Meeting day

Frank writes...

Saturday was a day of meetings. Things started with the Rules Review meeting in the morning, which I missed, and continued with the Safety Meeting in the afternoon and Annual Membership Meeting in the evening, both of which I attended. In between some actual car work got done. But let's put the last things (i.e. the annual meeting) first and congratulate Nigel Bennett on his reelection to the board and Marcus Ruef and Frank DeVries to their election to the board. Nigel is, of course, museum treasurer and works in the Steam Department; Frank and Marcus both work in the Track Department and the latter also moonlights as editor of Rail & Wire.

Earlier in the day was the safety meeting, which went off without a hitch under the able direction of Harold Krewer, after which I adjourned to the property. Joel, Thomas, and Jeron had been doing some switching in Yard 13 in the morning to get a boxcar in position to have its contents unloaded into another boxcar (these things always outwardly appear to be "recreational switching" but there's typically a purpose, even if it seems esoteric or invisible). They finished with that in the afternoon and then I was able to help them with finishing some inspection items on the 308, seen below.

We were able to finish almost all of the remaining items on the inspection list except for oiling the motor armature bearings; there is also one side door which will need some repair work as well as a union over the #2 axle which is leaking and will need a bit of work. Joel and Jeron spent some time draining the oil out of the compressor, something which hadn't been done in a few years and was well overdue. We may want to drop the compressor at some point so that we can open the top access hatch and really clean it out, but for now it's been refilled with clean oil and we'll keep an eye on it. Below, Joel uses a makeshift funnel to empty the old oil into a can.

After this, Thomas and I ran the car back over to Barn 8 and called it a day. Thank you to everyone who helped with this! There were plenty of people around, as is typical on annual meeting day, and a few Car Department projects were being worked on. Tim Peters was working on parts for the 1754, Kirk Warner from visiting from the sunny south and giving Jeff Brady a hand with the 28, Zach Ehlers was painting trim pieces for North Shore 757, and Jon and Dan Fenlaciki were doing some air brake work on the Cornwall steeplecab.