The Rockhill Rats spent time Saturday morning replacing the water pump back in its pit by the steam engine in the shop. This is one of two original steam powered sump pumps that had to be removed in order to place a support post in to the pit for roof framing when the boiler house was restored. After that the Rats began the work of clearing out all of the left over lumber, tools and hardware from the nearly complete Freight House. This was accomplished by three very fully loaded trips with the drop center maintenance car. Given the need to store all these materials in the coal bin, it was time for a clean out and reorganization of this space. We were all surprised at how well it all fit in with plenty of room left to work and move inside.
The coal bin is now ready to supply materials and tooling to the next major project. With a freshly emptied fright house the Rats then retrieved all of the stored items and furniture from the bus garage to return to their place in the freight house. They were placed back in to give the appearance of a functional space with the office items toward the north end and the freight carts, dollies and crates to the south end. The only item remaining to finish the Freight house project is repair / replacement of the three windows.
The steel crew kept up work on the box car #174. Repair work on the north end of the car was completed last session and floor boards were laid into the north end. This meant that this session began with moving all the material from the south end of the car to the north end. Once the steel crew completed this shuffle wire wheels and flap disks were run over much of the steel frame work on the south end. There was subsequent “banging around” with various tools to find rust and thin areas in the metal.
The combine #14 crew continued with paint removal from interior wood.
