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Steaming Day - July
1, 2001
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The Canada Day weather didn't start out very well. Strong winds and rain with cool temperatures had everyone looking for cover and threatened to put an early end to the activities. Mother Nature finally co-operated with the sun coming out in the afternoon and despite the weather there was another good turnout of spectators at the track and in the museum. |
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| Cliff Bartlett had his 4-3/4" Speedy out after repairing the crosshead problem from the May 13th steaming day. The rain and wind in the morning didn't deter Cliff; he just donned his rain gear and kept right on running, rain or shine. Cliff's Speedy is a well-maintained and finely tuned locomotive and ran with few problems all day long. Barrie Ward had his beautiful 3-1/2" Mikado out for the first time this year, unfortunately a problem keeping the water level up forced an early end to his running. Tom Stewart had his 4-3/4" Atlantic out this week, giving the OMLET winning Pacific a rest this weekend. The Atlantic had several members taking turns at the throttle but suffered the same fate this week as during the OMLET, plugged fire tubes and had to stop running early. Looks like the Atlantic doesn't like the coal Tom's been feeding it these days. | |
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| There was another good display of member's current projects with Rick Intini, Fred Eagle, Peter Masefield and Barry Graham bringing items out for display. The rain and wind had everyone scrambling to try and keep things dry and tied down. With the number of locomotives under construction, the next few years should see a fine display of new motive power running at the track. | 
Cliff Bartlett coming down the east loop with his Speedy |
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The 7-1/4" track was busy all day with Harry Savile and his Consolidation
and Ron McKinley and his Hercules running the track in the clockwise direction
for a change. The Consolidation ran well all day with Harry and Rick Intini
doing most of the driving. Ron's Hercules had some on and off problems
keeping a good fire, with several members who included Fred Eagle and Jordan
Intini taking turns at the throttle to try and diagnose the problem. With
some minor repairs and adjustments Ron was able to keep the Hercules running
all day. Ron has done a fine job of rebuilding the Hercules over the winter
and he now has a great looking and running locomotive.
The only problem on the 7-1/4" line during the day was keeping some of the cars on the track going up the east hill. Looks like a track maintenance crew will have to be dispatched to have a look at that section. |
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Jordan Intini working the throttle on Ron McKinley's Hercules |
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| There have been some new developments with respect to the Technical Standards & Safety Authority (TSSA) and their application of the Amusement Devices Act to live steam clubs in Ontario. The Algoma Model Engineering Society (AMES) in Sault Ste. Marie was recently ordered to stop operating their track by a TSSA inspector. This has created a heightened awareness by the various clubs in Ontario as to the potential threat this poses to our hobby and what can be done to ensure that we can continue to operate within the law. Hopefully some good will come from this and the whole problem of complying with the Act can be resolved quickly and satisfactorily to all concerned. Those members with email can keep up to date on this issue by subscribing to the email list for TSSA discussions, set up by John Stewart of the Ottawa Valley Live Steamers, by sending a message to majordomo@mainframe.dgrc.crc.ca with a body of subscribe tssa. | |
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