It's been a busy summer at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum! Read more Rochester Chapter and R&GVRRM news in the August issue of The Semaphore (You'll need the free Adobe Reader software to view the PDF file).DOWN THE ROAD: Time to clean house and dispose of items we can no longer put to use. Our Diamond Reo truck tractor has gone to a good home in Byron, New York, and was already featured in the Batavia Antique Truck Show at the Fairgrounds on August 2! Our walk-behind forklift has been recycled as scrap salvage. Our Case Terra loader, Lull forklift, old bucket truck, and Ford cab and chassis are in the process of being sold through various means.
WATER WELL: Plans submitted by our engineering contractor have been approved by Monroe County Health Department, giving us permission to proceed digging our new well. We have notified our contractor to proceed in late August (after Diesel Days). Meanwhile, we are clearing the area around the well-head for access by the contractor. Two cranes and a rail pile will have to be relocated.
HEAVY EQUIPMENT: The Form F700 knuckleboom crane flatbed truck is back in service hauling ties and switch timbers for our new siding. Bob Mader, Art Mummery and Rand Warner repaired the brakes, allowing the truck to return to active service. Joe Scanlon, Art Mummery, John Redden and others have installed a new dozer blade on our Caterpillar D-8. It should see active service soon. Our Huber road grader is working again, thanks to a repair by Dan Waterstraat. Our Army 4x4 diesel pickup needs yet another starter repair... stay tuned.
SALVAGE AND RECOVERY: Cleaning up around the yard pays off! We have sent out two roll-offs full of steel to the recycler. We have also sent out a trailer load of miscellaneous metal building materials. Our treasury will benefit greatly from the resource recovery efforts of the last few weeks.
LA&L DRAINAGE: The Livonia, Avon & Lakeville has done drainage ditching along the east side of their track, north of our yard switch. We have procured and placed gabion boxes at the base of the slope where we have had the worst of the landslides. We will next fill and place the boxes to help prevent further deterioration.
RL&B 206: Scott Gleason, Dan Waterstraat, Chad Timothy and Dave Scheiderich have been clearing access around the former Rochester, Lockport & Buffalo interurban trolley body, so we can get under it with a lowboy trailer. Pete Gores will supervise the lift, using four locomotive jacks. The body will be delivered to the neighboring New York Museum of Transportation for evaluation and eventual restoration.
EXCURSION TRAINSET: Work continues on our fleet of former New York Central Budd stainless steel coaches that were once part of the Empire State Express fleet. Don Wawrzyniak is sewing up quantities of new seat cushion covers with our industrial-grade sewing machine. Robert Burz is doing interior trim touch-up painting. Chris Hauf and Rand Warner are removing rusted steel trim, and Robert Burz is picking up new replacements. Dave Peet, Bill Blaesi, Bob Mader, Lynn Heintz and Don Wawrzyniak are working on further window replacement. All internal air brake hoses on the trucks have been replaced by John Redden's crew. Dale Hartnett is replacing window screws (a seemingly never-ending task).
IN THE PAINT: The trucks on our heavyweight Lackawanna baggage car have been cleaned by Chris Hauf, and painted by Dave Scheiderich. Chris Hauf also worked on cleaning the trucks of Lehigh Valley 211, followed by a coat of paint by Mike Dow. The fresh coats of black paint sure look great.
—Compiled by Rand Warner
