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To: "oermsignal" Subject: Orange Empire Railway Museum Signals Update - 2/22/2004 This email is our new regular update about signals work (installation, maintenance and restoration) at the Orange Empire Railway Museum and is a collaborative effort -- the information for this initial e-news was prepared by Allen Holliday and Gene Cranston. If you have information that would be of interest to others, please email it to me and we'll include it in our next newsletter. If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please email me. Likewise, if you know someone who would like to be added to this list, please have them email me. If you've received duplicate copies of this email, please contact me and let me know your preferred email address. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The primary Signal Team effort over the last month has been the work on the 2038 signal conduit from the signal case to the control cabinet near Alpine crossing. Last weekend, Mike and Allen made a lot of progress on the conduit. They finished the trench and cut out spaces for the pull boxes. They decided to keep the sweep ell on the conduit from the platform, put one box over the end of the ell, and run conduit from that box toward the Barn 4 lead (the track we put the rigid conduit under). Gene found a makeshift 45-degree bend to make the turn at the trench paralleling the track; that eliminated one pull box in the run. They ran conduit from the sweep ell's pull box down to the box at the under-track conduit point. The trench is filled in and all boxes are set in dirt, except the one on the east side of the track right next to the 2038 signal. Mike isn't planning to come out again until our regular fourth Saturday, so not much more will be done on this project until then, saving some of the fun (not requiring the use of picks and shovels) for the regular crew. Darrel was planning to blast out the mud from the platform end of the conduit last Saturday. Gene also said that finishing this project means that rewiring the 2034 case becomes the next hot project. The Alpine aerial cable replacement is still his number 1, but we're waiting for the bucket truck from Sam Sharpe. It sounds like we'll have first call on this new (actually, old but somewhat refurbished) bucket truck. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Other work accomplished during the last four weeks has been: At Alpine, Ray and Bob Hirth, using their electrician skills, installed a new conduit from the battery box to the Alpine case and installed new wire for the battery and charger circuits. They, with the help of several others, had previously installed new conduit and wire for the wig wags on both sides of the street. These new wires and conduits together should now clear the battery to ground leak that have plagued us for some time. Darrel has completed bonding of the new track at Mapes. He and Gene dug in and connected track wires for the Mapes Road north transmitter. The improved ballast required resetting the transmitter from high power to low power and dropping the receiver from full sensitivity to about 12 db down (two taps lower sensitivity). The January FRA/CPUC required monthly inspections were completed on time at all five protected crossings. Ray Olsen, Paul Orton, Dave Morgan (and others we’ve surely missed) also helped where needed on the various projects. ------------------------------------------------------------------- For additional OERM Signals information, visit the signals website at: http://gsee.sdf-us.org/signals. Question or comments regarding OERM Signals should be directed to the Signals Superintendent Gene Cranston. |