Russ & Ed develop a work-flow to gauge panels. Matt & Dee following along
March 25, 2021 Operations Council Meeting Minutes
Attendees; Russ Sonnenschein, Bill Boller, Kevin Hayashi, Bob Silverstein, Bruce Swanson, Dee Murphy, Matt Petach
Ken Kormanak, Ed Sarber, Tom Waterfall, (Carl Herrera and Ron Mason in building 4)
President Bob opened the meeting at 12:27 pm.
Treasurer’s report – Kevin.
We have a balance of $10.545.87 in the bank. Accounts receivable are $1,643.08, which includes a Reimbursement Request for maintenance expenses, plus $250 from 3 members whose dues in arrears. Accounts Payable has $120.68 in outstanding checks.
PV & A RR has 66 members
Expenses for the year are:
Expansion Project - the Caboose Loop, 14% of this year’s budget
RR Maintenance - $1,393.08.
Project Status Reports
Lumber Camp Route -
Hand railings - Tom. No change, working on rail bender modification
Switch Stands - Tom. No change.
Caboose Loop Route -
Right of Way - Bruce. The team is adding base rock, bringing to grade so we can compact and survey it, putting gutter boards in. We're using both gator and quad to move material rapidly.
Tunnel
Bruce. No change. We will add ballast when the tracks go in.
Lights and signals
Russ. No change.
Bill asked if we can have another block coming out of the tunnel to the bridge. If you have a green signal to go into the tunnel, you can't see if there's someone stopped as you come out the other side.
New Crossover - Kevin. In two weeks, we will pull out the old crossover and install the new. Should take one or two days. We laid it out today, and the geometry works best exactly where the old one is.
Overlook retaining wall - Bill said that we are planning to trim some trees at the Overlook Ridge to allow people to enjoy the impressive view of the bay as they round the corner on the new Caboose Route.
Gritty Gravel building. - Bruce, Tom. No change. The priority for Tom et al is getting the Caboose route completed.
Little Buildings - Ron. Still a large backlog. Reassembling them from termite dust, one at a time. Dick Osgood came by this morning, took some measurements by the fire tower so he can move forward.
Track Fabrication and repair - Bob and Ed
Repair panels. Ed Saber. Inventory of built panels is divided into 3 groups. Good as is, Tom Miller rail and other rail that needs rework. We may be able to finish rework on the panels that are currently in building 4 on Thursday. Russ and Ed have experimented with rework methods, and we will use Accu-Tie plastic plates as needed on rebuilds.
Bruce will take completed panels down to the Caboose area in two weeks if the weather holds. Bob noted that currently there is adequate space inside building 4.
New Track Panels. We have now selected new materials and a standard process for new panel builds which should eliminate the need for future rework.
Materials: We have settled on RMI I-beam plastic tie material in which we will mill two shallow grooves for the metal tie plates, and use stainless steel screws. We have ordered 38,000 tie plates from Train Mountain, to piggyback on their order. Stainless steel screws yet to be finalized, but we would like to procure them soon, so we can stop using the current screws that rust very quickly.
Tooling:
Mike and Bill have designed a two router tool and fixture to cut both grooves at once. Ken is doing the electrical connections. The grooves will uniformly center the tie plates and register them square while securing the rail and tie plates.
Dimensions: Spacing is critical center-to-center so that our gaging jigs work. Bill wrote a paper that describes the decision on the spacing, which is at the wide edge of the IBLS (International Brotherhood of Live Steamers) standard so that it will work for both our 1.5" and 2.5" gear, especially the bigger engines.
A single dimension works for both straight and curved track panels.
Track positioning will be maintained during assembly with multiple assembly fixtures on each track panel. We are also working on a hold down clamp for the rail.
Rail bending: Tom and Carl have revised the orientation of the rail bending machine and added in feed and out feed tables to keep the rail from sagging during bending. It still takes judgement to get the amount of curvature near the same for each rail. We have some kinked rail from past efforts that are difficult to recover - perhaps rerunning it through the ‘new’ rail bender will fix them?
Procurement
Bob. We need to decide on the ratio of base rock to ballast, and how much of this year’s budget is available for further track panel material purchases.
Tom noted that we have lost a bunch of vice-grips and got approval to buy up to 8 new pairs from Harbor Freight with the caveat that they are better than the previous ones from Harbor Freight.
New rail has been sourced through Train Mountain and comes from Switzerland.
New tie plates have been sourced from Train Mountain
Technical Documentation - Here is the link
Safety & Privacy
We are guests on the Pony Tracks Ranch and are permitted to use the railroad areas and building 4 only. Do not use, nor allow your guests to use the playground equipment or zip line.
Covid - We are being a little more conservative than Orange tier. For meets; group size capped at 24. if you see larger groups, please ask some to go to building 4 or take a train ride.
Calendar
Meets. We’re planning on a joint meet in October with GGLS and SVLS
Next month’s meeting will be moved from the standard date, as Bob will be out of town.
Bob ended the meeting at 12:56 PM
Mike Ward, Secretary, with great notes by Matt