March 2010

Not a whole lot is new since last month’s report. The guys are deep into the upgrade of the Ladies' Lounge here in the North Conway Station building. When they removed the wallboard they discovered that this 1874 built building has not a stitch of insulation in it. No wonder it gets cold in the restrooms and that the pipes have been known to freeze from time to time! We are fixing that by putting new fiberglass insulation in the outside walls. New drywall has been installed and new stainless steel dividers should be arriving soon. Drop in sinks and new vanities will be installed as well.

In the Roundhouse, the work goes on with the HATTIE EVANS, our new dining car. Brand new custom made stainless baseboard covers have been installed and they look just like original equipment. We received the first seats for the booths for inspection and approval. Please check our "Conway Scenic Railroad, Inc." Facebook page for a photo of the new seats. (You must be registered on facebook for this link to work.)

We removed a huge Monroe shock absorber from one of her trucks, and it looks like we will be replacing all four shocks that are on the car. These shocks are an important component in keeping the car from rocking excessively from side to side. We don’t want to spill any soup on the way to Crawford Notch!

All the seats are remounted in the Dorthea Mae but we still have to do some work on the trucks and the holding tank system. After Dorthea Mae comes out of the shop we are hoping to get Gertrude Emma into the shop for some touch up to the window frames and the paint work.

There are some changes coming up this season in the motive power department, and I hope to be able to give a complete rundown on that in the next wheel report.

Reservations, particularly for the fall foliage season, are coming in at a good rate so we are encouraged that the coming season will be a good one.

That’s it for this month. As always thank you for your interest in and support of Conway Scenic Railroad. Whenever you are trackside, ALWAYS EXPECT A TRAIN!