Current Events on the Northview & Frisco Railroad
July 1, 2009 - The tank car is nearly complete, just waiting on lettering. The water tank for Redbud is painted and the concrete slab is poured, just waiting for the concrete to harden before drilling it for the anchors. Finally, I have a short video of #103 pulling a train up Bunker Hill on YouTube. I took this video after I installed the new valves and false valve seats. The address is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLg0u8qu6wI - I will post more videos as time allows, but they will be short since I am stuck with dial-up for the foreseeable future!
June 23, 2009 - Has it really been a month since I updated the website? Since last time, Matthew and I painted the Redbud Depot. The picture below is the depot after the application of 3 gallons of white paint. Other small projects include building and installing Yard Limit signs for Redbud and Northview, call boxes for radios at Northview and Tombstone, spraying the track for weed control, minor tie replacement, some switch maintenance, installing a target on the Northview Carbarn switchstand and maintenance on the diesels. The other bigger project that's going on now is the construction of a tank car. The trucks are 99% done, frame is complete and painted, dome built and painted, so the next step is cleaning up the tank for painting and then assembling everything. Of course, mowing and trimming is an ongoing project, too! More next time...
May 30, 2009 - I put the latest piece of NFRR rolling stock on the rails today, Boxcar 6317. Started working on the trucks last week, built the rest of the boxcar this week. It is a model of a 40', outside sheathed wood boxcar. Picture below is me with the boxcar.
May 19, 2009 - I've had #103 back together for a while now, just ran it once, but oh what a difference! It now has four distinct exhausts per revolution of the drivers like it should. More power, better exhaust, who could ask for anything more? I've also been working on some other projects around the railroad, such as a walking path down the hill to Redbud, as well as a retaining wall for the future ballast pile at Redbud. More news later!
May 4, 2009 - Rain, rain, rain - and a little steam. Not much railroading during the last few days due to rain and other obligations. However, I did evict the mice out of the Ottaway boiler and took a long, hard look at it. Lots of crud in the waterlegs & mudring, I think it may be just as simple to build a new one using this one as a pattern. At any rate, it is in the shop for the time being. I took the Ottaway chassis out of the shop, put it in the Northview Enginehouse, and relocated #103 to the shop. #103 has been running now for 7 years and needs a little TLC. I am presently correcting the slide valve / port problems that have made it lame ever since I put it in service. I have the false port plate machined for the left cylinder, will start on the valve next. After that I am going to take the slop out of the eccentric staps - not too much wear on them considering all the miles the engine has logged! I will also install new wrist pin bushings in the connecting rods while it is in the shop. I am looking into a new safety valve, since the present one sizzles constantly to the point where it almost acts more like a relief valve than a popoff valve! I will try to complete the repairs in the next couple of weeks, hopefully this tinkering will restore some of the power the engine seems to have lost over the last couple of years. I'll let you know how this works out!
April 23, 2009 - We had a good time at the Ozark Model Railroad Association Spring Swap Meet last Saturday - lots of people there, lots of stuff to buy! We took the Ottaway chassis on a flatcar as part of the N&F RR display. In other news, the Redbud Depot is slowly coming along, the steps and small platform are complete, caulking is done and it is ready to paint. I hope to get it painted soon, but it may be a few weeks before I get around to it. I also laid out the short side track at Brown's Sawmill this week. In the tradition of the struggling short line railroad, this siding is rough and unballasted - just the way I wanted it! I also got #103 ready for the summer, all the plumbing reassembled, boiler washed out and hydro tested, propane tanks filled. I will steam it up sometime in the coming week. I have some other small projects planned for this summer, more on those as I work on them. Of course, there is always the next item on the Ottaway, the boiler - I pulled it out of storage this week and discovered that there was a family of mice living in it! Hopefully, I'll get around to working on it sooner or later. More pictures next time...
April 11, 2009
Well, all exterior trim, battens and overhang supports are in place on the new Redbud Depot. The last item I need to work on before painting is the "gingerbread" under the eves on the ends. This is one of the little details that will hopefully give the station a "Frisco" look. Depending on my schedule, I may try to get the gingerbread finished this week. When I get a few nice days in a row, I will try to get it painted. Next Saturday is the Ozark Model Railroad Association's Spring Swap Meet. I will be getting our display ready this week, hope to see you there!
March 28, 2009
Work continues on the Redbud Depot. The roof is complete, and all of the siding is on with the windows and door in place. As of yesterday, all of the soffit is installed. The next step will be all of the exterior trim, including the battens and window trim. After that I will need to install the supports for the overhang. Lots of little details to work on, all of which are time consuming! I may take a break in construction before working on the interior. The picture below show the depot as of the 26th, before the east wall siding and soffit was on. By the way, we will again have a display at the Ozark Model Railroad Association's Spring Swap Meet. The link to the OMRA is on our "Links" page, please see their website for details. More next time...
Redbud Station, March 26th, 2009
March 14, 2009
Well, it's been a whole month since I made an entry on this page... time flies when you're having fun! I have the switch for Brown's Sawmill sidetrack installed, but no siding yet. That will come along later this summer. Redbud Station is well underway. Framing is nearly complete, hopefully I will start roofing it sometime this week if the weather cooperates. Dad also came over a couple of weeks ago and we cut up an oak tree that died last summer. Since it wasn't near the driveway, we had to haul the wood out by train. It made 5 flatcar loads of firewood, we estimate it was around 4000 lbs. Finally, I partially disassembled the Ottaway chassis, painted it and reassembled it. Below are pictures of the painted Ottaway chassis and Redbud station under construction.
February 14, 2009
Finally got some time this afternoon to work on the railroad. It wasn't real warm, but at least it was 1) above freezing, 2) daylight and 3) not snowing, raining or icing. Two projects are in the works on the railroad at this time, the first of which is a switch downgrade from Brown's Sawmill. This is for a siding to the sawmill, which could be extended someday for another switchback down into the valley. Last Saturday, we hauled the switch down to the site, and I started installing it today. This involved taking up both rails for the length of the switch, removing the rails and ties and raking down the ballast. The switch is in place and the rails are about halfway spiked down - both of the stock rails had to be installed. More spiking, leveling and ballasting still need to be done. The second project is the station at Redbud. The footings are in, I will start framing the floor joists next. If the weather cooperates, maybe I can get more done this coming week...
February 8, 2009
We had a break in the weather, some nice warm temperatures, but the melting snow and frost made for mud everywhere. Anyway, yesterday Rick and Walt came over, we rode the train around, delivered a switch to the lead mine siding, and took a picture of the three of us (below). The switch will be used for a siding for the sawmill. I also did some more planning, we will see what I can get done this summer.
January 18, 2009
Weather has been typical Ozark's fare, some really cold days, a dusting of snow and some nicer days. I am posting a picture of all the running locomotives gathered around the Redbud turntable. Not much else going on, just waiting for better weather to start more projects...
January 9th, 2009
Below is a picture of the Redbud gravel spur. The gravel pile will eventually be by the track in the lower right corner, out of the picture. I finished spiking down the rail and ballasting the spur today. The next project will be to build a retaining wall by the track to keep the gravel pile contained. It was a great day today, temp was in the mid '60s, perfect for trackwork and running trains!
January 4th, 2009
Happy New Year! I finished out 2008 by getting a crude snowplow on the tracks in December. It justs pins into place on MoW 3, which is then loaded down w/ cinderblocks to keep it on the rails. No big snow yet, but I'm now ready for winter. We had another very hard rain on the 27th. It washed away more dirt at Redbud by the turntable, so I built a retaining wall to protect it yesterday. I tore down the old water tank stand at Frisco Valley a few days ago for material to build the retaining wall. I have also started building a small side track to access the new site for gravel. I hope to get it finished sometime soon, then I will be able to get more gravel delivered for maintenance this year. The previous gravel sites are now part of the Redbud area, so I had to come up with a new site for a gravel pile. More news later...
