Our volunteers came from near and far for what turned out to be one of our largest work weekends in a while. A solid group of 25 folks was on hand and we were able to make progress in numerous directions.
Work on the locomotive included COT&S of the brake valves, machining of two new injector half nuts, general cleaning and detailing, and finally steaming up of the locomotive to offer some training time.
With one crew on the locomotive, another crew was making sawdust on boxcar 1C. Progress was substantial and including doing all the joinery on the upper sills and reassembling them, a significant step that has brought structure back to the car and will allow for the siding to go on in the near future. Also accomplished was the opening up and framing in of the second end doorway. This end had been filled in at some point late in the cars service life but would have been a functional doorway during its MOW tool car days.
In addition to the railroad equipment work, we had crews on three other projects including repainting the Dehy Park boxcar, which had been long on our list of to-do’s as the sun had made the south facing side paint peal and fade.
Another very noticeable project was clearing of the museum grounds around the engine house. No good walking path existed between the museum and the train, so at the request of the museum staff we cleared away some old chain link fence, a non historic shed, and some other debris in addition to relocating the Bell mill grinding stone and some wagon parts. Now there is a wide patch directly between the two buildings and it looks great!
And lastly, we spent Sunday afternoon in the museum holding our annual rules and safety class. Overall it was a great weekend and lots of fun. And as always, we thank everyone for attending and supporting us. Our next work days will be in March and our public steam up and fundraiser dinner will be April 12th. Hope to see every out in Independence soon!
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