The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum hosted its first ever "photo freight" on April 28 for the benefit of its members and a documentary film crew putting together a story about the history of refrigerator cars. Since we have four refrigerator cars in our collection, we put together a train consisting of RGV 54 (wearing Erie-esque garb), MDT 12549, FGEX 50220, and Erie caboose C254. A second train consisting of our U.S. Army Fairbanks-Morse H12-44 and NYC caboose 19877 was also planned.

Weeks of preparation went into making this special train operation possible. The two reefers were dug out of their display tracks and brought into the shop for minor repairs. A new coupler cut lever was installed on MDT 12549, and both cars received new air hoses. We had to wait for temperatures to climb above 50 before we could inspect and pre-lube the FM. Because all of our switches are trailing point, we needed a second locomotive to perform switching moves so the RGV 54 could be placed on the south end of the train.

While Friday's prep day was sunny and warm, Saturday of the event was cold and rainy. The rain held off long enough long enough to pull off several moves and photo angles, as well as enjoy a hamburger cookout at the depot. Our plans to operate the second train were nixed when we discovered we were low on fuel.

All in all, our members had a great time, our crews and trainees got some good experience with the freight cars, and the film crew came away happy with the footage they wanted. Some photos from the event are posted on our Flickr site:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rgvrrm/al ... 4538395281

-otto-

There is a lesson to be learned here. Sometimes it's the most basic things that get you. Weeks of planning, working on myriad details and then you get to "Did anyone check the fuel level?"

Not picking on Otto, this happens all the time at events like this. Basic but critical components get lost or left behind.

On a personal level, I try to avoid this with checklists. I can pack my clothes for a week long trip in under 10 minutes easy. Packing my camera gear takes 2 days of checking and cross-checking a detailed list of every item in the bag, cables, batteries, laptop, card reader, filters, lens, battery charger. It only takes on time of pulling the camera out of the bag and finding it doesn't have card in it to tell you how important that is. It's also why my bag always has a backup card stored in it.

On a museum level, some sort of checklist and plan would work well too I suspect. All tasks listed and assigned to various people. Coordinating special events can take months of planning and require myriad details from doing a total restoration to ordering sani-cans. (And making sure the gate is open on Monday when they come to pump them.)

Absolutely! Lots of things learned this weekend. I was just glad the unit ran out of fuel for a private event and not a public one :-)

-otto-

"Cleaning the fuel tank sight glasses" is on my list of things to tackle on our Fairbanks Morse locomotive. They are both pretty filthy and it's easy to misread them. She also has a relatively small fuel tank that feeds a relatively thirsty engine.

To make matters worse, the fuel pick-up is at the front of the fuel tank. It tends to suck air if the level is low (less than 200 gallons) and we are ascending/descending our steep grade.

These are my excuses, anyway. :)