Drainage pipe installation complete

Drainage is a big concern at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum. The installation of the drainage pipe the museum had been working on over the past few weeks has been finished. The completion of this project brings the museum closer to being able to install track to its Restoration Building.

Machine shop work in the Restoration Building

A Closer Look - A closer look of the bearing sitting in the chuck of the museum's metal lathe. This is the first of four bearings that need to be machined from raw stock.

Machining New Bearings - R&GVRRM volunteer, Kevin Klees, works on machining new thrust bearings for the rear axle of the museum's Plymouth Model BL gas mechanical locomotive.

Covering Up - Eastman Kodak Company GE 80-tonner #6 is one of the Museum's winter workhorses. To start the engine in the winter, a block heater is used. To make that heater work more efficiently and to allow the engine to heat up faster, a new radiator cover was installed on this day by museum volunteer Chris Hauf in preparation for winter operations.

Moving dirt and improving drainage

Making the Grade - This grade stake shows this part of the fill is a little less than two feet from restoration building subgrade. This is pretty amazing since this area had to be raised over ten feet to get to this point.

Climbing Back up the Hill - The D7 climbs up the slight grade in order to back blade more dirt to level off the fill.

A Different Fill - On the other end of the Restoration Building, the fill area continues to rise. Here we find the museum's Cat D7 leveling off the dirt which was brought down earlier in the day.

Dig and Fill - As the 20-H continues to dig for the next pipe, the dirt is placed as fill on the newly installed pipe.

At the Controls - On this Saturday, museum volunteer Scott Gleason has the controls of the 20-H excavator.

Checking the Depth - With the pipe aligned, Jeremy now checks the depth of the pipe to insure it was correct. Setting each pipe at the correct depth is critical so that the water will drain properly through the pipe.

Checking the Alignment - Museum volunteer Jeremy Tuke uses a story pole with a plumb bob attached to check the alignment of the pipe against the reference lines.

Time to Install Some More Pipe- With the hole deep enough at a little over nine feet, another piece of concrete pipe is swung into place by the 20-H.

Loading Out - The Trojan loader dumps its bucket full of dirt into one of the museum's dump trucks which will place it on the fill south of the building.

Removing Some of the Dirt- With too much dirt piling up, the museum's Trojan loader takes a bite out of the dirt pile to remove some of it.

Drainage Pipe Install Continues - The Bucyrus-Erie 20-H excavator again received the call to continue to dig for the install of the last three pieces of a new drainage pipe being installed. The museum's restoration building can be seen in the background, and the museum hopes to soon see this image include two tracks to the building.

Drainage work continues at the museum

Drainage Pipe Install - In order to properly handle runoff water from around the Restoration Building site, a new drainage pipe had to be installed near where the switch to the restoration building lead tracks will be installed. To do this, siding #6 had to be severed to clear the way for both the pipe install and the switch install.

Backfilling - The museum's Bucyrus-Erie 20-H hydraulic excavator is being used to backfill part of the trench where the drainage pipe has already been installed. More pipe needs to be installed to the east, but the machine will need to sit on the backfilled area in order to complete the excavation.

Looking On - Museum volunteers Jeremy Tuke, Dave Luca and Dale Hartnett look on as the trench is back filled.

At the Controls - John McDonald has the controls of the 20-H as he starts to further excavate the trench so an additional piece of pipe can be installed.

Checking the Depth - Dale Hartnett checks the depth of the hole using a set of reference lines set up next to the excavation site and a story pole which is held down in the trench. It is critical to get the depth and grade of the pipe correct so it will drain the water properly.

A Little Deeper - The 20-H takes a little more earth out of the hole to allow for the next pipe to be installed.

More Pipe - An additional piece of pipe is swung into place using the excavator.

Time to Backfill Again - With the newest piece of pipe installed, it is time to again backfill part of the hole.

Moving Out of the Way - While the drainage pipe was being installed by its younger hydraulic brother, museum volunteers Joe Scanlon and Art Mummery started up the Bucyrus-Erie 15-B shovel front. Here Joe crawls the 15-B toward its storage location since it had to be moved to allow for final grading for the track installation.