The Baggage Room Basement - We Head Into The Home Stretch

Last week saw us trucking in (or rather, bucketing in) a whole bunch of crushed stone to backfill the trenches that we had been digging over the previous number of weeks.  In digging the trenches, we were limited with our manpower so we piled the dirt in the centre of the bathroom basement for hauling out later.

"Later" arrived today, notwithstanding that we had several inches of snow that was still lingering.  It was a very fresh day - time to do some heavy lifting.  First, we shovelled off the boardwalk from the door into the operator's bay going downstairs so that we wouldn't slip as we lugged heavy pails of clay across the boardwalk to be dumped over the edge.  Then we got down to work. This is what the pile looked like before we dumped the first shovelful into the pail.  We had quite a task ahead of us, eh!?

At first we only had yours truly, Cliff, and Brad but we were soon joined by - surprise of surprises - George W.  Since George had torn his shoulder several weeks before, I put him on "light" duty.  As I filled each pail, George lifted the pails the short distance into the main waiting room basement.  We soon had all 15 pails moving which kept Brad and Cliff on their toes. After 45 minutes at this pace, I needed a break!

We no sooner got back at it when Bill S showed up.  However, George W had a business meeting so he had to leave us to get uptown.  Bill, Brad, Cliff, and I managed to keep up the pace with me filling up the pails, Bill lugging them across the main waiting room basement, Brad hauling them up the stairs, and Cliff taking the final stretch across the boardwalk, across the tracks and dumping the pails. That's Bill S sticking his head through the opening into the baggage room basement with Brad way off in the distance in the furnace room basement getting ready to haul two full pails up the stairs. 

For the last 20 minutes or so, Bill came into the baggage room basement to help me move the loaded pails, Brad carried them across the waiting room basement into the furnace room basement and up the stairs, while Cliff carried them the final distance over the boardwalk, across the tracks, and to the edge.  From time-to-time, the pails got backed up with the trip up the stairs and outside as they are quite a load when you try to take two pails up those steps.  So we periodically took a break to move the loaded pails outside.

Today was a short session as I had to bail out at 11 o'clock on personal business.  In those two hours, we managed to move about half of the pile outside.  We were all quite surprised at the progress we managed to make in that short period of time.  Compare the photo below to the one at the top of this post.  In that photo, the two concrete columns are completely buried. 

(Here's a side-by-side before-and-after photo.)

Next week, we're back at it again moving the rest of the dirt out of the baggage room basement.  Hopefully, we'll be able finish the job so that we can next start on the gift shop basement.

We could use a couple of extra hands.  So, if you're looking for something to do, why not join us?