October 2005 President’s Report
By Ira Pollack
This month I’d like to first wish you all well, with good health.
As you’ve probably noticed, the summer season is drawing to a close with cooler temperatures and less light at the end of the day. We’ve been very busy in the yard though, trying to finish off some of the projects that we have before us.
All in all, it has been a pretty successful summer. Our yard is looking better and better. Every weekend and sometimes during the week, our yard crew volunteers are either cleaning up, hanging signs, putting together new exhibits, making repairs and improvements, or painting our equipment. There seems to be no end to these projects to improve the railyard, but compliments from our guests show that it has made a difference. As an example, just look in our guest book in the station.
My only problem is I just wish there were more people volunteering to help us grow and achieve our goals. Although it does get frustrating from time to time because we want to reach these goals faster, we are making progress. To give you an example, the east end of the yard is almost free of the old tie pile, wood and garbage that had accumulated over the years. Eventually this area will be our base of operations with most of our restoration work going on there. This, of course, is a long-range plan, but we have to start somewhere. Realize that this has been a major feat for the Museum, but was done with the help of our outside-the-gate friends. There are many other projects like these. The Museum needs other people to come forward; our present staff is doing all it can. I thought I’d list some of these projects for you, just to let you know what needs to be done - some in the immediate future. Hopefully we can complete some of these before the winter snows begin to fly.
1. Trackwork maintenance - tightening and replacement of bolts and ties on tracks 34 and 42, regauging, tamping
2. Doors for the tool trailer, sides reattached
3. Sorting all of the track parts; doing an inventory of them
4. Sliding gate at pedestrian entrance rehung
5. Plastic installed on face of “You Are Here” sign
6. New sheet metal primed on #1402 RS11 locomotive
7. Old lettering completely removed on #1402
8. Box and reweld frame of F150 snowplow
9. Seal containers with fiberglass patches
10. Paint DRM float black
11. Sperry car #135 pilot straightened and installed
12. Forge sealed for winter
13. Lettering for #1455 completed
14. Lettering for