On Friday, July 21st Charley, Craig, and I worked in the 40B engine again. We swapped out the exhaust stacks for the downward direction which will eventually be needed. I had thought that might involve rusted bolts, but everything came apart easily.

We set the valve clearances, and went through the carb again. Since the engine did not run well the last time we ran it, we looked for what might be wrong. Craig suggested raising the gas tank higher above the carb so we mounted a new tank support.

Now the engine runs much better! It actually will come down to an idle and tick over, sort of.

We painted all of the engine gloss black. The carb will be painted later with a suitable color. The primer cup and the compression release were polished into the natural brass color and look very nice.

When tipped with the flywheel end of the engine downward, a considerable amount of oil leaks out the rear main "seal" which is only an oil slinger. This must be kept in mind during later storage because if parked facing uphill, it can lose a lot of oil. I plan to investigate any possible fixes for this, and eventually a shield can help keep the oil off the traction surface if the flywheel.

We discovered one rocker arm that had apparently been damaged and repaired in the past. It is not a good repair, but it works. However I will swap out that rocker arm for one off the display Model 40 engine.

-- Dick Ray

It was a great day on the railroad.
Quoting K.C. "Who would ever think we'd be riding in an open M9 the last weekend in January." We are two months ahead of where i thought we would be. South end is now open, we just need the brush cutter and we are in business. I would like to thank K.C, Mark, and Dave, by the way nice speeder, and my son Alex. Weather prompting, we go north to Flemington and make sure things are safe for our run. Thank again for the help.

-Ken and Alex

Everyone,

It appears that this week is bad for a Easter bunny train meeting so I am going to push it back until next week. I can't make it Friday or Saturday but I should be able to do it any other weeknight. I am going to throw out that we try Monday night is that OK for everyone who is interested?

Also the deadline for our next newsletter is Wednesday. We need submissions for articles and project reports from anyone who is running one. Also we are going to have all of the new information about the group since we are restructuring and have a few changes.

On that note we are actively searching for anyone who would like to be considered for a board or officers position. We have 3 board members positions open plus President, VP, Treasurer and Secretary. If you are interested in helping to run the new VRA please let us know. If you have any questions on what will be required you can ask any current officer. Chris is putting together a nomination committee and when that is finalized they will be the ones to ask questions too. Chris will be posting their names when the committee is set.

KC

Everyone,

I have been in contact with NJT about running 3 Easter Bunny Trains on April 8th out of Glen Rock. They will get back to us with an approval (hopefully) soon. My feeling is that we should not wait for the approval to get going on many of the items that need to be done. So I would like to put together a committee meeting in the next week sometime. I am thinking about this Friday night or maybe Saturday during the early afternoon, are either of those dates good for those interested in helping out? Please get back to me ASAP with your best day.

Thanks and see you at the meeting, KC

This is my BRW report;

Dave S, Alex and I have cleared track from 29 to end of track in Lambertville. We arrived at 9:30 and left at 2:30. All the heavy brush has been cut. When we werer finished we took my M-9 and did 3 round trips, RT 29 to end of track. Crossiing Bridge Street is always a lot of fun when people stop to look and take pictures. I spoke to the owner of Lambertville Station, he is excited about any activity on the RR. Next work weather pending will be from Ringes yard south to Boss Rd. to Hogans cut. Rest of RR is in good shape minor work is needed.

Ken

Today Craig and I went up to Johnson. Since I cannot cut brush, we elected to haul landscape timbers up there with the hope of finding and correcting gauge problems.

We got my three timbers and three more from Will Hookway.

We did finally locate the problem by the Beacon Feeds building. The rail is buried in the dirt without many spikes to hold it. Unfortunally that dirt is still frozen several inches down, so all we could do was to expose the ice so it may thaw. The base of the rail hits the frozen dirt. The location of the worst spot is flagged by a junk blue barrel in the junk pile.

Then we checked the siding we use and discovered that one rail had virtually nothing holding it in place. With Craig doing all the work we removed an old tie and inserted one of the timbers. Eventually we should install another but it is much better than before.

Next we got the MT19 out and by pushing it along discovered very wide gauge on the siding within the switch area. A few spikes has that corrected. The guard rail that was installed several years ago is too close the the stock rail and the bolts need to be loosened. We found no problems at the other switches.

There is one tie plate and some original spikes at the corner of the trailer for the next repair day. I pulled spikes from the unused sidings for our repairs.

So we still cannot get a car to the highway, but it looks safe to take the MT19 south.

-- Dick Ray, with pics to be posted in Photos section next.

Group,

I the never ending effort to generate funds, it was decided at the organizational meeting Friday night that we should attempt to run another Easter Bunny Train excursion this year. KC has offered to contact NJT to set up the date of the trip, once we have a confirmation, the date will be announced and a schedule of what needs to be done will be posted.

I am hopeful we will have more detailed information in our next newsletter and at out February 17th meeting. Please keep a lookout for the posts, and make an effort to lend some time toward the goal of generating fund for the group, so we can continue to maintain the station and our motorcars.

Thanks

Chris

Everyone,

I am writing to remind you all of our next organizational meeting set for this Friday at 7 PM at the station. Everyone is invited to attend and to help lay down the frame work for our group as we enter into the realm of the non-profits. We are also looking for people who would like to help lead our group into the future. We will be electing a new board and officers in the coming months and need members to step forward to run for each of the position.

I hope to see many of you at the meeting and I look forward to many more successful years with the VRA.

KC