Re: Sandhouse to be restored . . .

John Cole Wrote:
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< . . .  one of the big projects for the Friends
> is to make the sand house operational in
> time for opening day of the CATS.  I'm not
> sure you want to wait that long, but with John
> Sutkus as team leader it should work great!


That's GREAT news, John -

One of the most interesting aspects of the early days of the C&TS was watching the hostlers service the engines – not just dumping the ashes and taking water, but also adding coal to the tenders and sand to the domes – just like in the latter days of the D&RGW.  I presume the sand house will be fully functional when restored, but the RR will bypass the very tedious and time-consuming process of drying the sand by continuing to buy bags of dry sand as at present and dumping it into to the sand house for loading the old-fashioned way instead of lifting the bags directly up to the domes.

- Abuelo Roosso

p.s. See [ngdiscussion.net] et seq for photos of engine servicing in 2009, and [ngdiscussion.net] for Rich Braden's detailed description of day-to-day operation of the sand house.