Wednesday May 5: I emptied the tie barrel and when
Brayden came, we went down to the trestle with #3 and put spray paint
on the ties that needed to come out and penetrating oil on the bolts
that needed to come out. With that done, we went to Bruce
Phillips work place and picked up my lag bolt order and more solution
for dipping ties. He hooked up his trailer and we went with him
and bought 6 4x4x10 treated lumber to cut up for ties for the trestle.
Brayden and I cut them to 30 inches and placed them in the dip barrel.
After that we took the Bruce Bus down to the trestle and unbolted the
bolts that needed to come out. We tried to take out the lag
bolts for the ties but they were to tight for the tools we had.
That was it for the day.
Thursday May 6: I
got the John Deere out and took tools down to dig around the bottom
sill of the trestle as I saw they were being overrun with dirt.
I got three bents free of dirt and went back to the barn for lunch.
After Lunch I tried to start the John but nothing happened when I
turned to key. I started to trouble shoot it but we got drizzle
from the sky so I covered her up and cut up more wood for regular
ties. That brought me to quitting time.
Friday, May 7: First
up was taking the ties out of the barrel and reloading with regular
one. After that I went back to figure out the John Deere.
I saw 13 volts at the battery lug so guess the solenoid wasn’t
passing power. I took out the starter and called Bill.
After Lunch, I went back to the trestle with tools and worked on
digging out 3 more bents. Only 6 more to go.
(1st row, first
3 pics)
Saturday, May 08: I
emptied the tie barrel and reloaded first thing. Then it was
spraying for weeds the rest of the day. It takes a lot of mix to
cover the RR. I got Clear Lake to the East switch at Kat Jct.
done so there will be more to do. Scott and Adam Wright came
back and Scott put the lettering on #7
(1st row, 4th pic)
and Adam put the air compressor back together and it would pump on air
so I feel we will have it working ok on steam. Next up is the
plumbing to supply steam and take the air to the tanks.
Sunday, May 09: I
wanted to re-look at the starter for the John and hooked it up on the
workbench to the sprayer battery and it worked. I then took out
the old battery. Put the starter back in and put the sprayer battery
in and it started. I took the battery to get tested and it
failed. So a new battery has her running sweet again. With
rain drops appearing from time to time, I worked in the Roundhouse on
the plumbing for the air compressor. I got the steam side done
and started on the air delivery but found I needed an 1/8 inch pipe
coupler to continue.
(2nd row, 1st pic)
Monday, May 10:
Trestle tie work. Al Bell & Bob Milhaupt came over to help with
this project. We took out 22 and put in 22. Need to add
the rail spikes tomorrow
(2nd row, 2 in middle).
Adam Wright came over to work on plumbing the air pump and testing it
on steam. It didn’t pump any more on steam than air. We
were disappointed!
(2nd row, last pic)
- - Tom
Click
any picture to expand, then scroll thru the rest. Note: these were
recievd in small format.
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