Spring has finally arrived, and it is time for all of us at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum to come back outside. It is also time for this webmaster to get the cameras back out and get back to more regular News updates! With the ground dry, it was time to do some work on our access road to our Restoration Building. So out came the Cat D7, Cat road grader and road roller to work on the road. Meanwhile, work was still going on in other parts of the museum including more work on our Plymouth Model BL gas-mechanical locomotive. Please see below for some pictures of both...
The Cat D7E digs into the road to remove a hump.
The D7E makes easy work of roughing in the new grade.
Where the hump is removed, the dirt is used to fill in a low spot up a little further up on the road.
Next, the museum's Cat grader came out to finish grade the road and pull down some of the dirt pushed off to the side by the dozer.
Museum Construction Superintendent, Joe Scanlon, cuts a ditch in the side of the road to handle drainage with the grader.
The final step in the process is to bring in the Museum's road roller. Here it is working on the fill area south of the Restoration Building before working on the road. Winter set in before this area could be rolled so it was time to get it ready for more dirt to come down soon.
It was time to check the condition of the roller bearings on the drivewheel on the Plymouth Model BL. This drivewheel runs against the perpendicular flywheel which is connected to the engine. By sliding the drivewheel across the flywheel, it is possible to tradeoff engine speed for torque and also allows for the engine to change direction.
Many years of wear were found on this bronze thrust plate. A deep circle had been work into it from the shaft probably from MANY years of operation. The thrust plate was originally a flat piece of stock.
