Last Saturday Before the New Year

     Saturday 11/29/14 was the last day that the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad would have worked on the railroad until the new year.  This is because most of the crew members hunt meaning the next two Saturdays are hunting days and then it is Christmas time which is allotted for spending time with their family. 

Dump car with coal

     The crew had plans to continue work on the trestle on Saturday but it snowed the previous night which would make walking on the trestle dangerous.  Instead, when the crew first arrived at the railroad, they proceeded to fill a dump car with coal.  The coal will be used in a pot belly stove to heat the building during the coming cold days at the railroad.  There is no gas or electric heat in the building plus the walls are metal with no form of insulation which can make for a cold place to work in.  The stove can heat the building up about twenty degrees that provides workable conditions. 

The railbus

     After that task was finished, the B&W crew moved on to work on the railbus.  A railbus is a type of passenger transportation that has a body that resembles a bus but runs on tracks instead of on the roads.  The Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad is building their own railbus based off the idea of one of the previous crew members named Christopher.  Christopher was a younger member of the crew who wanted to make his own miniature engine that could run around on the tracks at the B&W.  He began to roughly build his dream of a railbus but did not get very far before he was diagnosed with brain cancer.  Because of this the crew began to work really hard to make a well constructed railbus to make his dream come true.  Unfortunately, Christopher passed away before the railbus could be completed.  When the crew knew that they were not going to finish in time, they showed him what they completed so far and that it would have a saying on the side of it to show it was made in memorial of him.  Work on the railbus began several years ago and the crew is excited that it is finally in its final stages of development.  If all goes according to plan, they will be painting the railbus in spring 2015.  If Christopher were alive today, the crew believes he would be very pleased that his dream of building a railbus has finally been achieved. 


Front of the railbus

 Above pictures taken by Scott Bauer

1988 Into the Early 1990s

The interior of the caboose

Before

     With the almost mile long loop of track and the maintenance on it completed, the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad crew moved on to other projects that needed done.  In the year 1988, the crew overhauled the interior of the Pittsburgh Shawmut and Northern caboose #186.  The caboose had been sitting around outside since it was moved to the railroad in 1979.  The overhaul on the interior of the caboose included the woodwork being rebuilt or restored and stripping away layers of old paint.  When that was completed, it was time for a fresh coat of paint to be applied in order to finish the project. 
     After the interior got an overhaul, the B&W crew moved on to rebuilding the outside of the Pittsburgh Shawmut and Northern caboose in 1989.  The outside of the caboose needed a new roof and woodwork done on its side.  When this time consuming job was finished, a new coat of paint was applied and the Pittsburgh Shawmut and Northern caboose #186 looked brand new.

After

    



Bending the rail for the turntable

     The early 1990s brought about the construction of a turntable, new cars and a water tower.  In 1991, an Armstrong turntable was constructed from scratch on the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad property.  To begin with, the circle of rail for the table to ride on was bent into shape by figuring the circumference out, cutting the rail to length and then bending it.  The frame to hold the engines and cars was an old kiln top and the wheels used to rotate the frame came off of a car from the Teldyne Corporation in Pittsburgh.  The turntable made access to the engine house easier and allowed for the equipment to be turned.



Turntable frame with wheels on the rail

End Result

     In addition to building the turntable in 1991, the Vulcan (Norman #3) was taken for a test run and it was discovered that the engine needed to be rebuilt.  Although it may have been disappointing that Norman had to be taken out of service, it was exciting in 1992 that car #80 was able to came into service.  Car #80 is classified as a "Boxcar-Dynamite Car Wagon" which would be put to use on the open house days as a passenger car. 



Norman in for engine rebuild

Car #80

  

     To finish out the year 1992, the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad crew built a water tower.  This was constructed from the ground up and was installed for the purpose of filling Otto's water tank.  Before the water tower, Otto's water tank was filled up by a garden hose which took a lot of time.  With the installation of the water tower, Otto is able to be filled with water in a matter of minutes.  

     



Water tower tank

Water tower base

 

 

 

All above pictures provided by William Bauer

Cleaning Up

     Saturday 11/22/14 made out to be a wet, cold but successful day.  During the warm months, the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad has picnic tables that sit out for several of the picnics that the crew has at the railroad.  Yesterday the crew ended up putting the tables onto the flatcar which will be inside.  This will keep the picnic tables dry and out of the weather for the winter.  After putting the picnic tables away, the crew went inside to warm up and clean up the shop.  The workbench that is in the shop tends to collect a lot of random objects which are part of different projects that are going on.  Sometimes it becomes so cluttered that it just needs a nice clean up so you are able to see the actual workbench for about a week.  Both of these projects may have been important and were considered successful but they were not considered the best part of the day.  The greatest part about yesterday (11/22/14), was the fact that the new engine for the backhoe came in.  It was installed yesterday and it runs excellently.  The whole Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad crew is glad that it is all back together again.  

Picture taken by Scott Bauer

1985-1987

The completed trestle

The Vulcan before the paint job

   The year 1985 brought about the conclusion of some projects.  First, finishing touches were put onto the trestle which included a walkway and a fire barrel.  With the trestle completed, the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad crew could now continue to lay more track.  Secondly, the Vulcan finished under going its rebuild.  Along with a new coat of green paint and detailing of the number three on the Vulcan, the nickname Norman was given to the engine to account for its sometimes cranky behavior.  Finally, a friend of the crew had made the decision to get out of narrow gauge railroading at his home.  Although this was an ending for him, it provided the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad an original Fairmont two foot gauge speeder.


Fairmont two foot gauge speeder

Norman

Last spike to be driven

     Continuing on with the completion of projects into 1986, the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad crew had a record breaking track laying year.  They laid 1,300 feet of track which completed the almost one mile long loop that caused for a great celebration.  Even though the loop was then completed, 1987 brought about a year of maintenance on the track.  Digging ditches, weeding around the tracks, and rebuilding roadbeds for the tracks were the projects that were completed in 1987.  The year 1987 also brought about the first tie replacements.  The original ties that were not in great shape when put in due to lack of money in 1966 were replaced by the conclusion of the year 1987.  


Completion of the mile long loop

All of the above pictures provided by William Bauer 



Backhoe Motor

     With Christmas approaching us, it was time for most of the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad crew to do some Christmas shopping.  Because of this, only a few people went to the railroad on 11/15/14.  Just because only a few people were at the railroad doesn't mean nothing got done on Saturday.  The work completed was focused around working on the backhoe that needs it's motor replaced.  The motor was the original one that was with the backhoe when the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad bought it which explains why it wore out.  Work was only started on the motor replacement and it is planed to continue into next Saturday 11/22/14.

The Backhoe

Picture taken by Scott Bauer

1983-1984

Brookville (Joe) number 4

      In the year 1983, 2230 more feet of track was laid which took the main track to a 60 foot wide and 20 foot high gully. Because of this, the track laying was brought to a halt as the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad crew had to decide which way the main track was going to go. With the track laying at a stand still, the crew brought the Brookville nicknamed Joe taking on the number four into service. This only occured after Joe was torn all the way down, regaged by moving the main frame in, adding bigger windows and reassembling it.


Finished caboose number 100

       When the year 1984 rolled around, caboose number 100 was completed and brought into service. It ended up being 20 feet long, 5 feet wide and six feet high with a cupola height of 9 feet. The year 1984 also brought about the decision that the crew was going to build a trestle over the gully. Construction on the trestle began in April with enough of it being completed by the end of October to be able to run over it from one side to the other. The trestle was built without the use of any power tools or cranes. All of the material that was used incluing the cement was hauled to the site by train.  


The trestle

      Along with the caboose number 100 and the trestle being completed, the rebuild on the Vulcan number 3 began by the crew and was scheduled to be completed early in the summer of 1985.

All of the above pictures provided by William Bauer 

Trestle Replacement Preperation Continues

   There was only one main project worked on at the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad on 11/8/14.  The crew accomplished more prep work on the trestle which needs to be done before it can be replace when the weather gets warmer.  The spikes that hold the rail to the ties on the trestle were removed from both rails.  After this was finished, the crew then proceed to remove the actual rail that was on the trestle which will enable the replacement of the trestle to go smoother.  If the weather stays at a decent temperature until next Saturday, then there are more plans for the preperation of the trestle replacement to continue.  If the weather decides to turn horribly cold and windy and icky in general, then the trestle replacement will pick back up in the spring. 

Removing the rails on the trestle

Picture taken by Scott Bauer