Photos attached are of progress at the wye as of Saturday. Hank and Clayton were putting the finishing touch on bending the rail. Sunday it was too cold to spike ties as the plastic has a tendency to be too brittle but Hank with Tony Benz and sons got more rail installed so now there is about 140ft of track ready to be spiked. Wayne was also out on Sunday and took on the task of cutting vines along the ROW. Dale is also well on schedule with trenching and laying conduit, with the help from Tony and sons 60ft was finished on Sunday along with the 40ft he did on Saturday. At this point Dale has passed Meramec Jct. and only needs to go to the signal box across from the Ballast track. Last photo is of Scotty who is back to work replacing worn truck springs since the construction in the carbarn shop is now completed.
Today's (Wed.) crew consisted of Brennen, Scott, Greathouse and Keeton in the carbarn, while Lorance, Welch, Neubie and Fritschle were busy at the wye.
Saturday's crew saw Errante in the machine shop working on 401. Scotty helped me take apart one of the tender trucks on 535. These are 300's original trucks and were built by V.A. Schmidt. All these wheels will be turned as the flanges should spec at .312 inches high and are averaging .450 inches high. It's great to work in the expanded carbarn shop, lots of room. Devin, Clayton, Tabernacki, Jimmy Scott, Hardt, Welch, Keeton, Foster and Dale were also in attendance on Saturday.
Gene Herr donated some machine equipment including a horizontal mill that Bob Hardt & Tabernacki picked up last week and delivered to Glencoe on Saturday.
From DavidNeubauer for Jan 9th.
At Glencoe today we had ERRANTE in the Shops working on part of the crosshead of 401. FOSTER was up there when I saw him. TABERNACKI was working in the Roundhouse and discussing things with us. MALACHI OWENS showed up and said he was taking the sight glass off the 535. SCOTTY arrived and was in Carbarn. After we left to go to end of track he apparently painted a work table. At first WELCH was working on a small project in the Carbarn. At 11 AM we gathered some rail and WELCH, LORANCE & NEUBAUER motored to the wye and a lot of adjusting string lines, measuring and trying to figure out the curvature in the track several hundred feet north of the wye. Later LORANCE AND NEUBAUER had to come back and bring up a carload of ties and the generator. We then installed 12 ties. djn
Don't forget the Annual Meeting is just 10 days away. It is on the 26th Saturday and instead of dinner we will meet at 11am for lunch, then the meeting will follow. If you have NOT left a reservation with Bob Hardt please do so by tomorrow so he can give the restaurant a head count. His email is
rohardt@charter.net
Directions to Pietro's on the HIll.
Firstly: Take I-44 EAST to Jamieson/WEST to Arsenal onto Jamieson. SOUTH about 1/2 mile to Pernod. Make LEFT on Pernod, which is a one way street, for a couple blocks to Watson. Make a RIGHT for a couple blocks. Pietro's is on the corner of Watson & Mardel.
Secondly: Coming EAST/WEST on I-64/Hwy 40 go to Hampton and SOUTH crossing over the viaduct of U.P./BNSF . Go under I-44. Continue about 8 blocks to Watson. This street goes to the RIGHT on an angle. Follow this for about a mile passing Arsenal St. Pietro's is on the corner of Watson & Mardel. djn
Jim Strain
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