March Madness around the Museum

Trackwork time! With some better spring weather and drying ground, it was time to get back to constructing the railroad yard to support the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum's restoration building. With 60 tons of ballast delivered to the parking lot of the Industry depot, it was time to load up the ballast for use at the building site. Here the museum's Trojan front loader fills one of the museum's ex-military 5-ton 6x6 dump trucks which will transport the ballast to the work site.

Ready to load... Museum volunteer Dan Waterstraat has a bucketful of stone ready to load into the truck.

Loading up! The 3A railroad ballast is loaded into the truck!

At the work site... The dump truck pulls into the restoration building work site under the control of volunteer, Jeremy Tuke. He will soon back the truck between sidings #6 & #7 to dump the stone for later spreading. Ballast is being added between the tracks to provide a stable surface and to protect a french drain installed last year to provide drainage for the yard.

Three loads down! Pulling away, the dump truck has just left its third load of stone to be spread.

Spread! With a little help from the front loader, the stone has been spread to give a nice solid base between the rails. Additional ballast was added to track #7, the track on the left, to bring it up to the proper height.

Moving out of the way... With ballast being spread into its storage location, the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum's Lorain crawler crane had to be moved out of the way. Here the crane is seen crawling south toward the museum's restoration building.

Sighting in... With stone being brought up, it was time to jack and level track #7 which leads into the western bay of the museum's restoration building. Here museum volunteer, Charlie Harshbarger, checks by eye to see if the level of the track after jacking & blocking in preparation for stone. Stakes set by transit by our survey crew also aided the track gang in leveling the track.

Projects in the shop get year-round attention

Sheet metal work continues... Plymouth BL Restoration Manager Kevin Klees prepares another portion of the raw sheet metal for installation on the engine hood for on the BL. This image also shows the scale of the BL and its compact size albeit weighing in at around 7 tons!

Already installed... Some portions of the engine hood sheet metal have been completed and formed around the wooden frame as shown here.

Already installed... Some portions of the engine hood sheet metal have been completed and formed around the wooden frame as shown here

Clutch work... At the other end of the Restoration Building from the BL, the museum's Ford 4000 forklift was having its engine removed to have its clutch replaced. Here the engine with clutch removed can be seen sitting on the rear frame of the forklift. The 4000 is a critical piece of equipment to the R&GVRRM. To supplement it, we are seeking the donation of an additional outdoor, all terrain forklift to increase our lifting capability. Have something in working order that might work for us? Please let us know.

Out from under the snow... With a quick spell of warmer weather, the lead switch in Industry Yard had the remaining snow removed and saw some continued excavation. With better weather, this switch will see a complete rebuild.

Engine repair... Again a warmer day allowed our Motive Power Department to tend to some engine repairs on the #1 prime mover of R&GV #1654. Volunteer Dave Peet works inside the engine compartment to loosen the belt tensioner so the three fan belts could be replaced with a matched set of new belts. The Motive Power Department meets the first Saturday of each month at 9:30AM in the Industry depot and then after the meeting works on motive power related work, steam and diesel, around the museum. Interested? Please come on out. We always welcome visitors.

Prep for primer... Museum volunteer Joe Nugent wipes down the ceiling of GE 45-tonner RG&E 1941 in preparation for primer and new paint. Joe and volunteer Luther Brefo have been working together on the cosmetic restoration of 1941's cab.