How's it hangin"??

Or more likely, who is doing the hanging?
When we started the 2012 work season, little did we know that we would be 2 weeks late. That hung us up a bit.
So, we did what any self respecting crew would do-we hung in there!
I know, pretty lame, BUT, we still got it done.
UPDATE*****
the crossing shanty has had a temporary firewall installed and a steel plate bolted to the floor in preparation of installing a coal burning stove, courtesy of our own Wayne Beers.
It now only needs a set of legs or a stand and the smokejack to be installed.
As for the Worlds Fair cab, John Specce donated a sound unit to be installed. Why a sound unit?
Because its cool and also gives the visitor the sounds to go along with the sights.
When I wired up the unit, I installed outlets in the nose for the side lights so there are places to plug it in.
We have been hard at work welding up the stove in #12 caboose. The cast iron has been rotting away through the years due to water and normal corrosion, so over the course of the next few weeks, we should have it completed. However, it will not support a fire, so we do not intend on lighting her up anytime soon. Its for show-not for go!
And that brings me to this seasons one major task-GET THE TURNTABLE OPERATING!!!!!!!!
Leon & I picked up all of the elcrical components from Wit-Craft Electric in Farmingdale and Bill D. gave us a wiring book to have an electician wire it up for us.
We have been pounding nails, painting metal and installing everything we have to  get us to our goal. Having it operational in 2012.
I believe we can do it. It's just a question of when. And speaking of when, when the Town of Oyster Bay signs the contract, #35 will begin heading to Steam Operations Corp in Mussel Shoals Alabama.
Scott Lindsey is the resident steam expert and his portfolio of work is impressive. Need I say more than the Norfolk Southern Steam Program and the #611? Nuff said.








Folks, it takes people, like our devoted volunteers to be able to do what we do.
I am damn proud of each and everyone of them for giving of their time and of themselves.
We come from all walks of life and interests, yet we all see the big picture.
As you can see from the above photos, yes, we really do work.
And yes, I do have to put up with Steve Torborg!!!!!!

I know, you have all seen this last photo in another blog before, but, oh... what the heck. I like it and its a picture of me! so,  deal with it.
Until next time-same train time, same train station!!!

spinning wheel, round and round

Thats what the turntable will do when we get it runnng.
The plan is to have it up & running this year and we are awaiting an electrical drop from LIPA in order to power the turntables motor. Now I know what you must be thinking-Gary, how much electrical service are you going to need?
Good question! According to the electrical contractor that rebuilt the motor, we only need about 60 amps of power because the motor is a high torque low horsepower unit., It only provides 2.5 horsepower!
But that horsepower can't be harnessed unless we have the control stand to operate it.
Well, as of February 13th, we do!
Leon & I took a trip to Farmingdale, actually to ....get this! Motor Ave, to pick up the controller & the starter.
We hauled these pieces back to Oyster Bay and proceeded to place them onto the turntables walkway where they will be permanently installed when we begin work sessions in the spring.
Here are a few pictures from that day.
The first one is a bit dareker baut shows the units on the right walkway looking from one end of the TT to the other end.
The next two shows the 2 units together, but not bolted to each other or to the walkway. We will install a steel plate to make this installation easier and safer for the operator.





Gary

And the year starts on a high note!

Hi folks and WELCOME to 2012-cue up the applause!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you all know, my job became overpowering in June and I had to curtail my OBRM time including my being a trustee, so I had to take a leave of absence. I appreciate all of the well wishes and the questions of when I will be returning.
OK-I'm back, although I won't be back 24/7, like I used to.
Yesterday, Saturday February 11th, we kicked off the new year with a clean-up session.
For those of you who were at the station building last year when we had the memorabilia sale, you will recall that the building was looking kind of...well, ratty.
Our beloved President John Speece had the Town of Oyster Bay (TOB) drop off a huge recycling bin in front of the station building into which,
John, Steve Torborg, Wayne Beers, Leon Daitz, John Speece Dave Morrison, John Grocki, Bill Krushinski and I (although I didn't show up until 11:30-although with coffee & donuts for all) proceeded to remove as much trash, litter and unwanted/unneeded items and dump it all for removal.
When we were done around 3pm, we left a building that could be occupied quite easily with room to display alot and still have another memorabilia sale this spring.
Quite a bit of stuff was earmarked for movment to the yard area where we were able to easily move the items into the shop or our new storage container. This container has proved a godsend to us as we were able to take stuff out of the "shop" trailer which did not belong and just cluttered up the area. I went in there for the first time since the new trailer arrived and can tell you that there sure is alot more room to move around and work in.
Over the course of the next few weeks we should be bringing back the rest of the turntables operating system. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Gary

HOT HOT HOT!

A beautiful day after a week of rain and only  a few brave souls ventured forth to Oyster Bay.
Yesterday I picked up a gallon of custon paint in order to put the finish coat onto the Worlds Fair cab display. I think I finally got the correct color for "Goodfellow" grey to go along with the orange.

Ronnie, Paul, Gerard and I were able to get a first coat on and will finish up in 2 weeks.
There will be no work session next week for the memorial day weekend.

John Specce, the OBRM President came by with the new signs touting our "spend a day in Oyster Bay program and we put one up on the fence and the other was destined for the back of the Worlds Fair Cab.
James, our Barry Tech intern, spot welded 5 studs to the back sheet and we hung the sign and bolted it down. No more double sided or duct tape for us!.

I was the only docent on hand today as our regular docent Harvey, was unavailable and we had over 50 visitors to the yard. A cub scout troop from Sea Cliff came by to visit. They were so cute in their uniforms and they also had a group photographer with them.
Feeling good today (because of the weather, I guess), I asked them if they wanted to take a photo on the turntable. No surprise to me, they did and I even got into one shot with the kids.
All in all, a nice day.

Just so you all know, I did not take any photos today and I plan on making this my last blog for some time.
I am too busy now with work and will not have any extra moments to spare on the weekends.
I may do a once a month blog.
Gary

workng stiffs

Hi all
Yesterday wasn't so bad a day.
If you remember, last week, we cut down 2 trees that were against Duke Electrical Supplys building in front of our gates.
We began by painting the enitire side of the building white to cover the graffiti and brighten the "joint" up a bit.
Pete, Duke Supply's owner, thought it was a great idea as it makes both of us look good.
Next week we will be adding a new facia board on the rear section of the building in order to put up a new gutter and leader for water control.
We also plan on putting up 2 more gutters which will take the water from the front sections scuppers and direct it all to the street, so it will not flood out Duke. All in the name of being good neighbors!
We'll ask him to put up new exterior lighting to bathe the yard at night.

We also built 2 new planting beds outside the front gate using our forklift to move some of the old railroad ties into plce. we first laid down some weed control fabric that we had stored inside a a locker in #50.
While this was going on, we had a couple of guys finishing up the handrail on the M1 simulator and staining it.
We also stained the 2 steps that we use to get our visitors up into the Ping Pong coach.
Still waiting on the control stand for the Turntable, but on Monday 5/16/11, I understand we will be having a visit from some folks from LIPA and maybe the Town of O.B. to see how to get us new power to the sight. We went over our needs for now and the future and sent in our proposal.
The old power pole behind the turntable is infested with carpenter ants AND we do need a new pole installed on the other side of the turntable in order to apply the guy wires to hold the electrical box on top of the turntable steady, so it doesn't move.
We also have a few minor tweaks to the Worlds Fair cab, caboose #50 & #12.
Manpower as always determines our actions.

As for todays Memorabilia sale at the historic Oyster Bay Train Station,
we had a full crew there all day and sold quite a bit of everything and made a lot of money while offering a fantastic deal on our stuff.
Everyone left happy enough that we plan on doing this again during our railroad days in August.
Lauren Godoy, Leon Daitz, Wayne Beers,  Gerard Jewel, Steve Torborg, Doug Kasner, John Specce, Ben Jankowski, Elliot Courtney, Mark Bridges, Rob Brusca, Bill Bell & I held down the fort at the station while Harvey kept the yard huming and Alex (wo)manned the visitors center.
Gary

Spring fever

Today we accomplished quite a bit at the yard, but during the last week and going into next week, we will really have hit the big time!
First off, last Thursday we received a visit from Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto. Mr Venditto has long been an avid supporter of the OBRM and his visit was well received. On HIS watch, we worked with the Town of Oyster Bay (TOB) to establish the museum and expand our endeavors as well as our standing in the Oyster Bay community.
The Supervisor also wanted to let us know that the TOB will be entering into a 10 year deal with OBRM to continue our efforts and triumphs. This is GREAT NEWS!!
This coming Monday, Senator Charles Schumer will be hosting a press conference at the historic Oyster Bay Station.
At the conference, the Senator will announce his intention to petition the National Park Service to initiate a source survey to determine the station's eligibility for designation as an affiliated area of Sagamore Hill. This could result in significant technical and financial assistance from NPS for the station's restoration and rehabilitation. The senator will provide more details at the conference.
This can ONLY be of value to us and the community. Imagine, if this goes through, there will be access to funding sources and technical assistance from the Nation Parks Service. Not something that can be taken lightly!
Keep your fingers crossed on this one. We have been helped by Senator Schumer in the past and I feel that he is the real deal. A good man with a passion for his people-all of us in NY.

TODAY-we embarked on a beautification program at the yard.
ALL of the staircases at the displays have been stained and sealed. We also took down one of the vinyl fence pieces and built a planter out of old turntable ties. Dodds & Eder provided the topsoil and flats of plants which were planted and watered. It does kind of make the place a bit more "pretty".
We also did a bit more work on the staircase to the M1 Simulator. And speaking of simulator, last week we found that there was some computer equipment still installed in the simulator. Today we opened up every cabinet and installed an electric line and started testing everything and came up with the conclusion that we only seem to be missing the programming for the simulator and all of the external equipment/wiring that the LIRR used on the outside of this unit.
This means that if we can get a program into a laptop, then we can have the simulation portion working.
Still a work in progress:
Also, We ran the exterior electrical conduit with the connectors and clamps under the turntable and now the wiring is totally encased until it comes to the area where the control stand will be. When that is installed, we will, of course, enclose all of the wires there too.
We picked up a new intern from Barry Technical School. Nick joined us and we think he'll fit right in.
James is working with him to finish up the roof corners. The second corner is done and hey should have the third one done next Saturday.
While all of this went on we also took a paint roller to the back of the worlds fair cab. We had a sign hung there that was finally removed and we had to scrape off the residue of the double sided tape. We wound up peeling a bit of the grey paint off and decided to re paint those portions in preparation for the final grey coat.


We have always strived to be recognized and seen, so we approached the owners of Duke Supply corp, who have been supporters since we started and inquired if the scrub trees on the side of their building could be removed. They told us if we want them gone, they're gone!
They were removed today and it opened the sight lines dramatically. Nothing is hidden now and we plan on doing some small repairs to their building and then a new paint job will be added to enhance both Dukes appearance and ours.

More to come next week and we hope that you come on up to spend some time at our Railroadiana  Sale at the historic Oyster Bay Train Station on Sunday May 15th. We'll have lots of things for sale that day. It should be a fun time and yes!, the museum and display yard will be open for viewing.
Gary

Big railroad themed memorabilia sale

All:
At the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum on Sunday May 15th:
We will be hosting a huge "enginehouse sale" (railroads don't have garages!) at the historic Oyster Bay train Station from 10am-4pm.
We will have all kinds of videos, books, magazines and many scales of model train equipment as well as many other items or sale.
If you are wanting any of these things, please feel free to join us.
Hope to see you there.
Gary