THE TWO FOOTERS

The Liberty County Arts Council held its second annual Blue Grass Festival April 9th in the park where our train operates.  We had over four hundred riders or about half of the total festival attendance.

We have received some good news on the political front.  The Florida Dept of Environmental Protection has approved our request to build our 400' trestle and 450' elevated walking trail through our wetlands.  However, they are holding our permit hostage to the county's need to comply with storm water run-off management for the park which was supposed to have been addressed during the original park construction.  Much hurrah about not much.  The water has been running off the park quite well since the last ice age and it looks like the problem may go away soon with some mitigation in another part of the county.  To show how clueless some of these bureaucrats can be, they asked our engineering firm how we planned to handle storm water run-off from the trestle.  After I got up from rolling on the floor, we said we were going to leave a 12" drainage opening between the ties and that satisfied them.

The US Army Corps of Engineers allowed as how our five acre wetland was not likely to be a navigable waterway so they also gave their approval.

We even had to have an archaeological survey to make sure there weren't any Native American artifacts in the pond.  They left us with an admonition to be sure and call them if we found any canoes, etc while sinking the pilings.

As I've mentioned before, we are very fortunate to be able to call on the local state prison for inmate labor crews to do our major construction jobs.  However, they are 8 to 10 man crews who have to be accompanied by a corrections officer.  They are in high demand so our access to them is limited.  We have built up a large backlog of minor track work that needs done but we're unable to utilize that many workers.  I was talking to the county sheriff at the festival about our problem.  He said "That's no problem.  I have 20 to 30 inmates sitting around the jail with nothing to do.  Come and get as many or few as you need for the job but understand you won't be getting the sharpest knives in the drawer."  I checked and found that, since we are non-profit, we don't have to pay for their use, only feed them lunch. No security required.  I just go up to the jail and sign them out. I have a couple of air tampers on order and as soon as they arrive, we plan to use these inmates to take out the kinks and dips as well as super-elevate the curves. For this type of labor, I'm sure these guys will do fine.

We have an inmate crew on the job this week forming and pouring additional station platforms.  The ones we built around the new station have proved too small to handle the crowds during special occasions. It will also incorporate a wheel chair accessible ramp up and over the track.

We have found through experience that it was a mistake to build the station in a location where the riders have to cross the track to get to the platform.  We have to be very cautious when approaching or leaving the station because lots of the children and even some adults are oblivious to the danger from the train.  We will be correcting that design flaw when we build the big station/museum next year.

In the meantime, I'm working on an automatic crossing gate for the access ramp.  This has proven to be a design challenge with much fumbling along and correcting mistakes.  As Gloria says:" Doing and undoing keeps fools employed".  While making the insulated track section for the gate, I also decided to automate our crossing flasher.  We have been operating it by radio control from the locomotive but it's not as handy.  My son brought me some very heavy plastic strips removed from a paper machine which I have cut into joint bars and rail end insulators. I'll enclose pix of that also.

Like the previous year, 2004 was a very wet year in Pennsylvania, so not as much got done as one would like.  But the T&S was able to put up a 2 bay 20x24 Engine house / Workshop off of the turntable.  Just a bit of minor work yet to finish outside.  Off the backside will be a low pit for engine servicing.  Also hope this year to put in a workbench.

At our trestle, the creeks high water began to erode out the Mud Sill Bank.  So time was taken out on a rare dry period to take big stones from the creek and place them in the eroded area between the trestles footing in the creek and the Mudd Sill to stabilize it.  Seems to have work out well… so far.

    -         #16 1951 Henschel 0-4-0 3 foot Gauge (was 900 mm), ~30 Ton, Midwest Central R.R., Mt. Pleasant Iowa

    -         Acquired 1982 from Barney Pollard Estate of Detroit Michigan

    -         Originally built for Iron Mining service on East/West German Border

    -         Locomotive has been rebuilt over the years with new tubes, bearings, appliances…  

    -         Picture taken August 2004 with Jim Machacek as Engineer

David has just completed a full rebuild on the original 2 sets of axles that were once used under horse drawn skips in the gold mines that worked around the turn of the century near our cottage. After 25-30 years of abandonment David, as a young boy, rescued them from scrap status in 1950 and that planted the early seeds for the current 'shady creek RR".  Flanges had to be built up on the inside of the wheels to properly negotiate the first switches we installed 4 years ago.

They are now known as MOW 1 & 2.  Today they will find there way back home for their final trip across the lake to join track building duties headed up by #10 loco.  We will mount couplers on the loco, for the first time, above the current link and pin and leave the link and pin intact for track work and incoming supplies when 1&2 are needed. Varying lengths of bar will be used between them depending on what we haul from tools and 3.5' ties to 30' #40 rail.  One pair of axles run in babbit pillow block bearings with grease cups and the other in well greased New Hampshire white oak.  He bolted two pieces of wood together, drilled and separated momentarily to get the axles to pass through the blocks, then re-bolt.  Surprisingly both 1&2 glide along the concrete floor with equal resistance, though the true test will be this week when the are reunited with their 2 foot parallel steel friends.

 Recently, David and I spent a day sifting through ‘changed ties’ I call them, which are CN replaced in our area on the mainline to the east coast of Canada.  We are very lucky to have access to as many ties as we need so we spend 3 days or so a year cutting one tandem dump load to keep a good supply on hand just in case our supplier runs out.  They are cut at 42” – 44 “.  Like my aluminum tie tongs? Replaceable steel points too. I got them at Harmer in Winnipeg when I was there on business (they have or had 2 or 3 other pairs in the warehouse when I bought them).  Lawrence said I was the probably the first 2-foot client to ask for this item!

In the August 2004 issue, we mentioned that our winter project was to rebuild / re-gauge our standard gauge tie inserter.  We re-gauged the inserter for both two foot and three foot gauge railroad knowing that we would be assisting the EBT Railroad.  

On May 7 2005, we put the tie inserter into action and were able to quickly replace 14 ties very quickly on the B&W Railroad! 

On May 14, 2005, the B&W Crew put the Tie Inserter to the test at the East Broad Top Railroad.  We replaced 99 ties in 7 hours.  A lot of credit has to be given to the tie inserter.  This saved a lot of back-breaking hours.  Unfortunately, after the 99^th tie, the inserter stopped functioning due to a failed bearing in the Hydraulic pump. 

Here is a picture of the leaf blower that I am rebuilding.  It used to be a leaf vacuum but we found blowing them to be more efficient.  It has not run in over 10 years, it spent just about all of that time outside, so we took the head off and steam cleaned it and worked on freeing the excess iron on the front as we are going to use a large fan and mount it where the suction intake used to be.

The engine is an old Ford and it does turn over but we need to put an alternator on the battery and make some adjustments to the carburetor.  There is a transmission so it will move on its own power when clearing but we will probably move it around with a locomotive when we are not operating it because it will not have much speed.

The project was taking a while because 2 of our mechanics were on vacation and 1 was overseas with the military.  They have all returned and so things should be picking up soon. 

 On June 3, 2005, volunteer members from the Welsh Highland Railway paid a visit to the B&W Railroad.  John Hine and Dave Waldren were visiting the United States to view the railroads of Pennsylvania.  John and Dave work with the big Garrets that were pictured in the last newsletter.  They were impressed with the US Standard Gauge Railroad that runs trains of a mile or more in length.  John and Dave informed us that there railroad achieved enough grant money to connect with another two foot operation.  When complete, they will have over 40 miles of two foot gauge track.  To see more, visit their website:  www.festrail.co.uk

As we bring another issue to a close we seem to always be scampering at the end to come up with enough to have 8 pages. There are over 70 members and only a handful send us articles.  Also most of those that received a hard copy or snail mail of the newsletter have sent some stamps… Anyone who is receiving a “hard copy” and would like to receive a copy by email, please forward us you email address.

We have received a lot of compliments out side of the group regarding our newsletter.  Each and ever one of you should be proud of what you have done even if it is laying 20 feet of track or making a set of wheels let us put it in the newsletter.

The Two Footers
534 Armory Road
St. Marys, PA  15857

tpbauer@alltel.net
or
tom@thetwofooters.com

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