Memorial Day work around the museum

Memorial Day weekend still brought a pretty good crowd of volunteers to the museum and finally a Saturday without rain and with sunshine. Recently, a new set of eight, 8-volt batteries were purchased through the generous donations of our members for one of our two 80-tonners, ex-Eastman Kodak Company #6. Of course when dealing with something that does not get changed very often, usually the job turns out to be harder than it sounds. First, there are 8 large batteries with all of their connections to deal with. Then there is the box under the locomotive where the batteries sit. Since it has been many years since the batteries were out of EK6, the battery box was in need of a good cleaning and repaint as some spots had grown a pretty good coat of rust. Some of that work was undertaken today is shown in the pics below.

We are also planning on moving our Rochester, Lockport & Buffalo Railway interurban waiting room out of the Industry yard in the coming weeks. We are going to be relocating it to our parking lot where it will eventually receive a new roof. To facilitate this, the RG&E 1941 45-tonner and MDT 14053 ice reefer had to be moved. 1941 was able to move the reefer car out of the way. Pics of it before and after the move are shown here.

Finally, a pic of the installation in progress of the trolley substation at the New York Museum of Transportation is shown below. The AC to DC rectifier and some of the other electrical installation is shown.

The battery box of EK#6 is shown before final clean-up (wire wheeling) and priming.

The battery box with the first coat of primer applied. Eventually, the box will hold 8 batteries used to start the locomotives.

This gives a little better look at the location of the box. EK#6 is dedicated to the former manager of the R&GV Railroad Museum, Rand Warner.

RG&E 1941 prior to the move north. Seen in the picture to the right is the RL&B waiting room that will be moved out of the yard. The building was secured to a steel frame many years back which can act like a trailer which makes moving this small building very easy.

Another view of 1941 after the move. The track in the foreground is the main track that leads to the NYMT.

In late 2003, a joint project between the R&GVRRM and the NYMT was started to install a substation in the NYMT to allow the museums to be able to turn 480 volt A/C 3-phase power into the 600 volts DC needed to power our trolleys. The work included the building of a special substation room inside the NYMT and is now seeing the electrical installation including the AC to DC rectifier shown here (with the Danger High Voltage sign on it). More work needs to be done, but we hope some trolley operations may take place some time later this year.

Trackwork time at R&GVRRM

With the better weather finally here (although we wish it would stop raining!), it was time to undertake some trackwork in the Industry yard including tie replacement and the re-installation of the bumper on the end of track #3 in the yard. And while that was going on, a little restoration was also taking place on the cab of R&GE 1941. The control stand was getting some cosmetic attention. Sadly, I had to head home at 1PM and missed the spring startup of Fairbanks-Morse USA 1843 which roared backed to life for another operating season at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum so there are no pics of that.

Rochester Chapter NRHS President, Jeremy Tuke, takes a cut at preparing a new rail needed for the installation of the bumper on track #3 in the Industry yard.

Almost through...

At the other end of track #3, several ties were being replaced. Here four of the museum volunteers insert a new tie.

Since a fair amount of the ballast around the museum was recovered from old railroad right-of-ways, it includes a fair amount of dirt and stone. To be able to recover the stone to be re-used while removing the dirt, this ballast screener was put together by one of our volunteers. The dirt goes through and the ballast heads into the bucket!

The two new ties are in place and ballast is being tamped into place.

Some new paint, a rebuilt cab heater and brake system, and a new seat waiting to be uncovered are the start of the restoration of the cab of the museum's 45-tonner,
Rochester Gas & Electric #1941.