Workday Wednesday Efforts - July 30
A handful of lads made it out for our WDWD session today.
On the menu was the touching up of red paint adjacent to the white trim on the dispatcher's cabin.
We also improved the track situation of the yard ladder at Spruce.
Even though we had taped off the red while painting the trim on the dispatcher's cabin last week, some white paint navigated itself beneath the masking tape.
Not a problem as I managed to 'tuck in' some red paint up to and under the white trim.
Chris snapped this shot of me working away on the job.
At the same time, Doug had the white paint working for him along the window ledges.
Spiffy work as the dispatcher's cabin looks brand new...well...almost!
Bill, Doug & Mike are happy to have a newer looking home when they control the movements over the two railroads in a round robin format from their perch in the dispatch hut on alternate Saturdays.
Seeing as my daughter wanted to get out kayaking in the wee hours of the morning, I arrived Fred's just as he was getting out of bed in the 7:00's still.
This afforded me the opportunity to do some raking of pine needles throughout the eastern portion of the property.
Aha! A "Zen Garden"!
Chris arrived and got right down to work lifting the two turnouts for the ladder into the yard at Spruce.
We needed to use a 'planer' to scrape away the edges on the timbers that happened to be 'cup up' instead of 'cup down'.
Recently, during our operations, we had been having issues here with cars and engines coming uncoupled where there was a vertical kink in the trackwork.
While working at Spruce, Chris had noticed some 'movement' in his peripheral vision.
Indeed...a nest of ants was located beneath Clarke Grade!
I had to get the bug killer spray and sprayed quite a length of the grade!
Video of some of the nasty things the WDWD maintenance crew must deal with at times!
Chris has most of the required trackwork lifted at Spruce.
Doug has brought his planer out.
He quickly gets down to work using the hand plane to lower the cupped edges of the timber subroadbed.
Slowly whittling it down!
You're on video Doug!
All screws had to be removed before planing and here we see Pat drilling them back into the timbers.
The track sections are returned to their earlier location.
Like a typical Ottawa highway road crew, one guy is working while all the others are standing around watching.
But such was not the case here...as everyone pitched in.
Yes...even skipper Henk made himself useful!
Henk assisted me in making up a train to run over to Spruce to see how the cars can navigate the newly refurbished area.
I am able to run a shorty train over to Spruce with the steamer that resides in the engine house at Craig Leigh.
This particular locomotive comes in handy during train ops when we have a crew which is made up of folks who do not own a steam engine - it is for their use.
A quick look at some of the work crew.
Video of the work train on the move.
In this video effort we notice a studder with the locomotive although the cars are not coming apart as they had during some of our most recent operating sessions.
Many times on our maintenance days when trackwork issues are being addressed, we have to run trains 'back and forth' through the troubled area in an attempt to determine just what is causing the issue.
Differing theories are bandied about in this video segment.
I have now run the engine to the rear of the train in order to shove cars into the yard.
The situation is showing improvement as Pat says in this video take.
"So far so good," Pat is heard to say.
Yup...sometimes I get to run a train "other than a Saturday!" 😎
In the meantime, Chris is off to deal with an issue at Glen Hammond.
Looking good video!
Pat has noticed that one timber rests higher than its adjacent partner.
He pushes down with his hammer in order to join the two with a screw.
Video footage of Pat's determined effort.
The frog here may be slightly problematic.
Continued video of our test trials.
Fred has indicated that possibly the wheels on the locomotive could be ever-so-slightly out of gauge...perhaps adding to the problem.
Final video from this work area.
Time for bed!
Bedtime video.
Fred then asked me to take the 45-tonner into the house and place it on the boardroom table as the Nelson Yard crew indicated on Saturday that it wasn't working for their purposes.
Instead of heading indoors I decided to test it out on the crew lounge table outdoors.
It worked fine here...but...
...would it work fine in the greater outdoors?
And...it didn't take too long to determine that I could no longer control the locomotive as it was out of range of the signal from the throttle.
Fred assumed that the throttle required new batteries but we didn't have time to get on to that job and conduct a test.
Range anxiety video!
With the shorter range, this engine would work better in the Douglas Yard environs around Craig Leigh seeing as the operator here is never too far from the locomotive which is not the case in the much larger Nelson Yard which is very wide and very long!
Final 45-tonner video footage.
Fred kept busy throughout the AM hours never resting at all.
Yes, even Henk got in on the action as Fred inherited some spare plywood sections from a fellow down the street!
It was a handoff to Chris!
Bernie used the blower to clear off the tracks.
Oops, we inadvertently left the Watson Electric Structure outdoors following our most recent session!
Later, Bernie was kept occupied to the west in Firgrove.
I still had time to adhere a 'light' coat of paint on the window side walls.
I noticed that the choke cable at the eastern (western geographical) end of Spruce was a tad loose.
Nothing the staple gun cannot solve! 👍👌👍
Some of the tools of the trade!
Bernie (the man with the radio voice) will be hosting a CBC Radio Gardening "Call in" Show starting in the fall! 👅👅👅
Egads! And...yet another monster house takes form across the street from Fred's place!
At the end of the session we all gathered for a group photo.
We are the WDWD crew of the OVGRS.
We hail from Ottawa, Ontario in this fine and resource rich Northern country known as Canada.
Indeed...we are all hard-working Canucks under the 'seeing eye' tutelage of Father Fred!
