On Saturday, October 6th, we had the services of retired Cianbro crane man Al Rollins once more. Several of our people rigged up the tender frame to Al's satisfaction and we got underway. The whole lift took about three hours, which was much quicker than the tender body. Everything went well, and the trucks are now ready to be moved indoors for rebuilding.
Structural Engineer Ron Kief of Cianbro also visited with us to inspect the tender tank and offer advice about the rebuild. Ron got the full tour and left later in the day, enthusiastic about everything we're doing. A big "thank you" to Ron!
Brian Hebert made the l-o-n-g trip up from NH to help with the work load. Also present were Bob Mueller, Ron Jenkins, Dick Glueck, Kerri Merion, Jim Armstrong, and later in the day, Alex Fogg.
Kerri made us lunch, bringing up a crock pot for spaghetti in meat sauce, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and the best two-layer chocolate cake with peanut butter icing we've ever had!
Later in the afternoon, we loaded the cross-compound pump (1,700 pounds) into the bed of Leverett's truck for delivery to the UMO engineering shops. The rebuild team is anxious to see what they've bitten off. We think with guidance from Jason Lamontagne and their professors, the pump will be in good hands.
Alex and Jim stayed a little later to further scrape residual paint from last weekend's work.
With the frame on the ground, we have completed one of the final goals for 2018. The next thing will be to roll the tender trucks indoors.
