The Baggage Room Basement & The Bucket Brigade - The Crushed Stone Guys

Last week I had some personal business to attend to so we didn't do any work on the swamp.  However, today was a different matter, even though we were down to four and then five of us old codgers - well, at least four of us were old codgers with one young buck, although one of those old codgers kept the young buck on his toes.  Anyhooo..............................

Today was the day of the bucket brigade - the crushed-stone-trucking-bucket-brigade - Cliff, Brad, Bill S, George M and me (I'll let you decide who the young buck and the old codgers were).  Load 12 plastic buckets onto the lorry (along with 3 shovels).  Push the lorry down to the north end.  Load each bucket to the top with crushed stone (1" clear septic-bed crushed stone that's been washed twice).  Cart each bucket over to the lorry.  Load the buckets onto the lorry - six buckets on each side.  Push the lorry back down the tracks to the station. 

Now comes the "grunt work".  Each loaded bucket weighs about 50-60 lbs.  Twelve buckets multiplied by 50-60 lbs equals 600 - 720 lbs per trip.  Unload the buckets onto the station platform.  Carry the buckets to the doorway going downstairs.  One bucket at a time down the stairs into the furnace room basement and across to the opening into the waiting room basement.  Shove it through the opening.  Carry the bucket across the waiting room basement.  Shove the bucket into the baggage room basement.  Carry the bucket to the end of the trench and dump the 50-60 lbs of crushed stone into the trench.  Truck the empty bucket back outside.  Repeat the process 12 times.  Down to the north end for another load of crushed stone.

We did that 6 times this morning - 600 - 720 lbs per trip times 6 trips equals 3,600 - 4320 lbs or 2 tons of crushed stone.  That's the amount of crushed stone we trucked down into the basement today - one bucket at a time.  We've got about two-thirds of the trenchwork filled with crushed stone.  Another 2-3 trips next week and we'll have the trenchwork in the baggage room basement done.  At last!

However, we've got a lot of clay to move out of the baggage room basement which we'll start on - hopefully next week.  We're making progress - slowly but surely. 

Oh yes.  Almost forgot.  Cliff and I managed to get the bits and pieces of the 45-gallon steel barrel into the gift shop basement and bolted together. 

PS - Left my camera at home today so I wasn't able to take any photos.  We'll add them next week to show you the progress we made today.