September 5 Workday

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Perfect weather and a great turnout of members resulted in a very productive work day. Not pictured, crews started the day out with weed control around the track and general debris cleanup from various projects over the past few months.

Below members are leveling track and spreading 6 train loads of ballast work in the steaming bay area.

Finishing touches were also put in on the new Gaddes Yard area on both the track and new electrical system. The yard now has multiple permanent outlets with 2 dedicated circuits for charging electric locomotives. This electrical system and the new outlets for the vendor area were also tested during the day. Unplanned, crews also replaced a switch on the mainline on the upper lead near the playground that had been damaged over the summer.

Finally, progress was made at the new passenger depot building. This included assembling desks and mounting iPad stands for electronic passenger waivers. Additionally, work began on the permanent fencing around the depot building. All of this work is scheduled to be complete before the fall meet.

August 22 Workday

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With the Fall Meet only a month away, the work crews were motivated to wrap up several projects around the layout. After many hours of work, the new Gaddes (Phase 1) is now complete. The new yard has five parking tracks and electrical outlets for charging battery powered equipment. This will alleviate the congestion at the small electric yard near the steaming bays. Over the next year, Phase 2 of the yard will start to take shape.

The new Passenger Depot project is moving along very well. Last week, additional sidewalks were poured. Over the coming weeks, the concrete will be finished and fencing will be installed. This will be a huge upgrade to station operation and a better experience for our guests riding the trains.

Depot Progress

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Work on the New Passenger Depot has been going very well. In late July, the trenching was completed so power could be ran to the building. Once the trench was complete, the process of installing conduit could begin. Much of this work was done during the week, when members had extra time and weather permitted.

At the August 8th workday, members were back at the depot completing the electric conduit work. Junction boxes were installed and the conduit was buried in the trench. Additionally, more gravel was put down in preparation of the sidewalk install around the depot. Once the sidewalks are installed, the process of building the fencing will commence.

Summer Night Run

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After a day filled with on and off rain showers, the weather cleared just in time for a beautiful night run. Over a dozen trains were counted and a number of members were also onsite. Those in attendance had a great time and got a sneak peak at many of the improvements at the facility!

Summer Mini Meet

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To say it was warm outside during the mini meet would be an understatement, but spirits were very high. A number of members came out to have a little fun on the rails. Many members stopped by for a few hours here and there to catch up with friends and just enjoy a quick train ride.

June 27 Workday

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MSLS Member Lutz Braun has donated two cupolas for the buildings in the shop yard. The workday’s goal was to get these mounted onto the buildings. It took some trial and error at first to determine the safest way for crews to get to the work area, especially with the light rain that occurred.. Once that was sorted out, most of the mounting went smoothly.

May 16 Workday

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The track crew started early today, trying to get as much work done as possible before the temperature got to hot. The main focus of the workday was to replace the ties on the bridges leading out of the shop yard. The original ties were in poor condition and were to short, causing the club’s gravel cars to get caught on the bridge. The replacement went very smoothly and was completed in a few hours.

May 2 Workday

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With construction of “Phase 1” of Gaddes Yard now complete, the track crew spent the day ballasting the new yard. Spirits were very high and everyone was eager to enjoy the nice weather and spend some time working outside. At the end of the workday, the crew was able to get about 50% of the yard ballasted. The rest will be ballasted at the next workday. Then the final adjustments can be made, such as leveling, brooming, and height adjustments can be made.

Back in February, the bypass track had some major washouts in some areas. Members spent some time hauling ballast to the area and getting the track back in running condition.

Also want to mention that Scott Hadfield has taken on the important task of refurbishing many of the switches that were pulled out of the old storage yard. Members have been working on them at the track site when time permits, but he has been reconditioning them at lighting speed. This is a huge help to the club as it is a very time consuming and difficult process. Thanks Scott!

April 18 Workday

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The weather was absolutely perfect and made for a great work day. Everyone was eager to put the finishing touches on “Phase 1 “ of the New Gaddes Yard! A new mainline switch was installed to allow access to the yard. Hopefully in two weeks, we can get the entire yard ballasted and ready for use.

It has taken a lot of effort and work, but finally, all the work is complete. Just needs a little ballast.

April 4 Workday

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Work continues on the new yard for electric engines. The yard tracks are finally all connected and the lead track is in place. The finally task to complete is the installation of a switch, off the main line, to access the yard. Once that is complete, final leveling will start and ballast will be added.

Since the last design of Gaddes yard had such a large footprint, there is a lot of empty area at the end of the new yard. This area, we have designated as “Phase 2”, is also being setup for future use. Some track and switches will be installed in the area in the future. When meet attendance reaches a point where more parking storage is needed, this yard will be completed. It will almost mirror the yard that is currently being installed.

2020 Spring Meet Cancelled

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The 2020 Spring Meet hosted April 30 through May 2, 2020 by the Mid-South Live Steamers is being cancelled out of an abundance of caution related to the CoronaVirus (COVID-19) and in order to adhere to recent CDC, Federal, State, and local guidelines.  This cancellation comes at the recommendation of club officers and approved by club board members.  At this time the 2020 Spring Meet is not being rescheduled.  Once social restrictions have been lifted, we will evaluate the schedule for the club, which may include new or expanded events. 

Please continue to check the club’s website and social media for additional updates on club activities. 

Thank you for your understanding and support during this difficult time.

Matt Irwin - President 

Mid-South Live Steamers

March 21 Workday

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It was a colder then expected but members were at the track site working on several projects. The track crew was working hard to get more of the yard track installed. The yard is almost complete, with a single parking track and lead track left to complete on the next workday.

While the track crew did their thing, other members were continuing to build out the electrical system to the yard. It was slow work at first, due to the complexity of connecting to the existing setup inside the caboose. Once that was solved, the members moved on to pulling wire to the various junction boxes.

March 7 Workday

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It was almost perfect weather for a workday and everyone was in good spirits. There were several groups of members working on different projects going on at the same time. One group was working on installing electrical conduit in the tranches created Friday.

Another group of members were rebuilding switches for Gaddes Yard in the steaming bay. The elevated tracks provide a solid work area for these large switches and there is plenty of room to store all the ties needed.

The final group of members were connecting track panels and switches, once the other team had rebuilt them in the yard. With so many members working on various tasks but with the same goal in mind, the work went very smoothly. The yard is about 60% complete and work will continue during the next workdays.

February Flooding

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Middle Tennessee has seen three times the normal amount of rain for this time of year. This has causes some flooding and wash out issues around the track. At the last workday, February 8th, the track crew spent hours removing gravel, cleaning out the drainage pipes, and lifting them up several inches. Hopefully, this will help in the future with flooding damage.

The bathroom curve is another area where the club experiences wash outs during heavy rain. Since more rain was expected soon after the workday, some larger rock was placed there to help keep the area stable until a more permanent solution can be determined.

December 14 Workday

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The removal and re-design of Gaddes Yard is still ongoing. The yard had over 1500 feet of track with more then 15 switches, so removal has taken a lot of time and effort. Huge thanks to Matt Irwin, Jon Sproat, and Michael Haywood for coming out to the workday. You can see in the last two photos the amount of track that was taken up on Saturday. There is still a lot of work that needs to be completed before we can start putting in the new yard. The current plan is to have some of the yard operational by the 2020 Spring Meet, but that will depend on attendance during future work days.

Additionally, want to thank Alan Woodyard for removal of the wooden retaining wall shown below. The wood had begun to deteriorate and only had a few more years of life left. Also, the wall was blocking the path needed to get electrical power over to Gaddes Yard.

November 6 Workday

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The project to redesign of Gaddes Yard has started. The first step is to remove all the old track that is currently in place. It may look small on the layout maps but it is a really large yard once you start working on taking it apart. The work crews spent 5 hours taking track panels apart, and only got 1/2 of the yard taken up. We will continue to take up the remaining tracks over the next few workdays.