Red River & Gulf Railroad

2nd Annul Fall Festival & Steam-Up

October 21-23, 2022

To join the fun, contact the railroad at: Work-Session @ RedRiverAndGulf.net (no spaces)

Volunteer Railroaders & SFHM Staff
1. Mike B.
2. Mike M.
3. Jason R.
4. Noah R.
5. Sam E.
6. Andrew A.
7. Angela A.
8. Glen A.
9. Wimbley V.
10. Jacques D.
11. Makayla S.
12. David H. Sr
13. David H.
14. Carson S.
15. Chris S.
16. Clint L. Jr
17. Jeanie L.
18. Casey A.
19. Cody A.
20. Dwayne S.
21. Linda B.
22. Terry B.
23. Ron C.
24. Susie C.
25. Lisa L.
26. Buck V.
27. Chuck L.
28. Laurie L.
29. Joseph S.
30. Jim B.
31. Dr. Chris S.
32. Christian S. (museum intern)
33. Tucker B.

Accomplishments
1. Safe and very successful 2nd Annual Long Leaf Fall Festival and Steam Up
2. Safe railroad operations of 22 Saturday trains with approximately 500 riders
3. Safe railroad operations of 9 Sunday trains with approximately 100 riders
4. Machine Shop shafts oiled and Oil Date Clipboard started
5. Track tool room cleaned and organized
6. Battery replaced in M4
7. Airline for horn on M4 repaired
8. Handcar repaired and future upgrades planned
9. Tours given to hundreds of festival attendees

Thank you so very much to all the volunteers who made the 2nd Annual Long Leaf Fall Festival and Steam Up a big success! It was a safe weekend, a fun weekend, and one we’ll remember for a long time. Many people worked many hours of hard sweat during the summer and fall to make this happen. Many people brought their talent and resources to take it from “good” to “great.” We had volunteers from the local area, and folks that came in from Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Robeline, Ruston, and several places in between.

Thank you to Linda for great festival organization and planning. Thank you to Terry for handling the children’s face painting. Thank you to Sam for directing car parking Saturday and Sunday, including bringing his own Cricket cart (it's electric!) to ride around. A hearty thanks to Chris, Jeanie, and Clint for providing some DELICIOUS food for the volunteers on Saturday. The finished lumber shed smelled like jambalaya all day! Thank you to Glen, Mike B., and David H. for lubricating the shafts in the Machine Shop, operating the machines for tours, responding to mechanical issues on the M4, and giving very popular handcar rides at the Engine House. Glen brought his 4x4 to help move people and supplies around the festival. Jim, Clint, Wimbley, Chuck, and Joseph gave tours around the sawmill, museum buildings, and around the museum grounds all day. Jason, Cody, Casey, Carson, Jacques, and Tucker operated the M4 for the weekend with 22 trains run with approximately 600 riders around the loop. Buck, Susie, Ron, Lisa, Makayla, and Angela manned the all-important gate & admission table as vehicles came in on Long Leaf Road. Christian, Ron, Dr. Stacey, Angela, Cody, Wimbley, and Clint performed professionally by flagging Long Leaf Road crossing and the sawmill road crossing against vehicular and passenger traffic. Dwayne and Andrew kept the air jumper orderly and safe. Mike M. was doing so many things, I’ve lost track of them all! I know there’s all kinds of efforts we cannot recall off the top of the head, but it was all contributing to a great festival. We’re very excited for next year’s festival!

Friday

On Friday, volunteers started final preparations for the festival while the Steam Up exhibitors began arriving in the afternoon. Glen brought his stadium vacuum to clean the Steam Up area in the finished lumber shed. Joseph, Jacques, Wimbley, and Tucker checked the oil level, added fuel, checked coolant levels, and performed inspections on all the rail equipment needed for the weekend. They also took time to clean up and organize the track tool room. MB and Glen prepped the Machine Shop by lubricating the main shafts and checking belts and having the shop in top shape for tours.

During the M4 shakedown run in the afternoon, the compression fitting for the air horn line kept popping off. Tucker ran into Glenmora to pick up barbed fittings. Joseph and Tucker then had the air line fixed with the barbed fittings and the horn working again Friday afternoon. Overall, the shakedown run went very well with the track much smoother thanks to the prior-week efforts Jason, Everett, David, and Mike working on the track. Everett himself spent many days on the track and various small projects around the museum after the last volunteer session.

The volunteer crew then switched around the cars on Engine House track #1 so everything was in place for Saturday. In the evening, Mike, Mike, Joseph, Jacques, Wimbley, Tucker and museum staff Robin hung the banners and signs in the Planer Mill and on the finished lumber shed. All contributed to moving supplies, getting materials set up, placing donation boxes, distributing equipment, directing vendors to set up locations, cleaning up, and many other preparation tasks.

Saturday

Several folks got moving early in the morning on more festival preparations. All volunteers then met together for the operations briefing at 9 am in the lodge kitchen. Assignments were reviewed, emergency procedures shared, information distributed, radios handed out, questions answered, and communication lines were established. Thank you to Jason for providing handheld radios for the weekend. David and Joseph checked the M4 for a final inspection, repaired a needed splice in the airline that had ruptured, and brought the M4 down with ease to the commissary depot platform. David would later help Glen and Mike with more oiling and Machine Shop maintenance and Joseph would also help with the handcar rides. Glen had a good idea to set up a maintenance clipboard in the Machine Shop with the date of the last shaft oiling. Similar to an oil change date on a car, it helps everyone keep track of when the last maintenance was performed. With a clipboard from the track tool room, it's a good idea that we now have in place.

The festival went mighty well on Saturday with festival attendees all over the place! The Alexandria and Pineville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau was on hand for marketing and the partnership with them was great for promoting and advertising the festival. The handcar rides were very popular at the Engine House, the grass fields were filled with cars, funnel cakes and lemonade were enjoyed by many volunteers, there were folks going on tours through the buildings all day, and many new volunteers and supporters were recruited.

Whenever we ran into some issues with the M4, the Ready Response Crew was on point. Well done David and Mike! The M4 battery had been charged before the festival, but with an older battery from 2017, it was in need of a replacement. After the successful train rides for Saturday were complete, David H. changed out the battery on the M4, set on a battery charger, and the M4 fired on the first touch of the starter the next morning. Hundreds of festival goers had fun trips aboard the M4 with our able operators and almost all the trains were completely full. Well done for the train crew members of Jason, Cody, Casey, Jacques, Carson, and Tucker!

During the day, Mike, David, Glen, and Jacques took a look at the handcar. The gears were drawn closer together for smoother operation and David proposed an idea of inserting metal plates to hold the gears in place since the wood holes for the bolts have deteriorated over the years. Glen offered to make the plates. The handcar gears were a little loose in their meeting and had drifted apart. The plan repair should do the trick!

Saturday evening, Jacques, Carson, Wimbley, and Tucker made a fuel run and filled up all the museum gas cans for the next day and for regular museum operations the following week.

Throughout Saturday there was also great communication and discussion with volunteers and staff on a variety of topics, in many different settings, such as current and future projects. Much is learned and plans get closer to reality with collaboration on days like these!

Sunday

Sunday was more relaxing and a shorter day, but fortunately, the festival attendee crowd was larger than expected. The whole crew had experience and confidence as they knew what to do. After the morning operations meeting at 9 am, the volunteers were quite familiar with all the assignments throughout the day. Train rides and tours continued safely and successfully and as the festival winded down in the afternoon, volunteers cleaned up, cleaned the lodge, and made the happy road home.

Thank you again everyone!

-Tucker "Who Dat" Baker
RR&G Road Master