Workday Wednesday Antics September 4th

Workday Wednesday Antics - September 4th

Seven folks gathered in the crew lounge on this beautiful Wednesday morning.

Some work was conducted beneath the canopy on the main table.

Other work had to be dealt with precariously trackside.

Upon my arrival Chris was busy weeding the right of way.

Pat was occupied with the lawn mowing...

...and with clearing the track of debris with our trusty blower!

Bill & Doug were making headways with the depot for Bell.

She's coming together nicely lads!

Bill is hard at work attaching wooden strips for the purpose of elevating the station so that it does not rest on the benchwork where water would collect underneath.

That's a fine strategy in my books!

The dynamic duo!

Doug then goes about painting the strips to further protect them from the weather.

Good thinking...that...too!

Oh oh...it's a sign warning us of...

...no Bill Scobie's allowed in the lounge!

Just teasing ya there Bill.  Hey, check out his aviation themed shirt on this day!

Yes, Fred gets 'down and dirty" with the rest of us!

This is that 'wonky' turnout which was causing grief during our recent operating session.  The 'throw' for the turnout is located on a stand quite far away at the old Blockhouse location.

The turnout was throwing across okay, but when you wanted the turnout to return to allow traffic to route along the nearer track...the points did not throw all the way back.  Thus...derailments...or what I call "service interruptions"!

Chris sent this image of two gentlemen honouring the ground we crawl on!  Even the sun basked us in all our glory!  Heh heh!

Chris also reset the choke cable on the stand here at Blockhouse and then lubricated the cable.

I have brought out my CN road switcher as a test locomotive and have added a few cars into a consist in order to test out the turnout.

This video demonstrates the issue.  As just mentioned, when an operator throws the turnout on the turnout stand, the points move over perfectly but when the operator goes to return the turnout to its original position, the points do not pull across all the way.

In this video you will note at the beginning how the far point settles perfectly against the far rail.  After my train passes through the switch I use the elevated lever on the stand to throw the turnout and you will note that the near point does not return properly and does not tuck in perfectly to the near rail.

Fred repaired the situation by pulling the choke cable further away from the turnout and using the staple gun to ensure the choke cable remained in position.  We are not sure how long this 'fix' will last seeing as the actual wood beneath the turnout is rotten.

Works perfectly on this video.

We approach the turnout from the Nelson Yard end in this video and we back our train through the turnout perfectly and all is fine!

Here is Mr. Detroit Red Wings...Doug.

Fred had to repair the staple gun in order to conduct the work at that turnout near the Fallentree Mine.

Break time!

Yes, everyone has been working pretty hard all morning!

To adhere the roofing, Bill brushed glue atop the wooden base.

He did the same over the roofing material and let the two areas 'set' for a while.

Then our dynamic duo adding caulking to a window that had released from the Glen Hammond station they had built earlier in the year.

Men at work!

Yes, we all were 'sniffing glue' on this fine, bright, lovely, incredible, psychedelic, groovy...morning! 😎😍😌😋😂😀

Chris had mentioned to me that there was also a turnout at the end of a choke cable back in Craig Leigh that required attention, so I hopped aboard my RS3 and made strides toward the east.

The quickest way for me to get there was through the 'bridge route' of the Rat Portage & Mattawa Railway.

Here I am reaching the station down in Rat.

I enter the tunnel and all is well...

...until...I reach the outer extremity of Spruce.

It seems this stunted Spruce tree has sent out rather stiff tentacles which impeded with my train's progress!

Yes, this single branch over top the boxcar roof demonstrates the lack of clearance here.  In this instance the stiff armature is of the 'trailing' variety and does not cause the cars to fall off the tracks.

But the earlier armatures were of the 'facing' variety and, being so stiff, they immediately made an impact with my train!

I reach Craig Leigh to find Chris already making a positive difference with the lubricating oil.

Hey, check out that wonky boxcar at the rear of my train in this video of my departure out from the Glen.  Well, as Fred says, we are a short line after all!

This video has me highballing through Bell passing by the 'in situ' depot removed from its trackside location for Doug & Bill to place the wooden strips to elevate the new station.

This video showcases the turnout at the end of the choke cable that was acting poorly when you went to pull the points back toward you.  Throwing the points across worked fine as you hear Chris point this out to us.

Speaking of lubricating...Pat has brought along some liquid beverages for the crew lounge refrigerator.

Coke & Pepsi - side by side!  Yikes!

Yup, she's a well-stocked fridge for sure.

Pat didn't get time to clear off the tracks with the blower over the whole railroad and these pine cones - as small as they are - can certainly derail a locomotive.

Here is one that fell atop the roof of a building near the south leg of the wye here in Craig Leigh.

 Out of curiosity, I remove it from the roof of the structure and place it up against the flank of my diesel.  Yes, this pine cone could cause damage for sure.

This only amplifies the need for a maintenance crew to conduct its business each and every week of the train running season!

Bill's cap with the number of a favourite steam locomotive.

A throttle is found hanging out on the boardroom table with the brochure for the Brockville Railway Tunnel which Fred had shown to Diane & Ed a couple of weeks ago.

More freight cars require attention.

As does our 45 tonner nicknamed 'Freddie'!   Love it!👍👍

This looks like a possible RP&M van to me.

Hey...Fred is wearing the new belt Lisa and I picked up for him that has enough room to be tightened or let out - seeing as it is one of those of the 'stretchy' variety.

Here I am with my twin brother, Jim, on the left and me on the right.  It's always fun for me blogging for you!

Here's another photo from the Pointe Claire Yacht Club on the West Island of Montreal where Lisa and I visited friends last Friday.  I'll take one of those...and one of them...!!!

And...with a smile, Fred says, "So long for another day and we'll see you trackside on Saturday!"

Now...our forecast at the moment for Saturday calls for rain...but we hope that changes.

Our rain date will be the following Monday morning, but we will have a few who can't make it as they are heading south of the border for the annual Narrow Gauge Convention!  Safe travels lads!

We are the WDWD crew of the OVGRS hailing from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada