Rockhill Furnace Work Session: August 9-10, 2003

The sixth Rockhill work session of 2003 was held August 9-10. We had 16 volunteers on Saturday, and 17 on Sunday.

Those participating included Charlie Wootton, Dick Ullery, Chris Coleman, Pat Coleman, Alan Cupp, Shawn Stauffer, Dan Horting, Jim Vliet, Gordon Brinthaupt, Tom Diehl, Michael Greene, Reggie Arford, Steve Jacobs, Wade Woodcock, Tom Kozub, Jim Bacon, Bob Goldby, Bud Goldby, and Lee Rainey.

Words from Mr. Joe Kovalchick

Mr. Kovalchick inspected the work our crews were doing on Saturday, and then asked that this message be passed onto the FEBT crew: "We follow what you are doing here and we greatly appreciate it. No one knows exactly what the future holds for the EBT, but you are doing everything you can to save it. Thank you very much." He expressed similar comments to the crowd during one of the shop tours being led by Tom Diehl.

Emergency Trackwork to Support Repairs to the M-1

The track crew works trenches around the switch parts.

Recently, it was found that the M-1 would require some major repairs to its engine-generator coupling in order to operate this fall. In order to do the work, the M-1 would have to be moved to the RTY car barn, but the narrow gauge access track was not sturdy enough to support the weight of the unit. The FEBT track crew, consisting of Shawn Stauffer, Wade Woodcock, Mike Greene, Alan Cupp, James Vliet, Tom Kozub, Steve Jacobs, Charlie Wootton, Reggie Arford, and Gordon Brinthaupt, took on the problem on Sunday and began inserting new ties under the track to strengthen it. Considerable work was done that day, and many members of the crew returned two weekends later to complete the job in conjunction with the RTY track crew. Photos of that session may be found at Bill Adams's EBT Pictorial. The M-1 is now in the barn and ready for repairs.

Ties are now slipped under the switch rails.

All of the ties are now in place and ready for spiking.

The crew has moved down the tracks a ways, setting spikes as they go.

Track 3

The Track crew works to tamp up the ties laid during previous sessions. l to r: Reggie Arford, Charlie Wootton, Jim Vliet, Alan Cupp, Tom Kozub and Wade Woodcock.

Over 100 ties were spiked, and an additional 13 were installed. In addition, the emergency work noted above included repairs to the south switch on our No. 3 track.

Shawn Stauffer and Steven Jacobs start spikes in the first rail.

Now with all spikes set and the air spiker in hand, the crew drives them home.

There are a lot of spikes yet to be driven, but they were all done by the end of the day. All the spikes seen in this photo are on ties that the crew installed this year.

The crew has moved down the tracks a ways, setting spikes as they go.

Electrical Shop

Pat Coleman works to clean a long boarded-up window on the south wall of the Electrical Shop.

Repairs were completed to the east and north walls and much work was done on the west wall by a team that included Jim Bacon, Dick Ullery, Dan Horting, Pat Coleman and Lee Rainey. Chris Coleman made repairs to the building roof.

Lee Rainey and Dick Ullery repair trim around the north door of the shop.

Jim Bacon and Dick Ullery replace rotten siding on the east wall.

Lee Rainey and Pat Coleman work on the west side of the building.

Pat Coleman and Bob Goldby work to replace broken panes of glass in the speeder lean-to.

Glass and Windows

Bob and Bud Goldby work beside the restoration displays to clean and cut hundreds of panes of glass.

Bob and Bud Goldby continued to salvage and clean glass, supporting the work on the electrician's building.

Machine Shop

Tom Diehl works to repair and clean the historic machines inside the shops.

In between leading shop tours, Tom Diehl continued clean up in the Machine Shop. Your reporter had an opportunity to hear most of one of Tom's tours, and it was outstanding. I learned a lot, and I'd highly recommend everyone take Tom's tour next time it is offered.

Next Session

Our next session will be held on August 30-31 and September 1.

Lee Rainey,
Rockhill Restoration Coordinator

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