ballast cars [long ramble]

ok, while the ebt cars are historic they arnt d&rgw.. so they are somewhere inbetween historic & a tool, that is ok with me.
either way. i have two weeks reserved to come work on something next year & i would be willing to do rivits or pull huckbolts or run a magnetic drill or cut sheets etc etc etc on the ebt cars, i can do any two weeks that school is out next year [four kids you know] i have to decide by feb or so. the main issue is that the more of those cars that work the better the track will be for x amount of money. the better the track the less damage on the locomotives and cars.
look at it this way, if a engine & crew run 20 miles and spend 20 mins per car dumping two cars and then run 20 miles back vs running 20 miles and spending 20 mins per car dumping 5 cars and running 20 miles back - the cost per ton of rock goes down by lots. each $ of donated rock goes 2 times as far with 5 cars as with 2..
2 cars 5 cars 6 cars
travel [20mi] 4hr 4hr 4hr
loads rock 4/day 10/day 12/day
crew hr/day 10 11 12
load /crewh .4 .8 1
i am assssuming $ per ton= 30ton/load@ 75$/hr for 3man crew
crew$/day 750 825 900
ton/day 120 300 360
$/ton 6.25 2.75 2.50
-these cars are important in the long term-
as for me, i keep sending in a few $ every week and i intend to continue to do so for the forseeable future, i feel we need to keep pushing hard to make the rr a better maintained place, lots of railfans go and take pictures but dont ride and dont contribute - i in my very small way want to contribute time & money to the best of my ability & i hope it makes some small difference.
tim olson