Restoration Notes: A Day in the Life of a Railway Museum.

Saturday, January 16, 1999

More on Fuel Tanks and the Track Liner, an update from Greg Ramsey

One of the filters I had obtained last week for the Track Liner was wrong, so I dropped off the correct one for Bob Bennett to install when he arrived. I had planned to spend most of Saturday continuing work on the M.177's fuel tanks, but things didn't quite work out that way.

Brad Sloser, from ASRA, asked me to give him a hand with the transmission on the dump truck. I spent around an hour cleaning the top of the transmission, and then probably another hour overall trying to fit it in place. I never did get it right. Brad spent most of the day in the dump truck and almost had it working when he left. (Late note: Brad returned on Sunday and with the help of Joe Barilari, did get the truck started and the transmission cover installed correctly. However, we still need to service the brakes and add a muffler before it can be used.)

Danny Price and his crew spent most of the day locating and uncovering the catch basin in the tail track area. We had covered it up early-on during the initial earth moving to make it easier to move equipment, but with the likelihood of rain, we needed to make sure it would drain correctly.

Bryan Reese continued pulling sparkplug wires for the Winton engine while Andy Anderson worked on the motorcar's batter charger. Cliff Bornshein also showed up and he, Andy, and I spent some time removing tar from the Winton's ignition transformer so they could repair a terminal on the low voltage side.

I finally was able to get to the motorcar's fuel tanks and with the help, and wisdom, of Greg Gneier was able to remove the fill and crossover pipes so I could continue to clean and inspect the tank interior.

I spent some time wandering around the new Travel Town entrance project though I never did get around to shooting any pictures. The new gates, minus any latches, are in place across the new bridge and the handrails are along the entrance paths. The contractors have the new track for the miniature train in place around the outside of the Arcadia Depot and they are supposed to make the changeover to the new platform during the week.

Bob Bennett arrived late in the afternoon to work on the Track Liner. He finished installing the engine filters and started adding oil, and transmission fluid.

Yvonne returned from Jenny's Ice Skating early in the afternoon and with Nancy Gneier continued Hostler training under the supervision of Gordon Bachlund. Later in the afternoon, they added Darlene to the mix to work on her brakeman qualifications.

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Copyright (c)1999. The Southern California Scenic Railway Association Inc.