Oyster Bay RR Museum new update:
Saturday April 9th
With help donated by OBRM friend Bob Hotine of DC Crane, the volunteers were able to raise the arch over the turntable yesterday.
Bob brought his excavator and we started the day REAL early.
I myself was awake before the crack of dawn-no Gilligans Island jokes folks. I was a diehard Maryann fan.
I was out of my house by 6:15am in order to get everyone donuts and coffee.
Bob brought one of his crewmen, Chris with him at 8am, while we were just finishing the installation of the collector box on top of the arch.
After looking at the arch again, Bob & I rigged the hoist chain to the arch’s legs and began the lift. Chris did the pick quickly and smoothly and deftly began his 180 degree turn. He then proceeded to the turntables pit wall where he was able to place his unit onto the wall and over onto the bridge. Bob & I discussed using this strategy, having used a similar one to place the bridges ties into place a few weeks ago. With our forklift.
While bringing the unit up onto the bridge we encountered our first of (thankfully) few incidents.
From the turntable power poles there was strung a 230 volt electrical cable which had to be moved up or cut.
Thankfully, the lines were dead, so someone (me) had to climb up the ladder to the top of the arch and cut the wires.
A few minutes later we were back in business and Chris lowered the arch into position. After a few minutes of wiggling the units’ legs into alignment, we drilled a few holes in order to set the lag bolts to hold it onto the bridge ties. We also temporarily drilled out the outriggers legs in order to get them installed. Later we would actually drill through the tie and use a long galvanized lag bolt to clamp the legs permanently.
I was hoping to get Bob & Chris in & out by 9am and kept them about 15 minutes over their time.
Sorry Bob!!!!
After the installation, we still had to accomplish the other goals of the day. We did manage to complete…..
1-repairs to the forklift-a new condenser solved our electrical problem
2-moving of all old ties from the area near the south-west pit wall to an area nearer the boiler of #35
3-clearing out every pallet of parts and all metals/scrap/debris from the south-west side of the pit wall
4-inspection of the pit wall where the track-lead onto the turntable is
5-drill out all 16 holes to set all, of the lag bolts onto the turntables legs and drill 3 holes through the 15 foot ties in order to bolt the legs outriggers in place. Previously, they were only lag bolted through the metal grating into the tops of the ties.
In addition to all of these goals, we still had to get the installation of the roof patches on our Ping Pong coach completed. Since our Barry Tech intern, James, was alone again for the 2nd week, he could not complete his task.
I am still very grateful for his determination to get the job done and quite proud of him and his skills.
We at the OBRM love working hand in hand with Barry Tech & BOCES. It’s a great partnership for both of us.
This was a long day, but one I was pleased with as all of my volunteers were able to contribute so much to the tasks at hand.
Rich Brody, Leon Daitz, Wayne Beers, Doug Kasner, George Mutari, Alan Biershank, Elliot Courtney, Gerard Jewel all broke their backs for the cause. Without these guys, we would not be able to get things done and I thank every one of them and all of my volunteers for their time and sacrifice.
I would LOVE to wake up at 9am on any given Saturday and not have to think about doing volunteer work.
At days’ end, we had NOTHING surrounding the turntables’ pit wall for the first time since we began the OBRM at the yard.
Next week we will finish touch up of the railings, moving some more items and get ready to scrap a lot of excess metal off the site. We will also begin the installation of the final coat of paint onto the crossing shanty AND the World’s Fair cab. I would also like to apply a coat of wax to the new M1 simulator.
