met Barb at the museum, and made quick work of loading the crate into the library. It made it into the door with centimeters to spare. We did get a slight glimpse of the painting. Can't wait to see it all the way out of the crate.

We returned to pick the last panel off the Rock flat, and set that, then started on the Eastern most stack of panels where 13-2 is going to be. We set several for 13-1 and set a couple panels from last week flat on 13-2. All of them in the 8 to 10 thousand pound range.... All in all we handled about 18 track panels and have them set. Another day like this and we should have all the track panels set out for the yard.

We wrapped up the day by moving the now empty rock flat to yard 14, and put the burro back on 11-1 track. A little clean up, some hospitality from the Silver car guys in the form of a cold drink, and it was time to head for home.

Next up will be some cropping of the rails to length and to remove the torch cut ends. We will have to find some 100, 112 and 115 lb bars and see what we will need for comp bars. Once we know what the drillings will be we can start with drilling holes for bars. Some final moves with the crane and we can bolt up tracks. Easy to type, easy to read, but still a lot of work. We also have some misc. ties, frogs, points, etc that have to be moved out of the way. Long range plan for some ballast as well.

Photos have been posted on the IRM Member photo site. http://www.irm.org/gallery/album247

Frank D.