We are back!-3/27/10

1st work session of 2010.
It was cold but bearable due to the fact that we were preparing the grounds for  a new project. This is the start of the actual restoration of former LIRR steam locomotive #35.Yeah for us!!!
We have been given the green light as far as the money goes and over the next 5 weekends, we will be taking a certain amount of parts that were on a list, given to us by Scott Lindsey of Steam Operations Corp, out of out trailers and we will be cleaning and prepping them for inspection. These parts are from the drive train of #35. The drive rods and bearings will be inspected and their measurements will be compared to the blueprints to see how much work will be needed to restore them to "factory" conditions.
I am hoping that Scott gives us the ok to start needle scaling the frame itself.
We got busy moving our visitors center about 25 feet forward and north of its original position and them we were finally able to remove the clamps from the old turntable ties. These were them moved west and put up against the LIRR fence. We then put all of the scrap steel that we had into our dunp truck and moved both it and our forklift out of the site. All of the turntable walkways and the 2 steel "I" beams that were given to us by the LIST chapter NRHS years ago (for lifting #35's frame) were also moved away from this area. We can now move both of the parts trailers forward about 20 feet. This will allow us access to remove the parts and will eventually allow us to move the trailers off site when they are FINALLY empty.
We have not forgotten about the turntable and to that end have received on-site from Wit Craft Electric, the turntables electric motor, the resistor bank and the split ring electrical collector all restored beautifully by Bill Dumper. This man is a creative genius! He still has the actual control stand and will hopefully be finished by June.
Until next time
Gary