Workday Wednesday Efforts From August 14th

August 14th Workday Wednesday Session

A handful of friends made it out today for our WDWD maintenance session.

A diverse array of projects were completed over the two and a half hours on property.

Some tractor magic and umbrella magic materialized rather quickly!

Hey, check out this awesome labeling for our Maintenance of Way tool cart as designed by Chris!

Way too cool!

Here is the original decal sheet Chris produced.

Awesome!

Wowsers!!!  Fred's tractor gets some identification marks thanks once again to Chris!

Here Chris is carefully removing the lettering decal sheet from its master sheet.

Magic!

Brilliant Chris!

The application takes place!

Video of such application.

Chris sent me this image of the completed lettering of Fred's tractor as I had to leave Fred's place early.

Hey, the lawn looks great - nice and neat and tidy!

All thanks to skipper Henk!

George gets to work trimming the hedge along the western property line that manages to creep through the chainlink fencing.

The lawn mower is too wide to access the area between Glen Hammond and Nelson Yard so George uses the whipper snipper here.

Lookie here!  Bill Williams arrives the property!

He brings with him some train items for sale including this lovely green locomotive.

This hand car will look great once the couplers are changed out.

Alas, George was on site and purchased the "whole shebang!" from Bill.

What's this box for?

Aha...one of our new umbrellas!

I took on the task of installing two of these puppies at Bell.  Here I have just rested the larger base pipe Fred had on the property up against the fascia to see if the umbrella pipe fits in...and it does.

I have opened the umbrella and momentarily checked out its configuration.  Yes, it is leaning slightly but that will be fixed when I hammer the larger base pole deep into the ground.

Houston - we have a problem!  The ideal location for the umbrella is directly across the aisle from the pedestrian walkover where some of our taller operators will bump their heads on the opened umbrella while traversing the crossing.

"Problems are opportunities for solutions!" has always been one of Mike's favourite expressions so he filled the larger pipe with some gravel to allow the umbrella base to rise a number of inches above our 6'3" test subject - Master Henk!  Chris gets a kick as he looks on from in back the scene.

In this first "test" video we find Henk's head bumping into the umbrella.

I have now added more gravel into the larger pipe to allow the umbrella's pipe to ride higher within.  In this video we clearly see Henk navigating the pedestrian "step over" with no problem!
 

The crank works perfectly.

I have installed the metal clamp to the fascia to add greater rigidity.

We have no more larger piping available on property and I want to get the second umbrella up, so I have to saw a short piece of lumber to act as a base for the second umbrella to rest atop over at Bell.

Here I am burning a few calories!

Note the wooden section acting as a base and the two clamps helping to keep the umbrella pole in line.  We will purchase another wider pole and this "Rube Goldberg" affair will be taken down and dealt with properly.

The view from outside my dispatch booth.

The new umbrellas are now up!

They will certainly assist in keeping our operators a tad cooler while working Bell.

Lovely!  One is more golden in colour and the other more rusty brown.  Great diversity there!

Meanwhile, back in the boardroom Fred has his hands full working on modern standard gauge equipment for Grant Smith from Cold Lake, Alberta.

The couplers will be changed out on this heavy duty flatcar.

Likewise this one!

A lovely hopper car.

A modern gondola.

Yum Yum!  This puppy needs trucks and couplers!

Our very own Doug Culham lettered this gorgeous heavyweight brown coloured baggage car for the IPP&W road.

Ironwood...

...Peter's Pond...

 

...& Western.

Chris, Henk & Fred hang out in the boardroom before we get the maintenance underway!

A smile from Henk!

And one from George!

George tells me he actually attended the 2002 FIFA World Cup!

Cool cap!

Before leaving Fred's I grabbed up five screwdrivers to bring with us to Barry's in Belleville tomorrow.

I added green masking tape around the narrow area of the handle as a form of identification that these five screwdrivers belong in the dispatch booth back at Fred's and will be returned with us back to Ottawa.

Hey Mike, artsy shot there!

Well, that's all from me (seen with two other teacher colleagues) for this blog entry.

Another cool looking cap!

And who is wearing that cap - none other than Senor Frederick!

Thanks for checking in on all the creative maintenance covered on this day.

Hopefully the weather forecast is inaccurate as we have rain coming our way for the weekend so let's keep our fingers crossed for sun!

We are the WDWD Crew of the OVGRS living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada