CMRR Volunteer Workdays - 12/2/06 and 12/3/06


This weekend excellent, though cooler weather is expected, and there will be projects on both weekend days.

On Saturday, December 2nd, there will be two crews working.

Crew 1 – Reroofing the Phoenicia Section House

On Saturday, December 2nd, the Phoenicia track gang crew will be working to complete the Phoenicia section house roof starting about 10am. The section house is located about 500 feet east of the Phoenicia Station.

Crew 2 - Track Restoration West of Downs Street

Earl Pardini and Harry Jameson continue to lead a crew at Downs Street (MP 3.2) in Kingston to continue replacing and spiking ties as part of the CMRR's project to rehabilitate the line in Kingston. Earl will be firing up the 401 and bringing it across Downs Street to assist in the track rehab project. We will be starting about 9am at Downs Street working west of Elmendorf Street.

Be sure to bring hard hats, heavy work boots (preferably steel-toed), and work gloves, and any shovels (especially flat ended) and picks you may have.

To find this location, from Exit 19 (Kingston) on the New York Thruway, take Interstate 587 east from the traffic circle to the end of this road, and proceed straight through the stoplight where the road turns into Broadway. After about ¼ mile, turn left onto Downs street. We will park near where the railroad crosses Downs Street.

Sunday, December 3rd

On Sunday, December 3rd, the Steam Team will meet at the Cornell Street yards at 9:30am to continue work repainting the 401, working on the Davenport 0-4-0, and completing No. 23's tender.

As mentioned above, weather is expected to be cool but dry this weekend – partly cloudy on both days with an expected high on Saturday of 42 degrees and on Sunday of 44 degrees.

As always, new volunteers are welcome.

Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator, Catskill Mountain Railroad

The CMRR had a very productive workday yesterday, December 2nd.

In Phoenicia, the Track Gang finished shingling the east and south side of the section house. The crew consisted of Dave Mason, George Peck, Al Howes, Tom Healy, John Isaksen, and Derek Stapleton.

In Kingston, an eleven man crew continued replacing ties from just east of Elmendorf Street to about 200 feet west, extending the line another .05 mile. The crew consisted of CMRR Chairman Harry Jameson and President Earl Pardini, Bill Brosnan, Dave Baker, Ray Farrell, Mike LaLonde, Ed and Eric Palmatier, Ron Epstein, myself, and our new volunteer, Pat O'Connor.

After lunch, Earl Pardini and Ray Farrell brought the 401 past Elmendorf Street to unload more ties. The section we worked on west of Elmendorf Street had a lot of dirt on the tracks, which slowed us down a bit. The crew replaced, tamped and spiked 10 ties.

Pictures from the yesterday are posted here:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?byrail ... ountain_RR

We plan to be back spiking ties next Saturday, December 9th, weather permitting.

EH

CMRR Volunteer Workdays - 12/9/06 and 12/10/06

This weekend excellent, though cooler weather is expected, and there will be projects on both weekend days.

On Saturday, December 9th, there will be two crews working.

Crew 1 – Trackwork at Campgound Curve, MP 26.5

The Phoenicia track crew will first bring the regular train headed by CMRR No. 29 down to the Mt. Pleasant station so it can be decorated for the following weekend’s “Train Ride with Santa”. Decorating of the station will begin at 10am. Although no volunteers are needed for decorating, all CMRR members are welcome, including children.

After moving the regular train, the track crew will be working to align, jack, tamp and replace ties at MP 26.5, also known as Campground Curve. They will be using the work train headed by CMRR No. 1 as well as the gradall and the rail mounted dump body. Standard safety equipment will be necessary, and please bring a reflective vest if you have one. The crew will start bout 8:30 to 9:00am at the Phoenicia yard, and will work until 6 or 7pm. The crew could really use extra hands for this necessary work maintaining the operating section of the CMRR.


Crew 2 - Track Restoration West of Elmendorf Street

Earl Pardini and Harry Jameson continue to lead a crew at Downs Street (MP 3.2) in Kingston to continue replacing and spiking ties as part of the CMRR's project to rehabilitate the line in Kingston. Earl will be firing up the 401 and bringing it across Downs Street to assist in the track rehab project. We will be starting about 9am at Downs Street working west of Elmendorf Street from MP 3.33.

Be sure to bring hard hats, heavy work boots (preferably steel-toed), and work gloves, and any shovels (especially flat ended) and picks you may have.

To find this location, from Exit 19 (Kingston) on the New York Thruway, take Interstate 587 east from the traffic circle to the end of this road, and proceed straight through the stoplight where the road turns into Broadway. After about ¼ mile, turn left onto Downs street. We will park near where the railroad crosses Downs Street.

Sunday, December 10th

On Sunday, December 10th, the Steam Team will meet at the Cornell Street yards at 9:30am to continue work repainting the 401, working on the Davenport 0-4-0, and completing No. 23's tender.

As mentioned above, weather is expected to be cool but dry this weekend – partly cloudy on both days with an expected high on Saturday of 41 degrees and on Sunday of 47 degrees.

As always, new volunteers are welcome.

Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator, Catskill Mountain Railroad

The CMRR volunteers had a busy weekend.

Kingston Tie Replacement

On Saturday, December 9th, we had an thirteen man crew replacing, tamping and spike ties west of MP 3.33. We replaced 8 ties between MP 3.33 and Albany Avenue, MP 3.4, and two additional ties between there and MP 3.43. We inserted, but did not spike, three additional ties. The crew consisted of Earl Pardini, Harry Jameson, George Cook, Mike LaLonde (0-6-0), Ed and Eric Palmatier, Bill Brosnan, Thom Johnson, Ron Epstein, Burr Hubbell, Freddie Rasmussen, myself, and our new volunteer Peter Fluchere.

The line is now in sufficient shape to bring the 401 just west of Albany Avenue, though we left the 401 in the barn Saturday so we could get more ties inserted. The track had a lot of mud on it between Elmendorf Street and Albany Avenue.

The next section, between Albany Avenue and Chandler Drive (I-587), MP 3.55, needs a lot of ties due to a derailment there in the Penn Central era. A new culvert is needed at about MP 3.48 to replace a collapsed stone culvert. However, west of Chandler Drive, few ties are needed as the CMRR did tie replacements in that area 10-15 years ago.

Phoenica Track Gang

The Phoenicia Trang Gang, consisting of George Peck, Dave Heick, John Isaksen, and Jason DiTolla, moved the 29, passenger flat, and coach to Mt. Pleasant, where the train was decorated for the Christmas with Santa party on Decemter 17th. After that they assembled a work train, but did not have sufficient manpower to fix Campground Curve, so worked on other maintenance during the day. The crew working on the decorations at Mt. Pleasant, Ernie Gehrer and George Liucci, did a nice job and the cars are being lit at night in front of the Mt. Pleasant station.

Sunday, December 10th - Steam Team

Burr Hubbell gave me this report on the workings of the "steam team" in Kingston on Sunday. The crew consisted of Earl Pardini, Walter Otto, Jeff Otto, who is a new volunteer, John Watson, Burr Hubbell, Peter Hubbell, George Cook, and Mac MacCreary. Here is Burr's report:

Work done:
1. Ongoing scraping and painting of 401, it needs one or two more good day's work to finish up the rust inhibitor coat on the exterior. Today we finished the roof of the cab, the engineer's side of the cab to the window line and the area around the grating on the top front.
2. Moved the tender body on to the tender frame to test fit before installing the deck. Very clever bit of work by Earl using cribbing, the crane and fulcrums and rollers to get it in place. By the end of the day the tender body was neatly over the frame.
3. Finished up work on the back trailer. This now has electricity and provision for heat. Plans are to use the space to test the super heater tubes for #23 during the winter.
4. Fired up the forge and straightened a large number of bent spikes.

Some pictures from this weekend can be found here:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?byrail ... ountain_RR

Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped this weekend, a total of 22!

Ernie Hunt

CMRR Volunteer Workday, Saturday 12/16, and Train Ride with Santa 12/17

Saturday, December 16th

On Saturday, December 16th, the track crew in Kingston will be taking the day off, so the only volunteer crew will be the Phoenicia Track Gang. They will be preparing for the Train Ride with Santa on the next day, and working to finish reroofing the section house. There will be some brush cutting and cleanup of the Phoenicia Yard in preparation for the Sunday Event. This is a good day for any of you who have not worked with the Phoenicia Track Gang to get to know them better. The existing crew is led by George Peck, and includes Dave Mason, Jason DiTolla, John Isaksen, and Derek Stapleton. They would be very appreciative of any help you can give. They plan to start around 9am near the transfer caboose in the Phoenicia Yard, and will work at least until dark. You can park in the Phoenicia station lot (off of Lower High Street), or on the other side of the tracks at the end of Station Road.

Sunday, December 17th

On Sunday, December 17th, the CMRR will host its annual Train Ride with Santa, along with the Annual Christmas Party at the Empire State Railway Museum. Train rides will start about 1pm, at the Phoenicia station, and continue to 3-4pm. The train will be going from the Phoenicia Station to the Mt. Pleasant station and back three to four times. The rides are free to all, and children are especially encouraged to come. The CMRR has specially decorated coach 701 and two flats with Christmas decorations, including lights.

The weather is expected to be mild - sunny on Saturday with a high of 41 degrees, and partly cloudy on Sunday with a high of 40 degrees.

See you there!

Ernie Hunt

CMRR Volunteer Workday, Saturday, December 16th

The CMRR had a good turnout on Saturday, December 16th at Phoenicia. Present were Dave Mason, George Peck, Derek Stapleton, Jason DiTolla, John Isaksen, Dave Baker, Ray Farrell, and Rich Bause of the Trolley Museum.

The crew set the hi-rail dump body (not the dump truck) on the rails and cleaned out the junk inside. They filled the dump body with small stone and dumped it with the gradall between new east switch and Phoenicia Station. This was mainly a test dump for using it at Campground Curve, which will be coming up in the next week or so.

The crew took out Engine 1 (the "Duck") to Mt. Pleasant to do a test run over the Route 28 crossing. Rich Bause loaded all the ties onto the flatcar with his boom truck (these will be for Campground Curve). Rich also moved all the sticks of rail in the yard and made a central storage location for them. Derek cleaned up the area where the rail previously was with the backhoe. The crew used Engine #1 to switch Engine #29 and the work train around into the new east siding.

Also, separately, Al Howes worked stabilizing the D&H caboose, and plans to do the same soon for the passenger cars stored off of 209.

Train Ride with Santa, Sunday, December 17th

On Sunday, December 17th, the Train Ride with Santa was a big success. The crews started making round trips on the hour starting at 1pm from Phoenicia to Mount Pleasant, then across Route 28 to Rock Cut. Santa got on at Mt. Pleasant and rode the train to Rock Cut and back. The weather was unusually mild, and everyone had a great time. It was a fitting end for a great year on the Catskill Mountain RR.

Pictures from the weekend can be found here:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?byrail ... ountain_RR


Ernie Hunt

I've had the rubber fuel line colapse inside and cause a problem I had a truck that would run for three or four hundred miles and never act up and all at once it would run out of fuel if I let it sit it would run again.
Al

CMRR Volunteer Workday, Saturday, December 23rd.

On Saturday, December 23rd, the Phoenicia Track Gang headed by George Peck will be working on Campground Curve, MP 26.5, as long as they have enough people and decent weather. They will be dumping stone, jacking tamping, and possibly replacing a few ties (but most of the timber in there is fairly new). Meet time will be 10am. More than likely they will use the work train, the gradall and the dump body.

As always, all volunteers are welcome to come.

Weather is expected to be rainy in the early morning, but the rain should be over by 10am.


Ernie Hunt

Don't you ever give that crew a weekend off???

Of course, we'll be wetting down the fresh concrete in our shop floor that day (at least we'll be out of the rain...), so the RMNE guys have to work, too.....

Have a nice holiday, all of you out there in Preservation-land!!!

Howard P.
Mandatory Overtime, CT

The CMRR will have volunteer workdays on Saturday, 12/30 and Sunday 12/31.

On Saturday, 12/30, there will be two crews working.

Phoenica 12/30

In Phoenicia, the Phoenicia Track Gang will be working this Saturday, 12/30, in the Phoenicia Yard Limits between the New East Switch and the Phoenicia Station Surfacing Track and Replacing ties along this section of the Main Line. This is a leftover trouble spot from the flood of 2005. Work will commence at the Transfer Caboose at 10 AM. Both Jason DiTolla and George Peck will be there to oversee the operation. Plans are to use the Backhoe, Gradall with dump cart and possibly the BR64 Ballast Regulator. All are welcome to join in the Festivities!!!!!!!!

Kingston 12/30

In Kingston on 12/31, Earl Pardini will be unloading a container of parts he recently obtained from CSX, and will be firing up the 401 to place the container once it is emptied on the 2nd flat of the work train so tools can be stored directly on the train. Earl will start around 9:00am and you may park in the former auto body shop parking lot off of Tremper Avenue, between Cornell and O'Neill streets. If the weather is good enough, plans are to continue painting the prime coat on the 401. If there is time, Earl would also like to cut out a grove of small trees blocking access to rails stored in the yard.

Sunday, 12/31

On Sunday, 12/31, the "Steam Team" will be working at the Cornell street shops starting around 9:30am. They will be continuing work on the Davenport 0-4-0, Engine 23's tender, and if the weather is good enough, finish painting the prime coat on the 401.

Weather is expected to be sunny on both days, with a high of 46 or Saturday and 42 on Sunday. Pretty good for this time of year!

As always, new volunteers are welcome.

Ernie Hunt

The CMRR will have volunteer workdays on Saturday, 1/6/07 and Sunday 1/7/07.

On Saturday, 1/6/07, there will be two crews working.

Phoenicia 1/6/07

In Phoenicia, the Phoenicia Track Gang will be working this Saturday, 1/6, continuing work in the Phoenicia Yard Limits between the New East Switch and the Phoenicia Station surfacing track and replacing ties along this section of the Main Line. This is a leftover trouble spot from the flood of 2005. Work will commence at the Transfer Caboose at 10 AM. Both Jason DiTolla and George Peck will be there to oversee the operation. Plans are to use the Backhoe, Gradall with dump cart and the BR64 Ballast Regulator. All are welcome to join!

Kingston 1/6/07

In Kingston on 1/6/07, Earl Pardini will lead a crew to continue replacing ties west of Albany Avenue. Earl will start around 9:00am and you may park in the former auto body shop parking lot off of Tremper Avenue, between Cornell and O'Neill streets

First, the crew will be loading the newly refurbished parts container onto the work flat, and putting our track reconstruction work tools into it. Once that is done, Earl plans to fire up the 401, and make a delivery of ties to just west of Albany Avenue. After that, we will replace more ties west of Albany Avenue (the ground is not frozen, and weather may be as warm as 60 degrees on Saturday).

If there is sufficient turnout, plans are to continue painting the prime coat on the 401, and cut out a grove of small trees blocking access to rails stored in the yard.

Sunday, 1/7/07

On Sunday, 1/7/07, the "Steam Team" will be working at the Cornell street shops starting around 9:30am. They will be continuing work on the Davenport 0-4-0, Engine 23's tender, and if the weather is good enough, finish painting the prime coat on the 401.

Weather is expected to be sunny on both days, with a high of 58 on Saturday and 52 on Sunday. Pretty good for January!

As always, new volunteers are welcome.


Ernie Hunt

Today, an eleven person crew took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to replace more ties in Kingston. Present were CMRR Chairman Harry Jameson and President Earl Pardini, Bill Brosnan, Thom Johnson, Al Johnson, Peter Fluchere, Ed Palmatier, Ron Epstein, Mimi Pardini, myself, and our new volunteer Joe Janasiewicz.

We spiked three ties we inserted last time, and inserted and spiked 7 more ties, mostly at a small washout in the line. The CMRR's worktrain made an appearance, dropping ties for today's work, and about 10 more ties at the next small washout about 50 feet further west.

We hope to get another session in next Saturday before the weather closes in and the ground freezes for the rest of the winter.

We can now run full-sized trains to MP 3.45, .25 miles from where we started on Downs Street on November 11th.

Pictures from today can be found here:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?byrail ... ountain_RR

Ernie Hunt

We've been busy up in Phoenicia the last few weeks, too!

Crew on Saturday was split up among several tasks,but still managed to get a lot accomplished:

George Peck, Jason DiTolla and Derek Stapleton replaced 10 ties. That makes a total of about 30 the Gang has installed between the Phoenicia station and the Phoenicia section house in the last several weekends.

Dave Mason resurrected the Scarifier from its nearly 5-year slumber on the storage setoff next to the Section House, and got it running. After some preliminary testing, the main hydraulic piston for the scarifier boom was found to have a major leak; Dave removed the piston and we'll send it out for rebuilding.

Al Howes took advantage of the summer-like temperatures today to start stripping the (peeling) paint on Transfer Caboose 697 (former NYC N6a 18015). 697 had received a "temporary" paint job in 1996 during its display era in Kingston Plaza. When all's said and done later this spring, it will again wear its Burlington Northern-like green and yellow livery.

My task for the day was repairing and rerouting coolant lines on the Regulator, and getting the cab heater reconnected.

All in all, a very productive day's work on a phenomenally warm January day!

The CMRR will have volunteer workdays on Saturday, 1/13/07 and Sunday 1/14/07.

On Saturday, 1/13/07, there will be two crews working.

Phoenicia 1/13/07

In Phoenicia, the Phoenicia Track Gang will be working this Saturday, 1/13, continuing work in the Phoenicia Yard Limits between the New East Switch and the Phoenicia Station surfacing track and replacing ties along this section of the Main Line. This should be the last weekend working in Phoenicia before moving to Campground Curve. Work will commence at the Transfer Caboose at 10 AM. Both Jason DiTolla and George Peck will be there to oversee the operation. Plans are to use the Backhoe, Gradall with dump cart and the BR64 Ballast Regulator. All are welcome to join!

Kingston 1/13/07

In Kingston on 1/13/07, Earl Pardini will lead a crew to continue replacing ties west of Albany Avenue. Earl will start around 9:00am and you may park in the former auto body shop parking lot off of Tremper Avenue, between Cornell and O'Neill streets.

Once we gather our tools, we will move to Downs Street and down the line to MP 3.45 where we will insert and spike the ties we laid out last weekend. Additionally we will mark bad ties from that spot as far west as possible so we can estimate the amount of ties needed to get to Kingston Plaza.

Sunday, 1/14/07

On Sunday, 1/14/07, the "Steam Team" will be working at the Cornell street shops starting around 9:30am. They will be continuing work on the Davenport 0-4-0, Engine 23's tender, and the new tool container.

Weather is expected to be cloudy on both days, with a high of 46 on Saturday and 42 on Sunday. Not as good as last week, but still pretty good for January!

As always, new volunteers are welcome.


Ernie Hunt

Volunteer Coordinator
Catskill Mountain Railroad

On Saturday, January 13th, the Kingston track crew took advantage of the warm weather and were back to work replacing ties west of Albany Avenue in Kingston. 13 ties were inserted and spiked, and another three re-tamped and re-spiked. We fixed the small washout in the line at MP 3.47, about 350 feet west of Albany Avenue.

George Cook marked ties up to Chandler Drive/I587 (MP 3.57) - we have about 40 more to replace before we get there.

We had a good-sized crew: Earl Pardini, Harry Jameson, Tom Healy, Ron Epstein, Peter Fluchere, Mimi Pardini, Ed Parmatier, Thom Johnson, John LaBarre, Joe Marsh, George Cook (and his dog Cinder), myself, and a new Volunteer, John Patane, Jr.

After we ran through all the ties we set off last time, Earl got the 401 running and dropped more ties, leaving about 25 ties for the next session.

We will be back at it the next Saturday the ground isn't frozen - though this may be a while, as winter looks like it will be finally arriving this week.

Photos from Saturday can be found here:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?byrail ... ountain_RR

Ernie Hunt