I wouldn't take away a thing from John's hymn of praise for the work of the Friends of the C&TS, which is richy deserved, so I decided to make a separate thread.

I think anybody wanting to do volunteer work would be hard pressed to find a more interesting location than Chama and Cumbres.

John mentioned folks coming great distances to be a part of things. Even in the Piedmont, we're able to attract folks from as far away as Rockville, Md. and Cartersville, Ga. to NCTM, but mostly it's within 100 miles or so.

Just to brag a little bit,

just last weekend was a heck of an output by our Master Mechanic, John Bechtel, his assistant and about 2 dozen volunteers. In the span of about 11 hours the group:

Using our 150-ton derrick, took an 0-6-0T off its wheels for a cosmetic restoration.

AND

Loaded two pieces of on-track equipment onto a tractor trailer for transfer to another preservation group.

Plus,

Working with a contractor, turned the No. 2 wheelset on the FP7.

Received 24 tons of coal and a truck load of coach seats.

Replaced ceiling panels in a coach.

Met with our friendly FRA inpsector.

Held the monthly safety meeting and the quaterly rolling stock advisory committee meeting.

Removed 3 broken windows from a newly acquired N&W caboose.

Washed the E3.

On top of that we ran the Easter Bunny Train with more than 600 riders in one day.

Oh, and I touched up the handrails on the 1925.

Truly a wonderful day.

Jim



http://nctrans.org
Wrinnbo@aol.com