Re: Preserving the Knowledge to Preserve!

The "learning from experience" aspect was always a concern for me working with he Friends. With all the projects and great work done over the years, is information on these past projects available to new teams. Especially since some of the projects are on their second go around. I know we had extensive plans and descriptions of the work done and tons of pictures beyond the Chroniclers' pics. Our stuff all went into big books that had plans for every car and structure along the line. A lot of learning such loveley things as how to install couplers the easy way, how to mount a 30' piece of rail, upside down, under the side sill of an idler flat, where exactly the top frame of a High side gon breaks because of the economy draft gear, why is there three sizes of siding and part of a telephone pole in 053, how many bolts are needed to rebuild a drop bottom gon and why latex paint does not work in Chama with extensive testing. Is that stuff available to newer team leaders? We were so lucky to be able to talk to the two gentleman who worked on cars for the Grande before we tackled splicing draft timbers in center sills and rebuilding a car basically from the ground up.

When I was part of the 'new blood" of volunteers, some incredibly talented people like Roger Briggs, Bob Tully and Ralph Flowers sure added to the knowledge and experience. One of the many incredible things about the Friends is that even though the names change, that pool of talented people seems to be in a constant supply. Would sure like to see the experience and knowledge be passed along. The experience and knowledge you have gained, Bill, on all your great projects hopefully gets passed along.