June 1, 2009

It seems that as soon as the snow melted here in the Mount Washington Valley all manner of construction projects broke out all over town! There is bridge and road work just about everywhere and lots of work on the railroad lines too.

Our own construction projects include tamping and surfacing on ten miles of track from Mountain Junction in Intervale to just past Route 302 (at the Engine House) in Bartlett Village. We put together a ballast train consisting of 3 hopper cars and Conway Scenic Caboose # 75955 (built in 1910 by Central Vermont Ry and owned by CSRR since 1973). The ballast rock was supplied by A.J.Coleman & Son in Conway, and they trucked all 5,000 tons of it to L.A. Drew Company’s yard in Bartlett. L.A. Drew loaded it onto our train using a slightly built up earth and stone ramp. The train was loaded each day on the main line since there is no siding at L.A. Drew. We considered running the train directly to Coleman’s pit in Conway but poor tie condition south of our active track in Conway dictated that we find another way to solve the problem. 2 of the 3 hopper cars in the train were real ballast cars that had last belonged to the Lamoille Valley Railroad of Morrisville, Vermont. They are numbered 210 and 211 are rated at 75 tons each and have the capability of dumping the rock either directly to the center of the track or to the outside of the rails. Flow rates are controlled by the manually operated gates on the sides of the cars and that combined with the speed of the train controls the amount of stone that is delivered to the track. We found that a speed of 3 ½ MPH was generally ideal for dumping stone. Yours truly along with the General Manager and members of the Mechanical and Track departmnents walked the entire 10 miles from Intervale to Bartlett along side the stone train. It was good exercise and a great way to really get to know every foot of the railroad! It’s a little bit like that old mule “Sal” who knew every inch of the way from Albany to Buffalo on the tow path of the Erie Canal.

C&G surfacing of West Springfield, MA, was selected to do the regulating and tamping, and in due course their equipment was unloaded from highway trailers at North Conway Yard. The Mark IV tamper is an amazing piece of machinery. The operator's cab looks like the cockpit of a jet fighter! It has a motorized captain's chair that rises up from the deck about two feet to put the operator at eye level with the forward windows, a couple of computer screens and a dazzling array of knobs and buttons that control every function of the machine. When the computer and the operator team up here you really get first class results. The machine is run over the track to be surfaced and the computer plots the existing conditions. The operator sets the desired amount of lift and the amount of super elevation that is required (if on a curve) then the machine is brought back to the start of the surveyed area and it goes to work and what comes out the other end is the most amazingly smooth straight track that you have ever seen. The regulator is used ahead of the tamper to spread out the stone and is run again after it to fill in the cribs between the ties and to sweep any remaining ballast off the tops of the ties. It’s a beautiful thing!

While the tamper was here, we had him run down on the Conway line to the Curve just north of the West Side Road. He did a great job at that location as well and solved some problems that we were having with elevation there.

Meanwhile, our track gang of four men are working out on the west end of the railroad from Fabyan’s to Hazen switch in Whitefield. Our crew is working along side a gang from Maine Track Maintenance Company from South Portland, ME, to replace 3,300 ties on an 11 mile stretch out there. We marked an average of 300 ties per mile. Our crew is pulling the spikes and removing the old ties and the MTM gang is inserting the new ties and spiking them up. Once the ties are in we will head out with our tamper and get them tamped up. Frankly, we hate to spend the money out there to do this work because we don’t generate much revenue from it. However we are obligated to keep the entire line in a safe and suitable condition for service, and this section is our only rail link to the out side world.

Another reason for getting the tie work done now is the impending arrival of two High / Wide loads for North East Utilities, specifically Public Service of New Hampshire. These loads consist of a Transformer and an Exciter set. The heaviest piece will travel on a “Schnabel Car” and the total load will weigh 1,045,231 lbs! The car spreads this load over 20 axles so the end result is that each wheel set loads the track at 52,261 lbs per axle. Our U-Boat loads the track at 65,000 pounds per axle in comparison. All of the bridges on the line have been inspected by a bridge inspecting contractor and we are confident that when the time comes we can give North East Utilities a first class move over the Mountain to North Conway. We expect to receive the car some time toward the end of June but this is very much subject to change. The transformers originated in China and are arriving at the deep water port of Searsport, Maine. Montreal, Maine & Atlantic will move them north into Canada where the St. Lawrence and Atlantic will move them back south to Groveton, NH. New Hampshire Central will deliver them to us at Hazen and we will have the final leg to the Depot Street yard in North Conway where they will be transferred to a centipede trailer for the final move down Route 16/302 to PSNH’s electrical yard just off the East Conway Road near the Conway Police Station. Should be interesting. I plan on using our two FP9-As to make this move.

We have been using the Millie, our Budd RDC car during weekdays in May with generally great success. We have found that on the warmest days with the sun shining on the window glass and a full load of passengers the A/C has a bit a problem keeping up. We are working on some ways to make the car colder. One of the engines is a “smoker” and so I have begun to think about how to go about getting it rebuilt at a reasonable cost. One side benefit to the diesel smoke is that it makes the area around the North Conway Depot smell just like North Station back in the day when there would be 25 or 50 budds there smoking it up! For the most part our passengers seem to enjoy the Budd Car, and we are pleased to have added another historic piece of equipment to our roster. Several passengers have come specifically to ride and photograph it so I am confident that you will see it covering the schedule again next May.

Lots of other things are going on as well. Susan Bissen has made some big improvements to the BRASS WHISTLE GIFT SHOP and has added many new railroad specific items. Check out the new hats and tee shirts with railroad logos that you will recognize and like and want to buy when you get a chance!

I know I’ve gone a bit long this time so I will close. Thank you for your interest in and support of the Conway Scenic Railroad and ALWAYS EXPECT A TRAIN!

Paul Hallett