Shop tour

As I said there's a LOT of stuff that you normally don't get to see... I can't help but wonder if that is a missed opportunity. If they can run several guided shop tours each day (with decent sized groups at $5 a head) on the opening and fall spectacular weekends, then perhaps there would be enough interest to run ONE tour of paying foamers every Saturday.
The tour was run by a FEBT volunteer, It was informative. The guy who took us knew a LOT about the turn of the century history of the line. Unfortunately, it sounded like the tour was mostly unscripted, so he had to occassionally search for things to talk about in one place and went on just a bit too long in others.
He also mis-identified the steam engine that drove the shop as a "Corliss", it IS a box bed engine with a plain slide valve. (looked like a 9x12 or 10x14, possibly 1870s? vintage,kinda hard to see much of it because of its location and all the cribbing that had been built over it to support a cracked roof tree). But then nobody would have noticed THAT error but me
For those who have never been inside the shop, I recommend making a special trip for the tour. Most of the machines were bought new at the turn of the (last) century. The shops could do just about everything to a locomotive but set the boiler on the frame (they didn't have an overhead crane, wheels were removed for service with a drop table). Along with all the other items you would expect in a locomotive backshop, they also had a planer with a 20-plus foot bed. The drill press they used was a NIFTY bit of engineering, with the head that held the drills adjustable (with about 4 feet of travel) in 2 dimensions and angularity... rather than requiring them to constantly reposition the work. They also had an axle lathe that drove from the center, which could allowed BOTH ends to be turned simultaneously, and of course, a 4 foot diameter wheel lathe for turning the loco tires. The fellow who gave the tour said the shop not only did all the loco maintenance, but managed to build all the new freight cars at the rate of about 6 per month.
Yes, the inside of the building is nearly as bad as the outside, vandals have done some of the damage, but time and the elements did most of it. The floors have the usual loose planks, and boiler plate layed over weak spots, if the public tours were to become a "regular" thing, then a raised walkway would probably be needed. The machines have an unfortunate patina of rust and a rather thick layer of dust, the lighting, by today's standards, is abysmal...When the shop was in use it would have been brighter than it is now (Somone surely would have cleaned a few windows before it became hard to see what they were doing)
Sadly, the tool and tap room was completely empty, our guide said that the Kovalchicks have had to place the items in secure storage because of pilfering by local vandals (many of the tools were made in house, and most are clearly marked EBT RR). THAT my friends is a sad commentary on our society, and the aquisitiveness of some people for railroadiana. " />
I didn't realise that the EBT had as many infernal combusted lokies as it does, there were (I think) 4, and 4 speeders (3 open, one closed) in various states of disrepair stored in the shop. It DID make me wish that we could have toured the roundhouse too. Sadly, unless something happens to change my schedule, due to a conflicting show, I will NEVER make it to a Fall Spectacular to see any off the other building tours.