Adding filler ties behind the panel laying team
President Bob opened the meeting at 12:33 pm.
14 members present Kevin Welsh, Dee Murphy, Tom Waterfall, Bob Silverstein, Bill Boller, Dave Luce, Ken Kormanak, Rene Delgato, Kevin Hayashi, Ed Sarber, Matt Petach, Mike Ward, and Jerry Tomei
Treasurer’s report -- Kevin H.
We have $11,676.42 in the bank, with accounts receivables of $1,051.00 and accounts payable of $187.05.
We have 73 members, of whom 71 are current. Mike Ward to contact Mike Lee.
Year to date, we have spent $2,161.26 on RR maintenance expenses.
Project Status
Switch Stands. Tom: The Purina Mill (super custom) stand is done, and will be installed today. This switch chooses between the Lake or Mountain routes. Significant repair work will first be required as it was discovered that a truck drove over the track right by the switch stand.
Club engine maintenance. Bob wants to make sure the club engine is in good shape before we dedicate it to placing ballast on the expansion project. Matt: We replaced the air filter, oil is looking good (Bruce). Added oil. Will change the oil in the Fall. Need to look at transmission oil too. Need to replace the spark plugs. Dee bought a spark plug wrench.
ROW Grading. Bruce: All base rock installation and compacting is done. Awaiting track panels, which are coming out fast. We have enough Tom Miller rail on site to do the curves. We will haul standard straight panels out to the ROW and figure out our panel inventory. We are close to hooking up rails; should start ballasting in two weeks.
Air Compressor Leaks. Ken has been looking for air leaks for two weeks. Has found 18 leaks above ground. Next was to look for underground joint leaks. Have not found any joints yet after trenching 8 holes. Contacted American Leak detection who could find them for $600. Ken suggests we instead rent a ditch witch and put in a new line for less money. Isolate various branches to minimize amount of runs. May have to remove some tracks to do the trenching. We can use flexible plastic line with an Aluminum sleeve instead of PVC. But, this project got bigger than expected, so we will not make any more holes until we decide what to do. Compressor was cycling every 12 minutes; after fixing the leaks above ground, the compressor cycles every 21 minutes. Improved, but not good enough. Will take lots of manpower, which we do not have at this time. So let’s postpone until after the track is done, or the compressor complains. One proposal of interest is to install a larger sleeve under the yard, rather than simply replace the air line. That would facilitate future repairs and additional piping if desired, at minimal effort.
Tom asked: How about installing a cheap compressor closer, so no digging? - Bruce expressed concerns about noise close to the track and getting power to it
Little buildings, Ron is continuing to repair and rebuild. He has started a new building. When we place the buildings in the field, we will install pressure treated platforms below each building so they don’t decay so fast.
New Members. Bob:
Thanks to Ken, we have four new members.
Evan Bautista, Peter Randall, Anthony Caccia, and David Luce. We need to have them go through training prior to operating any (theirs or ours) equipment. If you see them, please welcome them and share your knowledge. Bob will be glad to train them when they schedule with him.
Ordering Material.
No more base rock is needed for track. We have used about 5 truckloads so far. More is needed for the ballast loading bin area, but we’ll wait until the ranch orders their base rock for roads next year.
We do need to order lots of ballast to get rolling on finishing track installation and build the funnels to load the Gritty Gravel ballast cars.
Brandon will drive to RMI to pick up some of our new I-Beam tie plastic. We will figure out what we need, and have within the approved budget, after today’s meeting. [Ed; After this meeting, we determined that we have enough $$ in the budget to fully load Brandon’s trailer that can carry #13,000, and that will give us enough material to build all the track we need for the Caboose Loop Expansion Project.].
Safety and operations:
Bruce will teach members about the watering system this afternoon. We must water the ROW whenever we have dry grass/combustible material conditions for Steamers that are solid or oil fuel fired on the track.
Event planning.
July run/work days are this weekend. ROW has not been blown nor watered. Ed will steam this weekend with propane, so no need to water (which is a three hour project). Bill is not here this weekend, Bruce is also certified to host RR, will do on Saturday; but is busy on Sunday. Ken has guests for Sunday, and will work with Bruce to sort out site monitoring responsibility. The Lake route may be closed for this weekend due to damage to a switch. Tom & Jerry are racing to make repairs ASAP.
October Joint Meet with GGLS and SVLS. We will be running the expansion route, if we get track panels made!
Bob closed at 1:05.
Mike Ward, Secretary