Brent Bette began his volunteer service at the Naugy back in the 90s as a high school student, now as a history teacher he will be helping to set up various railroad history displays in the Thomaston Station. His first project will be a tribute to the Pullman Company, who had a very visible presence in New England. Brent is looking for Pullman memorabilia and assistance in setting up the display over the winter and early spring.
Thomaston Shop
Kevin Meehan will be continuing interior fitting out work this month, constructing shelving, workbenches and other storage areas. This will help to keep a more orderly appearance with the shop, and allow parts of the floor to be cleared for a protective coating application. He could use some help, call him on 860.965.2938 to confirm the schedule. John Cerreta has now completed plywood panel installation, including heavy-duty framing, on over half of the shop’s wall surfaces, and close behind him has been painter Don Chepurna. The electricians (Supt. Stewart Fritts and Chief installer Jack Tarter, plus other staffers including Richard Edling, Howard Pincus, and Sam Walker) have continued their work, with wiring being run to the exhaust fans and a prototype ceiling light being set up. Some rather exciting news concerning a major donation of services for fitting out the heating system is on the horizon – this will likely be covered in the next edition of this publication. Dan Klein, Michael Salit and “the usual suspects “ have been busy with various tasks inside the building throughout the month of December.
Motor Vehicle Department
Gene Pfeiffer and Bob Harrington report the MVD continues to keep busy with the support of TSY development, mainly working with the track department. Bob Harrington reports that work continues on the Dynahoe 190 excavator and the Cummins engine for one of the front-end loaders. The boom truck was found to have some problems including water in the fuel tank and will be seeing some work this month. This vehicle’s availability governs much of the progress on yard trackage.
Saybrook Yard
Jon Chase, Dan DiTullio, Walt Hermann and others have pretty much wrapped up equipment preparation work for the season at the Saybrook Yard. Parts stored at that location are steadily being transferred to the Naugy either via member’s vehicles or have been by “Spencer For Hire” trucking of Southington, who has brought three loads of heavy items such as wheel sets, equipment jacks and car stands. Walt Hermann has cleared most of the underbrush from the northwest corner of the site, allowing access to the various items. Walt also has made many trips hauling items from Saybrook to the Naugy in his Ford pickup.
Thomaston Shop Report
NAUG 2203 has some frost damage repairs made to the air compressor and was returned to service. It recently was moved onto the pit track inside the shop. Coach 5805 continues to see progress each Saturday at the TSY under the direction of Sam Walker. Sam has now completed most of the weld repairs on the windowsills and recently has been finalizing plans for the mounting of a generator in the battery box and other repairs. The stripping of shellac from the panels over the windows is largely complete. Window shade boxes are being stripped of paint, varnish and shellac by Stan Bogacz, Win Bissell, Bill Sample and Lou Beres in recent weeks. Outside, Jon Chase and Dan DiTullio returned to continue the fitting of steel pieces to the lower rail. Other projects include the completion of priming of the inner lower walls and insulation installation. More help is always welcome. Flatcar NH 17504 has had most of its primer applied and is awaiting final painting, deck installation and truck rebuilding. Hal Reiser has spent many hours on this project.
—Bill Sample
