Workday Wednesday - July 24th

July 24th Workday Wednesday Events

A large crowd made it out to Fred's this Wednesday morning.

A wide variety of projects were worked on.

Some were completed on this day while others will require further attention.

Fred has hung the lovely clock Marcel gifted to him a couple of weeks ago in the crew lounge under the canopy.

 

Here's Doug & George.

Handsome Henk!

"Hands on" Chris  works with another umbrella pole as Fred looks on.

Love the Catalina aircraft!

It's Billy Boy!

Here's George!

"Why does it rain when we need to get work done?" Garry wonders as Pat reads his mind.

No worries about the rain when we have a great crew lounge protected by a large canopy!

Doug is working on the window openings for the Bell station.

Lots of "trial and error" filing and fitting.

A door and a window are now in as the second window requires further attention.

We thank Chris for 3D printing the windows and doors.

Doug takes a break and Bill takes over.

Video from around the work table under the canopy in the rain.

The conversation in the video turns to just how difficult it is for high school students to find summer employment.

Bill finds himself as a video star working on the station!

Len & Lorna spent the morning inside conducting house cleaning which Fred greatly appreciates!

Bernie bends down and I stand on tippie-toes for this fun image!

Bernie and I took on the job of sorting out all of the ore car bins in order to avoid confusion for when we go to set out the ore cars before each session.

The bins are labelled for both standard and narrow gauge ore cars as well as for loads and empties.

Bernie holds an example of each car.

This is a narrow gauge ore car with the simulated wood.

This is a standard gauge car with its steel sides.

Check out the wide gap between the two rail sections on both rails directly across from each other.   

The location is on the curve where trains departing Peter's Pond head beneath St. Helen's.  

During last Saturday's session we experienced numerous derailments at this location.

Chris and I got down to the work at hand.  I removed this level from its ruler in order to have a small one that would fit in between the concrete slabs.  

We soon discovered that for half of the curve the rails canted to the outside and for the other half of the curve the rails canted to the inside.  

The inside cant would be appropriate for super elevation.

After much trial and error we adjust the elevation of the tracks here and we eliminated the gaps in the rail.

A few boxcars were run through to ensure proper operation...and we do have a touch of appropriate super-elevation leaning to the inner side of the curve.

We now have a concrete seat to view the action!  

We have made the decision to eliminate the tunnel and keep the trackwork open to the skies to allow us to monitor and assess the situation here.  

Originally the tunnel was placed there to protect the tracks from folks who had to walk over to the turnout on the elevated track at St. Helens.  

Andrew installed a cable choke there, so really, there is no need to walk in this area at all.

On another day we will pull up the entire curve and place lumber beneath where we can then nail down some of the ties.

For the time being ballast holds the track and ties in place.

For this coming Saturday's operations we will place a "slow order restriction" through the area and ask the crews to observe their train carefully when they take the curve.

Bernie kindly labelled the two turnout throws which Andrew put in sometime last year.

Chris advised Doug that he could also file the windows to allow them to fit in the openings.

A collection of 3D printed windows for the station.

Hey...the sun finally made an appearance!

Garry brought out this little 0-4-0 switcher in CN colours.

He also has this cool looking tender!  The angled wafer reads, "Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific".

Garry also had this tender on the boardroom table.

Some sound work.

Coffee anyone?

What does Bernie have in these packages?  Small metal L-brackets.

Time to stabilize the new Nelson Yard engine house by adhering it permanently to the planking at Nelson Yard.

We must thank Bob for his electrical efforts here!

Also kudos to Bill, Doug & Chris for the creation of the structure!

The L-brackets go in.

Mike works in the confined space.

"Hi Bernie!" Mike calls out.

Speaking of Bernie, he has painted yet another track bumper so that it stands out.

Bernie has also made these new signs.

The lettering looks great Bernie!

Mike has the dispatch hut all organized and ready for this coming Saturday's operating session.

Another glance at the tree in Ironwood that has now taken on the appearance of rusted iron!

Here's Len!

There's Bernie!

Where's Chris?  Oh...there he is holding up one of the trees on Fred's property!

Here's Henk!

There's George, Pat & Bill.

What in the jeepers are these three lads up to?

Aha...placing a section of lumber to raise the back leg of the benchwork in Craig Leigh.

Chris & Bernie.

Skipper Pat.

Fred locks up the office.

Chris's mode of transportation seeing as he lives only a few blocks away from Fred's home.

Hey, check out some more images of the recent "Lock & Paddle" courtesy of the Citizen newspaper.

Tiny bubbles in a colourful environment!

Beach balls anyone!

Open the gates, let me out!

Speaking of colour, how about the bi-coloured lillies which are thriving in our rust garden.

Lovely.

While wearing orange, none of my colleagues at school are as rusty as 66-year old me!  I recently saw some of them at a summer retirement party we gave for another colleague.

There's no rust in the minds of these students on our "orange day" a handful of years ago in my classroom.  Perhaps a bit of rust on me in back there though!

Here's "Friendly Fred" enjoying a beverage as the rain pours down around us.

Indeed, the rain eventually let up and we were able to get a ton of tasks dealt with.

Thanks for checking in on our Workday Wednesday activities!

We are the OVGRS of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada