Track Department

SEPTEMBER 26-27, 2009

Last weekend was a big weekend in Yard 11.  Our dept was joined by three volunteers from the Minnesota Transportation Museum, Andy Inserra, Phil Wellman and Eric Hopp in addition to our IRM gang Frank D, Tom H, Adam R and our most recent addition, Mike Weber.  The task was to do as much work in Yard 11 as possible with two full days and a good group of guys ready to work.  In previous weeks we have been actively loading ballast into our two C&NW ballast cars and dumping them on yard tracks as needed as well as repairing the 6000 tamper.  Saturday we split into numerous gangs throughout the day while we ran our "production surfacing gang" in the Barn.  While tracks were being tamped with the 6000 tamper, other crews were busy loading ballast cars with the Model 30 Burro crane, regulating stone on the yard tracks and dumping stone with the Model 50 Burro crane.  At one point it was truly an impressive scene with three work gangs working on seperate tracks at once!  The crew from Minnesota did a great job learning the machines and jumping into the jobs.  (Some of them have backgrounds in track and signals and are also the MTM's track dept...) Saturday night we all worked well past dark which was possible due to the ceiling lights inside of the Barn.  We called it quits for the night and made it to the Truck Stop for dinner a bit after midnight. 

Sunday most of us returned for another day of tamping and regulating in the Barn.  Like all track machines a few problems came up with the 6000 tamper later in the day shutting down the operation.  A few parts failed 'inside' of the machine and for anyone who knows the machine also knows how dirty it is to get under, in between and 'inside' of the it for any reason...  We had a few spare parts which we reinstalled and helped us get through the evening but more parts are on order which will complete this round of repairs and get us rolling again.  The work didn't stop there as another track was regulated and the west end of 11-4 track was lined with the assistance of Nick K in the Bobcat.  By the end of the weekend we had finished tamping 11-4 track, nearly finished 11-3 and made the first lift on 11-2 track.  Each track requires 3-5 lifts with the tamper for their entire lengths to get the track upto the proper height and alignment.  Ballast was dumped on 11-3 and 11-4 tracks and both tracks regulated.  It was a VERY successful weekend and proves how much we can accomplish when the machines work properly and most importantly when we have many hands helping out.  Track work is not an easy activity to say the least...  Thanks to the gang from Minnesota again, we really apprectiate your help!

Adam Robillard

lzeje657@msn.com

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OCTOBER 3-4, 2009

This past weekend, Tom H, Frank D and Adam R were out Sunday to continue repairs on the tamper, load ballast and pick up material on the mainline.  An urgent request was made to clean up some Track and Line Dept material near the interchange track for the unloading the the new Santa Fe loco in the coming weeks.  Frank was the first one out this morning and fired up the Model 50 Burro crane.  I arrived shortly after and we picked up the C&NW flatcar and headed West toward the interchange. 

There we met up with Tom H and John N and the four of us loaded a complete track diamond, misc rails and OTM and good number of old line poles and wooden planks which have all been in the weeds for well over a year.  The Burro crane made quick work of the job and impressively lifted the 8000lb diamond onto the car with little trouble.  We made our way back to Yard 11, tied down the train and went to lunch.  After lunch and a quick stop to Napa, I split from Tom and Frank and went back to the interchange with the tie crane and flat carts to finish the clean up job.  In the meantime Tom and Frank worked on the tamper in Yard 11.  They made significant progress but there is still more work to be done on the tamper and a few bugs to work out during the week.  Throughout the day Frank also spent time loading the next ballast car with the X-17.  It turned out to be another late day for us all.  I can't remember the last time we've gone home before dark but the Barn is important to us and we're committed to finishing the track portion as soon as possible.  Next weekend we're planning to continue work in Barn 11.  Help is needed to load and dump more ballast on the finished track, 11-4.  There is a lot of hand work at the West end of all four tracks to finish raising and leveling the tracks where the tamper cannot reach.  Shoot me an email or talk to any of the Track Dept volunteers if you'd like to come out and help us complete Barn 11.

Adam Robillard
lzeje657@msn.com

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OCTOBER 10-11, 2009

Saturday's crew consisted of Frank D, Tom H, Steve L, Steve's friend Josh Gould, and Adam R.  As in previous weeks the big project is finishing Yard 11.  The day started early for Frank who was able to get the tamper temporarily fixed making it operable once again.  With things looking positive we fired up the tamper and got to work... Thankfully Nick showed up shortly after and gave us a little pep talk.  My favorite quote from the conversation- "Get as much done before the tamper breaks again, it's already past due for a break down..."  Mind you we hadn't been tamping for more than 15 minutes at this point.  More on that later...

We all focused the next few hours tamping 11-2 track and 11-3 track.  By 12:30 we had 2 track and 3 tracks completely raised and ready for stone.  But as expected the tamper failed just as we were finishing 3 track.  The pin which holds the entire workhead assembly to the hydraulic cylinder snapped, the workhead fell to the ground and busted the hydraulic cylinder and hoses.... Sigh.  Well all hope wasn't lost and the next few hours were spent working on the current failure and replacing parts from last weekend's failures...  Needless to say we got a lot done on the machine and we'll be up and running this weekend. 

I left early but the rest of the gang stayed late Saturday dumping another round of ballast on the finished tracks. The majority of the work inside of the barn is done.  Three passes with the tamper on one track and the tamping will be done.  We need to manually lift the last 20' on each of the yard tracks, finish ballasting (including loading one more car of stone), regulating, and we will be finished with the track portion of the project indoors.  IF all goes well next weekend I can see us being out of the Barn within the next 2-3 weeks. 

Sunday was very low key in comparison.  I was the only one out and spent a few hours sorting the recently arrived switch timbers near the connector track.  Next month Volkmann, our track contractor, will be out replacing switch ties on a number of mainline and carline switches.  Our obligation in the dept is to distribute all of the ties and pick up the old ties afterward.  This cuts costs dramatically and helps speed up the process.  All of the switch ties are laid out along side of the connector track and marked for length.  With the tie crane we'll pick up the ties we need for each switch and lay them out along the tracks.  This is another time consuming project but also very important in maintaining our railroad and keeping it safe to use.  The cold weather is upon us so it's important to keep the block heaters in the machines plugged in at the end of the day.  The Model 50 is plugged in at Yard 11.  The tie crane is too far from the door at Tk24 to get a cord to right now, so we'll need to switch out and clean up the tie carts to make room.  More photos from the Track Dept can be found in Frank DeVries' photo album here: http://www.irm.org/gallery/icemancne and my photo album here: http://www.irm.org/gallery/lzeje657

Adam Robillard
Roadmaster - Track

Our task this past weekend was to construct the new 11-4 track inside of the Barn in yard 11.  We had a really good group out Saturday to work taking time from their normal tasks to help us out.  The crew was the regular track gang, Frank D, Tom H, Steve L and Adam R and we were joined by Jamie K, Pete P, Warren L from the diesel dept and Erik M, a long distance volunteer from Nebraska. 

Friday Frank D, Andy C and Erik M came out to prep for the day.  They spiked up the remaining ties from last weekend and got tools, machines and material ready for Saturday.  When we arrived Saturday we split into three groups.  The first group used the Model 50 Burro crane and shuttled panels into the Barn and set them into place.  That group consisted of Tom H at the controls of the Burro and Jamie K and Warren L hooking, walking and setting each panel into place.  The second group consisted of Frank D, Pete P and Erik M hooking each panel up and inserting ties under joints.  The last gang was myself, Adam R, on the X-17 Model 30 Burro topping off the ballast cars from our ballast pile out the Barn door.

By lunch we had all but three panels set, and both ballast cars loaded (kinda overloaded...) ready to be dumped.  It was very hot out so we kept cool with a cooler of ice and water.  Dave Diamond also came over to help realign the track at the Barn door sill with the backhoe.

After lunch we regained our strength and finished up building the entire track to the west end of the Barn!  Bob Olson and myself ran into the material yard for a quick trip to locate more joint bars while the Erik ran our hydraulic rail saw cropping the ends of the rails and getting the last short panel set.  The next step before ballast was to finish up the Quality Control work and spiked up all of the joint ties with the air compressor suspended from the Burro crane and spiking gun.  Steve L did a great job nipping the ties while Frank D and Jamie K preset the spikes.  Adam R ran the spiking gun and Tom H kept the air compressor moving along in the Burro Crane. Once we cleaned up our mess from the construction it was time to do a rough alignment of the track to make surfacing easier later on.  We hooked a chain to the Burro and at an angle and tugged on the track to drag it into place, 15’ from 11-3 track.

With a motivated crew, we figured the next reasonable step would be to dump ballast on our new track.  Jamie K and Pete P grabbed the USA 8537 to dump the ballast.  An attempt to move the cars with the Model 50 burro proved to be too much on the tough grade into the barn.  Adam R, Pete P, Tom H and Steve L ran the four ballast doors while Frank D and Jamie K ran the move.  We dumped the entire track with a car and a half of stone in a matter of minutes.  Our last task, due to the dwindling light, was to plow out the ballast with our new Amtrak Ballast regulator to prep for the tamper.  This was the first time we’ve used this machine and I think we can all say it was an amazing success.  A few minor tweaks and lack of use issues came up, but we did manage to run the machine down the entire track without any real problems.  It will be a good machine once we get it through ‘our shop.’ 

With this said, 11-4 track is completely built! This Saturday we will begin the process of getting the Amtrak Jackson 6000 tamper adjusted, lubed and running and hopefully continue to reload our ballast cars.  Until the electrical portions of the building are complete, we will work on raising 11-4 track inside the barn and tamping the approaches to the doors outside of the barn.  This will be a process of raising, dumping stone, regulating, raising…and so on.  We need to raise the track up nearly a foot in some places and that will take time. 

Congrats to everyone so far who’s helped on this project.  The help from within the museum really makes things easier for everyone working and shows the commitment they have toward the museum.  To find more pics on the Yard 11 project Frank D regularly updates his page here: http://www.irm.org/gallery/album182 Check ‘em out. Thanks,

 

Adam Robillard

IRM Roadmaster

Today we took a large step toward the completion of Barn 11. The gang today was Frank, Trackbolt, Steve and myself. The goal today was to build off the newly constructed switch and extend the track into the Barn and begin setting track panels inside the building on the new 11-4 track.

Frank and Trackbolt (Frank's daughter) were the first ones out and had the yard sorted and tools prepped for the days work. When I showed up Frank and I hooked up the first short track panel. We made a few cuts, drilled a few holes and installed a few ties. By lunch the first panel was in place!

After lunch Steve joined us and we started by installing the first long track panel which extends through the door sills. The Model 50 Burro crane made quick work of the actual install process and the rest of the sweat was getting everything in line and bolted together. Once the panel through the door was in place we brought in the next two panels, laid them in place and bolted them up as well. Nick joined us with the bobcat and backhoe and helped place some stone on the new track to make it safe to travel across. Dave D. helped us engineer the tracks through the door sill and find our eventual rail height. There is a lot of QC work to be done on this new stretch of track but nothing our own track dept isn't capable of handling. We will need to finish spiking up a couple of ties, tamp the barn approaches and insert ties under the joints between panels.

From here on out the rest of the track will be built 'relatively easily' with the remaining track panels and Model 50 Burro crane. We have the air compressor and hydraulic power tools to assist us in the construction. The entire process works best with 3-4 people. Anyone is free to join in during this process. We always appreciate the help!

Next Saturday we will again spend the day working on Barn 11 out of the Thomas spotlight. We will attempt to complete the work on the new portion and place more track panels. Our two ballast cars have been loaded by our Model 30 Burro crane and bucket and are ready to be dumped on the track soon. Frank was the "official" photographer for the day and he'll be posting pics in his Member's Photo page on the IRM site soon.

Thanks,

Adam Robillard, Roadmaster