Time to paint...

With the thermometer topping over 80 degrees for this April day, it was time to do start to do some painting around the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum. Our track bumpers on Tracks 3, 4 and 5 in Industry yard had already received a first coat of yellow last year, but they needed a finish coat to complete the job. That was accomplished on this day.

On the same day, our newly fabricated bolsters for Rochester, Lockport & Buffalo interurban #206 arrived at the museum. On top of that, the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville treated us with a freight this day powered by two of their large fleet of Alco Centuries. Here are some pictures from this nice Tuesday afternoon at the museum...

The Livonia, Avon & Lakeville head north with a good size freight under the command of Alco Century C424 #421 and C420 #420.

Freight passing in front of our Industry depot as it has passed this depot for
nearly 100 years.

Our track bumpers with their new coat of paint.

RL&B 206's new bolsters are rigged to be lifted off the trailer by our Ford forklift with its crane boom installed on the forks.

A close-up of the new bolsters. Our 206 was just a carbody when we received it. We have traded for and have a proper set of interurban trucks and the bolsters will allow us to connect the trucks to the body.

The LA&L on their return trip south with #420 in the lead passes over the museum's Industry yard switch.

It's still warm! And sunny! And dry!

This simply can not be a reality. A week's worth of sunshine in April, in Rochester? Well, that is where we found ourselves today and the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum's volunteers took full advantage of it. Here are some pictures of the day's operations.

It was back into the dirt with our big Cat D7 which is seen here doing some preliminary work to get us ready for more earthmoving very soon so we can start the installation of the track to our restoration building.

This is where the track will go. You can still see some of the dirt to move to the left and the siding to the right with Alco RS-1 EK#9 on it which will be realigned when the new switch is installed just behind the photographer.

Shot from the front of EK#9, a few track lengths ahead will be where the restoration building lead switch will be installed.

A different view from on top of some of the dirt still to be moved of the siding where the switch will be installed. Our mainline is seen in the background.

EK#9 sits with our NYC flat car which was brought down from NYMT last weekend. Check out the pictures below.

Here is a shot of the north end of our restoration building where the track will be installed. Some additional heavy equipment was being moved out of the way to help facilitate the installation.

Meanwhile, another crew just brought in our new to us heavy drill press which we purchased from a local machine shop which had purchased the machine new during World War II. This drill press will be added to our machine shop and should handle just about any drilling task we can dream up. We hope to start getting it setup in the coming few weeks.

Warm weather switching moves

This is the type of Saturday all Rochesterians wait for after a long winter. A nice warm Saturday with clear blue skies and the mercury crossing the 60 degree threshold. The volunteers at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum celebrated this weather by firing up our two GE 80-tonners and heading to the NYMT to fetch our New York Central PS-1 50-ton flat car since it has several pre-assembled track panels we are going to need to get started on our Restoration Building lead. Here are some pictures of the switching activities.

EK6 departs Industry yard showing Penn Central transfer caboose #18526.

R&GVRR #1654 followed EK6 on signal indications.

#6 and #1654 have joined forces at the loop switch at NYMT. You can see the poles planted for extension of the trolley wire at NYMT.

WIth PC18526 parked on the east side of the loop waiting for the work to be done, #1654 pushes with #6 to get hooked up with NYC 506102.

Waiting to head out of the siding with the NYC flatcar.

Back on the main and headed to hook back up with Penn Central #18526.

Making the hitch with Penn Central #18526.

With our miniature freight hooked up, air needs to be built up in the brake system before heading south to the R&GV Railroad Museum.

Brakes are being tested and then the train departed south for more switching at the R&GV Railroad Museum.