7/25/2010 Work Day

We arrived and Rich started out describing what he wanted to do today. First was to check the inch and a half line for signal problems, the inch and finally install a new block near the roundhouse. We had rain Friday evening into Saturday morning and the ground was somewhat mushy in some areas. The roadbed was firm but some of the areas alongside the trackbed were squishy when you walked on them and there was some standing water. 1280 was brought out of the roundhouse with some riding cars and we discovered that the North side had considerable problems where the track was the wettest. Not only had the dirt washed down the hillsides but the track joints were not conducting well where the new track had been laid a few years ago. This is a common problem that the joints work very well when new (electrically) but as they age the resistance goes up and they need bond wires across the joints to ensure connectivity. Tommy had purchased stainless-steel tie wire used to secure pins and nuts on equipment subject to vibration for us to try in place of the aluminum bond wire we had been using. The only drawback so far is the stiffness of the wire so it is harder to shape into form for the bond.

We started by the roundhouse and put the new signal block up. The block requires a new semaphore and base box which contains two terminal strips - one for each head going in each direction. After getting Jack started with adding the track sensor connections, I went down to the North end by Twin Bridges and started adding bond wires. I had to drill quite a few holes and preform the bond wires. Of course some of the screws had to breakoff whil installing the screws in the track so it slowed me down a bit. I did get done at lunch time with about 16 locations and after being out in the sun while it is in the high 80s. We had lunch and I got a chance to talk to Fred for a while about his writing. I am trying to encourage him to write some of his tips and construction information for building his locomotives. I am a fan of his Shay as well as Trish locomotives as I love his construction techniques and details. Fred just has a gift for mechanical construction. I set him straight that he owns the rights to any story he has written unless it was covered by a contract and there was a quid-pro-quo as it is refered to in law. He is thinking of collecting his "Soup to Nuts"