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This is the eighteenth year I have written an annual report and every year as I look back on what we accomplished during the prior twelve months, I think it’s been one of the busiest years ever on the A & P. This year isn’t any different; it was a very busy year.
Most of our track has been on the ground for close to twenty-five years now and the ties are deteriorated from dry rot, termites and checking. Some of the lag screws have stated to work themselves loose and some splice bar bolts have loosened. We spent a great deal of time last year addressing these issues by replacing the worst ties and lag screws, repositioning tie plates, trimming rail junctions, servicing splice bars and gauging the rail.
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Instead of continuing to replace ties here and there, we started plans this year to replace all of our ground-contact ties. We obtained 700 mainline ties and 130 switch ties and had them pressure treated with preservative. Half of the switch ties were lost in shipping to Arizona, but that is a story for a different day. Our railroad has approximately 1950 ties in place. Each tie has a minimum of four tie plates with lag screws and the switch ties have at least twice that number. It is a time-consuming process, but we got underway at the end of the year and hope to finish in late 2022.
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We rebuilt our turntable with new ring rail wheels and bearings, a new center pin bearing and new turnbuckles. We also rebalanced the turntable.
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We acquired another post-war G12 and a pre-war “Addison” G12 this year. We acquired many smaller parts this year from several sources. We acquired several E10 and G12 parts this year from Rick Nairn, Gerry Warner, Jerry Graves, Ed Janulionis and Ron Witt and several others and appreciate their assistance in these projects.
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We completely rebuilt 26 G12 coach trucks. They received new bearings, new seals, new axles when needed, new bolts and new paint. We also continued sheet metal restoration and fabrication on two G12 locomotives, two E10 coaches and multiple G12 coaches.
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We made templates and sheared Lexan windows for all of our G12 and E10 coaches. We also cut the plywood bases for each of our E10 and G12 seats and our friend George Fimbres upholstered them for us.
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There have been numerous delays in getting our equipment back from body and paint. We currently have a locomotive, OB car and two coaches over there. Most of the delays are related to staffing issues at the beadblaster/ powdercoater and the same issue at the body shop.
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The focus of our work this year was the restoration work on the two E10s and the G12. We did some 16 gauge running early in the year, but not nearly as much as usual.
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The Phoenix, Red River and Sandusky each had a detailed brass polishing job this year, each of which was several hours. They also received routine annual maintenance.
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Other than routine maintenance, the track inspection car received very little attention this year and ran well.
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We are making significant progress on our E10 and G12 restoration projects.
I had seats upholstered one for the locomotive, two coaches and the observation car.
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We also sheared Lexan for each coach and observation car window.
We rebuilt and repainted our BKN motor and got it mounted in its tray. We still have a bit of brake rigging work to complete.
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We completely rebuilt the two power trucks and 3 coach trucks including new seals, bearings, wheels if needed, gears if needed, powder coating and all correct hardware.
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Dave has been all over the internet locating vintage and correct obscure plugs, buttons, switches and other electrical components for the E10s and G12s.
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We reproduced the engineer’s seat, both floor pans, the instrument panel, the front upper and lower bulkhead, the battery tray, the driveline cover and the seat lower assembly. The hoods, floor pan ribbing, brake and throttle slides and rebuilding the motor remain.
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We completely rebuilt the two Addison power trucks and 3 coach trucks including new seals, bearings, wheels if needed, gears if needed, powder coating and all correct hardware.
I had seats upholstered one for the locomotive, two coaches and the observation car.
We also sheared Lexan for each coach and observation car window.
As mentioned previously, I had seats upholstered for the locomotive, two coaches and the observation car of both the pre-war and post-war G12 trains and the windows have been sheared to size, labeled and bagged for use after these trains return from body and paint. We also rebuilt approximately 20 more coach trucks than we will be using on our current G12 projects. We are willing to trade for E10 equipment.
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We have 5 original MT & RR Co. E10 32 volt electric motors; we will utilize the best two in two of our E10s. Dave has been acquiring the electrical components for the observation car and the locomotive. Except for the massive electric motor itself we are in pretty good shape. We have the original drivelines, but like the G12, will have new ones fabricated. The power trucks have been rebuilt and are wired and ready to install. We have all the switches and buttons for the instrument panel and have all of the handle ends for the exterior trim handles. We also have the hood horns.
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The seats are completed and ready for installation.
We have acquired all of the trim parts for our four E10 coaches and the two observation cars including the door handle ends, rear side markers and lenses and observation car drumheads. We sheared the Lexan for the windows in both of our E10 trains. The trucks have been rebuilt and are ready for installation.
More seats await the return of the other coaches & engines |
Two of the coaches are back from paint and body, but the engine and observation car are delayed. We anticipate their arrival at the A & P in first quarter 2022.
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We acquired three more MT & RR Co. torque wrenches for our collection and we added some additional vintage park train advertising to our collection.
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We also expanded our collection of MTC and AH literature during the year and added to our park train catalog collection. I need to figure out how to display more of this material in our limited space.
We added track panels, dual gauged four track panels and added lettering to our three large racks in the engine house and the MTC logo to appropriate displays.
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We added two Swope Railways items to our MTC Collection. If you are unaware of the connection between Swope Railways and MTC, Swope purchased the first G16 produced (no. 501) and operated it at Griffith Park in Los Angeles for many years. Swope also purchased and operated no. 507 which ran at the Cleveland Zoo and No. 510 which operated at Balboa Park and Zoo in San Diego. The brass ruler labeled for Swope Railways was gifted to our collection by Ron Moses and the spike with the Swope Railways marking was located by Dave in his ongoing search for MTC related items.
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Dave also found a book of Ken-Penn tickets who had a tie to some of our G12 equipment.
We obtained a MTC crossing signal relay box donated by Rick Nairn. It is the second of the three versions that evolved over the years.
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We acquired another G12 nose that will eventually be on display in the enginehouse.
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We added 3 small display stands for early G12 and E10 trucks in the engine house.
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It gets a little difficult sometimes to separate the railroad related projects from those that are indirectly related but I think designing, assembling and outfitting the E10 and G12 display racks in the engine house are related to the A & P experience and require time and money that would otherwise go toward railroad operation.
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We extended our E10 display rack by 10 feet and also extended our dual gauge rack by 3 feet. We added rail to the extensions and tied it into our original track panels. Both of the E10 track panels will hold a locomotive, 2 coaches and an observation car. The G12 panels will each hold a locomotive and observation car. The dual track panels will each hold 2 G12 coaches.
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After a BIG railroad travel year for Dave and I in 2019, Covid restricted everyone’s travel in 2020 and 2021. The only railroads Dave and I visited this year were the:
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We were only able to host a few friends and guests again this year as a result of Covid. The majority of our visitors are local, or at least AZ and Southern CA, and you know who you are, but we get guests from all over the country. This year the visitor who traveled the greatest distance was Steve Eason of Creston, California.
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Plans:
Longer range plans include:
Wish List:
Our A & P website has been on the web now for 19 1/2 years. We finished 2021 with 155,161 unique hits since we established this site in June of 2002. We finished this year with 5,993 views by our counter which is 16.4 per day. Our viewership increased by about 10% last year, maybe because you never know what project I will drag home and start on next!
To our long-time viewers who have traveled with us on this almost 20 year internet journey thank you. The Arizona and Pacific Railroad celebrated its 26th anniversary in September of 2021; it is hard to believe that we have been at this that long.
Happy and safe railroading everybody!