May 15, 2011

Hi Everyone

Well we made some excellent progress this last weekend at the museum. 

Over the previous week, Xian and his crew installed the new rail in Kelly yard and on Saturday was able to drill and re-install the guard rail.  There is still some work to do, but overall it is very close to completion.  Great job.

Up in the shop, the large lathe is now running again.  For those who are not familiar with the shop, the large lathe is a 22' long lathe that is large enough to turn entire wheel sets (wheels on axles).  The motor was installed last weekend, and was hooked up and tested.  We had some problems with the control equipment for the motor, but through some creative engineering, have developed a solution to allow the lathe to operate safely while we figure out the issues with the control equipment.  We still have some machine work to make a tool holder for the new tracing tool, but are very close to the point of actually starting to turn the wheels for 836.  We have also installed the gantry crane system over the lathe on Saturday, so we are not set to install the axle in the lathe.  A lot of work has gone into making the lathe operational, and thanks go out to Pat, Chris and John for all their hard work on getting us to this point.

Next Saturday (May 21) is the Flea Market.  We expect a lot of people will be coming to this event.  Anyone who can help, we can use people to help park cars, crowd control to make sure no one gets in front of a trolley car, etc.  Please contact either myself or Carol, or come on down on Saturday.  The flea market starts at 8:00 A.M.

A lot of grading, tree clearing etc. has been occuring at the museum, so thanks to everyone helping out in this endeavor. 

Galen