Work Day Wednesday - July 10th

Wednesdays, when the weather permits, a bunch of the lads gather to work on the railroad property.

Fred worked with great diligence installing this cabinet in the crew lounge.

Ya done good, Fred!

Thanks to Henk for donating said cabinet in the first place!

Ah, yes.  The tool box, Chief!
Not the tool box, Max!

Lawrence is fishing for a part while Pat does some landscaping.

There's Lawrence's hat.  But where is Lawrence?

Oh well...as long as he got the work done on that siding to the right.

Lawrence installed some jaw clamps to better hold the rails together at the west house track in Bell.  Seems there was a problem there last ops session.

No more posing, Pat...get back to work!

Who should talk, Mr. Hamer.

Bernie's relaxing, so why can't I?

Because Bernie's been working hard!

So have I...

Flowers in the woodland garden up behind the pond.

The pond looks great as well.  Fred tells us that it has been losing a bit of water.  Could be a leak, or could be just evaporation from all this sunny weather we've been experiencing.

The rust garden.

Protected by Myrtle the Turtle!

Bernie sent along these next four pics.

The great thing about Work Day Wednesdays is that we can hold some interesting discussions on potential layout design with regard to the railroad.

Here, Lawrence is explaining some potential new track arrangement we could design (down the road) for the west end of the line to make it more interesting for the yard master there.  In the recent year or so, great ideas came from these brainstorming sessions and the yard master in Craig Leigh at the eastern end of the line has been the benefactor of these changes as well as a major contributor to the ideas.  The developments in Craig Leigh have been positive for the entire railroad.  Of course, we would discuss "future" arrangements at the western end of the line with the yard master, and the other important lad...chief bottle water and cuspidor, before proceeding...but that's for way off in the future.

Down in Rat Portage we look at the single opposing siding housing the latest industry installed there last year.  One of the opponents to having the siding there now finds he enjoys the challenge of switching out the industry.  He tells us that it is the first siding he references on his train orders when he arrives Rat Portage as an RP&M crew mate.  He's a smart conductor!  Before this siding was installed, all switching in Rat Portage was handled in the same direction and RP&M crews finished their runs earlier than IPP&W crews.  With the addition of this siding and a host of other RP&M industries outside Nelson Yard, the train times have found better balance.  

Oh , yes! That puzzle Barry brought from Belleville.

A donation was place by "Yours Truly" in the glass jar...and the puzzle is done!  A great theme for a puzzle, I say.

I just completed this "Father's Day" gift...a puzzle of a lad trying out a Gibson guitar in a guitar shop with his son.  While I only have daughters, I frequent guitar shops quite a bit as you can see by my Fender Stratocaster and Gibson ES-339, two of my many axes.  Yes, guitars have strange names just like locomotives.  "ES" in the guitar name stands for "Electro-Spanish" just as "RS" in the diesel name RS3 stands for "Road Switcher".  You've learned something about guitars today...cool, eh?

Back on track...pardon the pun...Fred offers up a smile for us all as we await our next train ops to be held this coming Saturday morning when steam will rule the kingdom!

Have a great rest of the week!  

Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada