How To Replace A Shovel Handle (In One Easy Lesson)
The lads were moving the stuff out so fast that one of the shovel handles started to split so we had to take it out of commission for some repairs. First thing to do was to grind the steel rivet that holds the handle in place off and punch it out with a pin-punch. Next thing was to give the shovel a couple of raps with the hammer to release the wooden handle. Next was to find a replacement handle as that was the cheapest alternative to buying a new one.
Would you believe that it's almost impossible to find replacement shovel handles? I had to go to 3 stores before I found a shovel handle at the 4th store? Home Hardware didn't have one. Home Depot didn't have one. Princess Auto didn't have one. Last stop was at Rona. And they had one!
From that point, it was easy installing the handle. Insert the handle into the shovel. Give handle a couple of good raps on the floor to seat it into the handle. Drill a 6mm hole through the shovel and the handle. Insert a 2 1/2"x 6mm bolt through the hole. Fit the nut onto the bolt. Tighten the bolt down.
The shovel looked a bit grungy when compared to the shiny new wooden handle that I then wire-wheeled the steel on the shovel. I was going to sandblast it but, as I had already installed the wooden handle, it was too long to put into the sand-blasting cabinet. After wire-wheeling the shovel, I polished it up with a bit of oil. Brand new shovel, ready to go back to work!
The Baggage Room Basement - The Saga Continues
Actually, the lads had gotten way ahead of me on the work. I had to leave early last week but they carried on with the task of removing the excess clay out of the baggage room basement under George M's tutelage and eye. On inspecting the work last Sunday (I was in MF on other matters relating to the G-Men), it was very obvious that a large amount of clay had been shovelled and bucketed out of the baggage room basement. We had gotten a good start on the next phase of "The Swamp Chronicles".
For most of the morning, Bill S and I were on the shovel-end of things down in the baggage room basement loading a whole pile of clay into the buckets. The lads were kept very busy trucking the stuff outside and dumping it into a pile on the edge of the swamp or throwing it over the edge. The pile you see below (with Mike on the end of the short shovel) is what had been pulled up out of the basement by mid-morning, to say nothing of the stuff that had been dumped or shovelled over the edge.
After lunch, Brad took over the shovelling chores and had the opportunity to use the sledge hammer on some large chunks of concrete. With the exception of some extra large pieces, we managed to get most of the visible concrete and rock into the buckets and dumped outside.
By the end of the day, we had about 3/4 of the excess clay, concrete and rock moved out of the baggage room basement. Let me tell you, that was quite a feat!!
This is what things looked like before we started. This is a photo of the northwestern corner 4 months ago.
And this is what things looked like at the end of today (the northwestern and northeastern corners at the end of the day. It's hard to believe that the clay was at least 12"-14" higher than what you see in these photos.
And the only tools we've been using is this stash of 15 buckets (a couple of them have bit the dust...... er..... clay), two shovels and a sledge hammer inside, plus two shovels outside. That's quite an accomplishment.
In the meantime, Merrill W and Bob C were working on the CP Wickham and managed to get it banging on 6 cylinders (unfortunately it's an 8-cylinder engine so there's a bit more work to do on it).
And Steve G was at it again with his weed whacker, whacking down the weeds (he left that big tall one that you see in the middle of the tracks standing to see if anyone would comment on it).
We'll be away for the next two weeks but Bill S has agreed to be the job-superintendent. If you're looking for something to do, Bill could use your help.
The Crushed Stone Saga
There's been some comments about our source of crushed stone down at the North End. So let me give you a bit of history on the various piles of crushed stone that you find at that end of the property.
The photo below is what I call the "Clarence McDonald Construction" pile of crushed stone. Back in 2005, Clarence and the boys rebuilt one block of Church St (new sewer, water, curbs, asphalt, etc) and used the North end to dump about 400 loads of fill into the swail. That made a big difference to the property! He left behind about half a truck load of crushed stone - sort of a going-away present to the Museum. As you can see from the pails, that's where we've been taking our crushed stone from. It's been sitting there for the last 5 1/2 years.
The next year, we brought in about 6 loads of crushed stone and tail-gated it along the new mainline re-alignment. Ties and rails have since been laid on top of that. Part of those loads was dumped alongside the switch so that it could serve as ballast. There's only been a couple of buckets that's been taken as ballast from that partial pile. That crushed stone was paid for by the Museum. We have taken half a bucket from that pile.
Somewhere around 2008 - 2009 (I probably have the dates all wrong), Steve Hunter and a bunch of guys laid down the ties and spiked the rail in place. They then brought in some crushed stone and used a "stone slinger" to place the stone. We haven't taken any crushed stone from those piles.
Just to set the record straight.
In conclusion
Part Deux of Draining the Swamp is progressing very nicely and we should have that job done in about another 3-4 sessions. Things are nicely moving along, eh!?
Next up, we're gonna dig the pit for the sump pump and play in the soupy, muddy water.
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