90 mph winds tear roof off engine house

Portland Maine experienced 90 mile per hour winds over the weekend of February 26 to 28. These fierce winds peeled the new plastic covering and numerous 4 by 8 foot sub roof panels off the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad engine house exposing three locomotives to the elements.

Of course this happened at the worst time of year for us. We live through the winter on earnings from the previous year. We pay the mortgage, salaries, utilities and rent with money earned in December. We don't expect significant revenues until June at the earliest.

We plan to beg, borrow and steal materials to temporarily patch the roof and protect Monson locomotive 4 and Bridgton & Saco River locomotives 7 and 8. We have volunteers coming in Saturday March 6 to clean up, secure the scene, and temporarily cover the steam locomotives. More volunteers will come in on March 13 to temporarily fix the temporary engine house. Nothing is more permanent than a temporary structure.

More information and pictures are available at http://www.mngrr.org

insurance?

No insurance. It was uninsurable I have been told.

Two words: steel building!

Two more words: No money.

Still paying off debt to acquire collection. [Insert smiley face here]

Everything is insurable. It might cost an arm and a leg but it is insurable. Just how my salaried persons do you have at your operation?

Later!
Mr. Ed

Well, theres one kind of insurance, and thats money, the other is frugality!.

Make a community call, some public relations on TV/Radio/Newspaper free public service announcements, they always have them, they might be seen on very off peak times viewerwise, or contact your local TV/Radio news about it maybe a crew comes out and makes it notable and you may find more help like that.

Well, it appears we did not insure it. Because of zoning issues, it was a temporary structure.

We will look into disaster assistance monies, and the other ideas regarding PR/publicity are good ones. Thanks!

1 salaried person (ED) and 2.3 hourly (Admin Assistant, Gift Shop manager, and weekend gift shop), for 3.3 FTE. About 5 FTE volunteer. I are a volunteer.

We did secure all the valuables today and cover the three engines with plastic tied down to the engine frames.

Thanks for your response. Hang in there and keep your chin up. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Rebuild it in a permanent manner one piece at a time. I have a saying that works well in this instance. "If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to come back to do it right?"

But if you do intend to use tarps for more than a month or two, don't use that blue crap. Spend the extra money and move up to the green or better still, go all the way to the silver. You will spend more but it will last a lot longer. And maybe you can even use them again for another project cover.

Later!
Mr. Ed

What about the World's Only 2-foot Gauge Parlor Car? That's in a different building, right?

Hopefully you can use this setback to your advantage.

With the right publicity, you might be able to raise sufficient funds to erect something better- at least a "Coverall" type building, which might qualify as a temporary structure if required for political/ zoning reasons.

Of course a steel building doesn't cost that much more, but you'd need to fix any zoning issues first.

In the meantime, appeal to private contractors, lumberyards, and others in the construction industry. You might find some community- minded types who would help out.

Keep your spirits up, and best of luck!

Steve Hunter
Cardinal, Ontario

Steel is still relatively inexpensive, and is predicted to rise as the world economy heals, so now is probably the time to get a steel building.

--
Will

Steve, the "Rangeley" is kept in one of the original Portland Co. brick buildings.

Stephen

Thank you one and all for the statements of support and good advice.

The Parlour Car Rangeley is inside a brick building and relatively safe from the elements. There are some leaks in the roof but none near the Rangeley. I dusted Rangeley this week and replaced some light bulbs. She is fine.

Last Saturday we cleaned up all the scrap, secured the valuables, and put 7 mil plastic over the three engines. Tied it down with ropes to the tie rods and frame.

This week we will plan repairs and gather materials. It is putting lipstick on a pig, but it is the only pig we have.

The engine house has been a festering sore. It is barely adequate to shelter the locomotives, but has no space for tool storage or to work in. To work on an engine, we pull it outside. This winter that has not been so bad, but this is an odd year for weather. There are other possible solutions that are being looked into, but they will take some time to implement.

Brian Durham

I built our enginehouse for $50,000. Used no contractors for any of it. Myself and our volunteers dug the footers, poured the concrete, erected the steelwork and hung the siding. It was the first time that I had ever done any of those tasks! Our building is a bit overkill for a simple locomotive enginehouse, so your cost should be much less. Nice thing about a steel building is that it is easily expanded in length, is super strong, WILL NOT BURN/BLOW DOWN, and can be put up as money allows.

BTW of that 50K which we spent, 10K of that was for government requirements such as architect drawings, soil borings, water retention plan etc.