Work Session Status Week Ending 12/10/2016

December 12, 2016

Mother nature hasn’t been kind to us the past two weeks providing very cold temps for each of the two work sessions forcing both to be canceled.

Workers have been working on mostly the same projects since the last report.

We have been dealing with several repairs to the car mover aka “Lurch”. The brakes finally quit all together due to disc brake caliper problems. Repair parts were located (very expensive).

A friend of our Treasurer owns a company that has a hydraulic and lubrication business and gave us a good price on the labor to repair two of the calipers. The rebuilt calipers were installed Saturday so we now have at least two good braking wheels. The search is on for two more repair kits.

I expect to have the new bogie replacement cylinder for Lurch delivered Tuesday so it will be installed on the front right corner and the old one reconditioned. We have the repair seals on hand already. After repairs it will go on one of the other corners and so on until all four hydraulic bogies are reconditioned. As I’ve said before, not all volunteer’s work and time is spent on the locomotive, however, “Lurch” is an indispensable piece of equipment for our operation.

On the locomotive, templates for sheet metal is being fabricated from thin metal which will be provided to the company building the jacketing.

The 26L brake workers are close to being done connecting all the various components. Our electrical crew is working closely with them as both systems commingle in operation. All the specialized breakers have arrived and await installation in a protective enclosure.

Crews are still performing hydro testing on the superheaters. No leaks have been found since the one which was done by the old Santa Fe shops.

On the entertainment side and PR, Ron T. headed up a crew of merry men to decorate the locomotive, tender, and other areas of our site, with hundreds of donated Christmas lights. A local company called Albuquerque Trolley Company brought three loads of adults and children to the site after dark on both Saturday and Sunday. It was coined the “Piñon Express”. Photos were allowed with Santa in the cab for the children. Hot chocolate was served with cookies, magicians performed (Scrooge and Jack Frost), songs were sung along with Mrs. Claus telling stories to the little ones. A fun time was had by all.

Christmas Eve will see the addition of luminarias on the ground and foot boards. Drop by if you can and you’re in the area.

The Annual Safety refresher class, for members that have been through safety training already, will be held January 21st. We plan to have Warren Scholl lead the refresher lasting most all morning.

As you know it’s our time of the year to send our Christmas cards and they were sent on December 1st. If you have not received yours if could be that you have moved and not notified us of that change. Gail has spoken with some to get the addresses corrected. Luckily most had emails she could contact. Some we had phone numbers to contact, others we don’t have phone numbers. We enjoy hearing from each of you this time of year with your donations for 2926 and helping us to get her going soon. Thanks to those that have already given to her cause.

Hope to see everyone at the site this week, and as usual . . .

Keep on Steamin’,
Rick Kirby, CMO
NMSL&RHS