We're ready

After cleaning up and grading around the old service pit, we began the process of setting rails for a dolly to carry the car to be worked on. The old concrete was crumbling and uneven, but there were track plates set in place previously and those spots were reasonably level. We placed concrete pavers in place where the old plates had been (with some occasional fudging), and glued them down, followed by glueing the steel plate on the paver.

OB Model

It was a long, cold winter according to Craig McMullen who built this model of Piledriver OB. It is a remarkable achievment, with exquisite detail, and many functioning parts. The mast will raise and lower, and the bracing is very accurate. There is a model (but not functioning) steam engine in the cab that can be seen through the open door. He even made a tender car to accompany OB. The photos were taken on Craig's garden railway. For newbies to this site, the real OB was recently restored by the Friends here in Colorado Springs, and was returned to the C&TSRR last year for display. It is planned to be loaned to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden this summer, arriving in late June.

Moving day

The plan is to build a platform between the trailer and the woodshop that extends toward the pit area on the right. A shelter is planned over the pit as well. Hopefully we will have some protection from the elements eventually. Storage space is planned in front of the trailer (at the left in the photo). The Trolley Museum is planning electrical service to available on the corner of the roundhouse seen next to the pit in the photo.

Also on Tuesday morning, the trucker arrived to move the tool trailer into place from where it was stored on another part of the trolley site. Needless to say, the fit was again tight, but because of flawless planning and a skilled driver, everything went into place nicely. There was some shuffling of contents as the trailer went through the lower ground adjacent to the pit, but everything appeared to survive.

The storage container arrived last Tuesday which will function as a woodshop. The driver had a challenge in negotiating around "the pit" but thanks to hydraulic axles on the trailer that moved forward and aft, good positioning was achieved. The "shop" rests on ties in front of a sleeping trolley, not as close as it looks in the photo. There are doors on both ends for ventilation in the summer.

Home from Antonito

We made it home without incident, and the trailer is empty for the first time since last fall. The new site has plenty of railroad atmosphere with the coal trains regularly passing by.

Trolley Car 48 is gone as well, having been moved into the roundhouse to the right. The front loader has done some grading, and we need to do a little more of that before moving in the equipment trailer, etc. Then comes construction of the shelter and work area. Plenty to do prior to arrival of 0252.

Antonito weekend

The first weekend in May saw some of the COS Friends heading for Antonito to perform maintenance on OB in preparation for a busy summer. Projects included cleaning and painting, freeing the weight which had a cable jammed under it, fabricating door stops for the rear doors, some mechanical work on the steam engine, and raising the mast to adjust the ladder plates. All was accomplished except the latter.

Unfortunately, we arrived to discover (very heavy) equipment parked just outside the CRF door on the track so that OB could not be moved outside for mast raising. After some very careful calculations, it was decided that this could not be accomplished inside the building either. Therefore this project was postponed until June. OB is scheduled to be part of a maintenance of way train at that time.

We brought two large I-beams to Antonito to transport the tourist sleeper to COS later this spring (or summer), and are returning with a few supplies for the new work site. Tom is insuring that we don't leave anything along the way.