Re: Sumpter Valley Railway News Up-Date

Hi Lon, Reporting time for the fire patrol is 1 hour before train time. For this Sat. and Sun. train time will be on a modified schedule to accomodate 4 round trips each day. The first train will leave McEwen at 9:00AM, therefore you should be there at 8:00 AM. On Monday the schedule goes back to normal with train time at 10:00AM and reporting time for the fire patrol at 9:00. The fire patrol speeder and water car will probably be at the restoration shop unless someone has it out already. I assume you are working with an experienced person, so you will need to buddy up to whomever that is to learn the ropes. They need to show you how to fill out the hours of service book in the yard office. Filling out your starting time is normally the first thing to do when you get there. For whom ever is in charge of the fire patrol for the day, making sure the speeder is ready to go with gas, oil, coolant in the rad. etc. is about the next thing to do. Then, one needs to check gas and oil for the fire pump and have a look over the equipment. At about this point I'd do a radio check with the 19 or the depot and pull out to the S.wye switch assuming the 19 and consist are already at the depot so you are in place ready to go. At this point, you and or the person in charge needs to go to the depot and get an extra train order and get a copy to the engineer and conductor of the regular train. Usually you follow the train about 5 minutes behind. I hope you have a safe and enjoyable time. I had a friend over visiting the rr for the first time last Sun. in which we did firepatrol and it was a very pleasant day to spend out on the line. It gives chasing the train new meaning!!