Work Week 2011 - June 6-9, 2011

All of the work done by our volunteer crew was supervised by our fearless leader, Karl Schaeffer. The work went smoothly as Karl ran from group to group fielding all sorts of questions from the simple to the very complex while trying to carry out work of his own as well. The lunches were provided by Pannies Pizza, Subway and Sue Hillhouse while the donuts, soft drinks and eating utensils were provided by Bob and Connie Schaeffer.

Below is a photo of the work crew on the last day and their even smiling after four days of hard work (l to r: Tom Larson, Campbell Stanton, Bob Meyer, John Weiss, Don Paulson, Steve Felde, Chris Weiser, Tom Hillhouse, Karl Schaeffer, Connie Schaeffer, Bill Ellicott and Bob Schaeffer. Not pictured, Juilie Larson).

The crew members stopped to field questions from museum visitors which provided a break in the work every so often. Below is shown Chris Weiser explaining the history of Goose No 4 to visitors

We had two drop-in workers on the last day. Tom and Julie Larson from La Crosse, Wisconsin had stopped by the museum on Tuesday and were so excited about out work that they joined for the last day, Julie painting safety equipment on caboose 0575 and Tom helping to install buffer blocks on gon 702 (see below).

Our newly aquired D&RG business car C was badly in need of a coat of paint. During the first day of the week the car was lightly scraped to remove loose paint and then a protective coat of red paint was added to last until we can begin its restoration next year. The two photos below show (l to r) Tom Hillhouse, Don Paulson, Campbell Stanton and Bill Ellicott hard at work painting the car

Below is shown the finished paint job.

A second project involved straightening stock car 5574. Karl Schaeffer's truck was used to pull the car straight and then a trun buckle was added inside. This was done to both ends of the car. Karl is shown below in both photos

The second major project of this year's work week was to finish installing brake lines, motor components, etc on Goose No. 4. The motor crew, shown below, were (l to r) Steve Felde, Bob Meyer, John Weiss and Karl Schaeffer

The photo below left shows John Weiss inspecting the progress made on Goose No 4's motor after two days of work. The right photo shows Bob Meyer on day three studying the photos taken before the motor was disassembled. So far there are no missing or extra pieces.

Stock Car 5574 has long been used as a depository for all wood and metal materials. The car was a mess so we emptied it and built shelves inside to house all of the wood and metal pieces. Shown below (l to r) in the left photo are Don Paulson and Bill Ellicott working on the shelf installation. The photo on the right shows Bill Ellicott and Campbell Staton loading lumber into the new shelves on the west side of the car for wood storage. The final photo on the right shows the new shelves in the east end of the car for metal storage.

The inside of the Wayne bus body of Goose No 4 has not been cleaned in over 60 years. Chris Weiser, shown below on the left, has undertaken the job of cleaning every square inch of the bus body. On the third day Chris removed the axels from our numerous motor car wheel sets.

On day three Bill Ellicott, Don Paulson, and Campbell Stanton painted the south side of Box Car 3130 as shown below. The tedious painting around the stenciling was done by Campbell as shown in the third phgoto below.

On the final day of work week we wire brushed the safety railings on Caboose 0575. The photo on the left shows Campbell Stanton, Tom Hillhouse and Bill Ellicott working away. The right hand photo shows Julie Larson painting the brake wheel.The final photo shows the finished product.

The Goose 4 engine brain trust was hard at work as usual. Bob Meyer, Steve Felde, Karl Schaeffer and John Weiss are shown in the photo below. Chris Weiser rebuilt the motorman's seat and spent much of the day working on piping to the control panel.

Phil Blackford had earlier repaird several cracks in the frame. The work on the engine included installing: two reducing valves, the exhaust system, accelerator, clutch and brake linkages, air brake piping, hand brake cables, carborator, air compressor, fan, horn, fuel pump, distributor, oil filter, motor mounts, electrical, intake and exhaust manifolds, starter, generator and fuel line! Safety is of paramont importance in the future operation of Goose 4. The engine crew replaced or rebuilt any item that is safety related. However, the old items were left in the engine compartment for historical reasons. For example, all of the brass tubing was replaced with new lilnes to ensure that no leaks would occur during operation.

Another project carried out on the last day involved replacing the buffer blocks on the doors of D&RGW drop bottom gon 702. The photo on the left shows Tom Larson and Bill Ellicott drilling holes for the blocks. The middle photo shows the block crew (l to r) Don Paulson., Bill Ellicott, Tom Larson and Campbell Stanton. The final two photos show the blocks with the door open (l) and closed (r).

The important but tedious job of cutting out the stencil for the 1930's D&RGW logo, affectionately called the "Toilet Seat Logo," was joyfully carried out on the last day by Connie Schaeffer. The logo will be sprayed onto box car 3130 during our next work session.

The final chore for this years work week was to weed wack the property. This job was carried out by Don Paulson, Tom Hillhouse, Campbell Stanton and Steve Felde. Below is shown Tom Hillhouse hard at work.

Probably the strangest item found on Goose No 4 is the automatic radiator filler. The Geese were notorious for over-heating and to help solve this problem there is a direct line going from the water tank in the passenger comparment to the radiator with an on off valve on the motorman's control panel. The valve is shown below.