Submitted by Steve Winicker.
LAST WEEKENDS SHOP ACTIVITY
Friday Jerrad and I got the bulk of the coal in the tender unloaded. Joe and Brandon blew flues clean on Saturday. While the rest of us spent time in a rigorous meeting Brandon cleaned out most of the front end of the locomotive. Finishing the job of cleaning up the machine is about all that is left of the winterization process. Sunday I did not feel like doing much and did not other than give tours. I did hook up the air machine and am venting the boiler. Also cleaned the ash off the track near the building other than what was under the 1231. Plenty of bad ties in the area between the 1231 and the ash pit.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
The shop should be open Friday and Sunday as usual. Saturday we are putting together an excursion to Lima to get the parts we took off last spring back on the 779. There are a few hoops to jump through yet and I will try to get out more information for those who can take some time to do this. Multitudes of muscle power are most needed. Skill we can impart as needed. Tentatively I will say we will get started around 9 AM at Lincoln Park in beautiful east of down town Lima. For those who cannot make it to Lima I will let you know if someone volunteers to be at Casad and when. Please let me know your plans if you hope to come out, especially if you want to coordinate shop activities. I will hope to be back mid afternoon.
Work will be starting on the annual inspection of the locomotive soon. Some valve gear has been taken off the locomotive and we will be removing the rest for bearing work.
