Mysterious happenings.

Passersby have noticed strange lights and noises coming from the BCRR workshop as of late. They have described it as "clanging, banging, some sort of flopping, and manic giggling. Lots of giggling."

Security footage (attached below) shows no one coming or going from the workshop since the shutdown was announced.

What sort of strange and wonderful things could be going on in there?

More as it develops.

What the?!

Testing Blogger mobile app for Android, as the website is unusable on a phone.

Just wanted to say this:

When did we get so much roadbed laid?!

Press Release 7-19-12

It's been a while since you've seen any updates from the BCRR. For that, we apologize. Life has been extremely busy for everyone involved, and the new changes Google has made to the Blogger interface make it pretty much impossible to draft new posts from a mobile device. Now, I know that there's an app for that, but it is possibly the WORST RATED GOOGLE APP OUT THERE. As such, I am leery of even downloading it.

Nevertheless, life has been going on as normal (more accurately, as our approximation of "normal") in the BCRR HQ. Little work has been accomplished due to the massive amounts of schedule conflicts. Crews have been building up the roadbed and doing right-of-way work, but it's slow going. Basically, we lay 261 (scale) feet of roadbed, then have to tamp and compress (put blocks and weights on it) for several hours before moving on to the next section. As I said, it's slow going, but at least it's going.

Supply and Acquisitions recently secured another stock of Loctite PL300 Foamboard Adhesive, a critical ingredient in the laying of roadbed. S&A also located a new soldering gun of the proper size and wattage for an incredible price. They did not, however, purchase one.

We have also managed to acquire some paint. Now, that may not sound very exciting, but when you think about it, and I mean REALLY think about it, it isn't. As soon as all the roadbed is lain, or laid, or whatever, we will use this Pittsburgh Paints Hatbox Brown Ultra Interior Flat Latex to cover the stark white extruded polystyrene beadboard that is our local terrain. What that boils down to, kids, is that if we should happen to have an area of ground that is missed by whatever terraforming operation is performed on it, it should appear to be dirt, instead of freakishly white styrofoam.

In seemingly unrelated news, while Chris S., V.P. of Construction, hasn't been present on the job site, he has been very busy scoring a 97% on his Fire Academy Firefighter 2 Module A exam. As such, he is academically at the top of his class. Yay.

Every silver lining has a cloud. This influx and possible overload of BCRR news comes at a price. What follows is a transcript of a press release televised earlier today by the Big Cheese himself, Chris Sipe.

"Hello, everyone, thank you for coming, please have a seat. As President and CEO of Beecher City's largest and most successful railroad, sometimes I get to sit back, relax, and simply enjoy watching all the gears turn and hearing the whistles blow. Other times, I have to step up, put on my big boy pants, and make the hard decisions. Unfortunately, this is one of those times.

"As you all know, we have been under serious financial burdens lately. Most of us have found ways to tighten the belt and cut costs, and for that I thank you, but it simply isn't enough. I'm afraid the most recent blow may have been the proverbial nail in the proverbial coffin. Replacing the refrigerator in the break room tapped us out. It's sad to say, but we can't even afford to keep Robot Management Unit K8-e plugged in anymore. I guess it's just as well. We really don't need her to tell us we're broke right now.

"Before I go on, I want each and every one of my employees to know that I care deeply for them and their families, and this decision was not at all easy. It was your hard work and sacrifice that has gotten to where we are today, and that sacrifice will not be forgotten. That being said, I'm afraid I'm left with no choice but to shut down bigger part of the BCRR and lay most of you off.

"My advisers, who will also be laid off, suggested that I announce exactly which departments will be shut down. After reviewing the lists, I've decided that it will be much faster and easier to announce which departments will continue operation. The following departments will report to work tomorrow as scheduled. If your department is not on this list, unfortunately, you will not be employed at the conclusion of this meeting. For what little consolation it is, I intend to recall certain departments as needs require and finances allow. So, without further gilding of the lily and with no more adieu, I give you the list of departments still operating tomorrow:

Track gang

"The VPs of each department will stay on staff to run their individual departments. All correspondence for the Construction Department should be directed to Chris S. Human Resource needs go to Christoph. R&D needs go to C. Dale Sipe. Public Relations is and forever shall be a one-man department, and CD Sipe will continue to manage it.

"Again, thank you for coming. That is all."

More as it develops.

Monday Morning Update

For those of you who might be thinking we haven't gotten anything done on the railroad in quite some time, allow me to clear something up for you:

We haven't.

Due to the mishap surrounding the track planning for the grain co-op spur, our contract with the co-op had to be renegotiated. Under the new terms, BCRR is required to compensate the co-op for lost revenue by providing labor crews for the construction of grain handling equipment. Since we are waiting on supplies, we have elected to employ our track gang at the co-op. They are making excellent progress. Whenever more track supplies arrive, we expect to reassign the track gang and possibly outsource labor on behalf of the BCGC.

More as it develops.

Intercepted email

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Weekly Update

Here's what happened this weekend on the BCRR this weekend:




























More as it develops.

Disaster!

BREAKING NEWS!

Engineers have just discovered a disastrous error on the part of the survey crew! A mainline curve has been marked with the wrong radius, which means all subsequent measurements are incorrect. The miscalculation was made approximately 35% into the surveying process, which was thought to have been completed successfully. That means 70% of the inner mainline must be resurveyed and marked again.

While this could potentially spell disaster for the budding company, it does explain the difficulties encountered during the original survey process. It also lends itself to the recent disputes with the local grain co-op discussed in our last article.

BCRR upper management has yet to pin the blame on any specific individual, declining to comment on what this means to stockholders. Chris Sipe, President and CEO, has scheduled a press conference for Someday afternoon.

More as it develops.

We apologize

for the lack of updates. Things have been increasingly rough around the BCRR as of late. About 60% of the surveying (marking track lines) has been completed. Unexpected difficulties have driven the design team back to their desks to reevaluate the overall blueprint. What was "plenty of room" on the blueprint turned out to be a severely tight fit on the workbench.

Disputes between BCRR staff and the local grain co-op have halted all progress. Major disputes involve clearance regulation and setback requirements. Management on both sides are keeping a tight lid on proceedings.

In other news, recent changes to the blogger format mean that anyone should be able to post comments without first registering with blogger! We look forward to your feedback, and ask that you please post your name or initials with anonymous posts so we can have some small idea from whence our feedback doth spring.

More as it develops.

Lab Report 4/3/2012

Here's another report from the R&D department.

"Loctite PL300 Foamboard adhesive tests are complete. We tested 3 pieces using different techniques for applying the adhesive.

Using a dab resulted in an incredibly strong bond. However, the excess adhesive was pushed out of the sides of the test piece, creating a potential distortion in the height of surrounding pieces.

Using a dab that was spread with a putty knife resulted in the same incredible bond without the pushing effect.

Using a small dab spread very thin obviously created no pushing problems. What's amazing is that the bond appears every bit as strong as the other samples! In fact, since the adhesive had been thoroughly spread across the surface of the test piece, the bond is even stronger, since no part of the piece is untouched by adhesive.

We have concluded that the Loctite PL300 Foamboard adhesive is perfectly suited for our needs."

There it is, folks. Another problem solved!

More as it develops.

Lab Report 4/2/2012

Here's a report from the R&D department.

"Our preliminary adhesive tests are complete. When attempting to adhere our Woodland Scenics Track Bed to our Styrofoam subroadbed, we tested the adhesive qualities of DAP Woodweld Carpenter's Wood Glue alongside Colorplace Clear All-purpose Silicon Sealant.

After 1 hour, the wood glue exhibited little to no tack. The silicon sealant exhibited strong tack, showing great promise.

After 24 hours, the wood glue had not dried and had no tack. The silicon had set up sufficiently but provided very little tack and released the test piece with little effort.

We have on hand a tube of Liquid Nails project adhesive and a tube of Loctite PL300 Foamboard adhesive. We will not conduct a test on the Liquid Nails, as it is not recommended for foam to foam adhesion. We will begin testing the Loctite as soon as the lab is cleared of screaming toddlers."

More as it develops.

Mystery Solved!

Jeff S. has been identified as the newest member of our Board of Directors! Here's a quote from Chris Sipe, President and CEO:

"Thanks to his hard work and dedication to the cause, I'm proud to welcome Jeff S. to the Beecher City Railroad Board of Directors! He has already made significant contributions to our company, and I look forward to working with him in the future."

Jeff brings with him an expert knowledge of woodcraft, and the kind of expertise in fasteners and adhesives that can only come from years and years and years (and years) of sticking stuff together.

As an added bonus, with the summary dismissal of Katie S. from the Board, Jeff is now the only living member of the Board of Directors, making him Chairman de facto! Congratulations, Jeff!

Jeff declined to comment.

Intercepted email

Here in Public Relations we have acquired a copy of an email sent from President/CEO Chris Sipe to Jeff S.

"FROM: Christopher Sipe <-------------@gmail.com>
TO: Jeff S------ <----.----@gmail.com>
SUBJECT: RE: missed you Sunday
March 28, 2012 8:22am

Oh yeah. Forgot all about it. Been so busy with work I haven't had time to do anything on the railroad.

I've had a couple ideas about this curve thing. One was to cut out a couple of half circles of cardboard (so much cheaper and easier to handle) to use as guides. One would be 22" radius and the other would be 24".

Another idea was to just one guide shaped kind of like a C, with the inner curve 22" and the outer 24" but I'm afraid that would be hard to line up with the lines from the tangen track.

A third idea I had that would work in conjuncture with the other two is to add a little straight lead-in piece to each guide, making the half circle more of a tombstone shape and the C more of a U. That way I could just line up the lead-in pieces with the lines from the tangent track, draw the curve extending beyond the end of the actual curve, draw the next tangent line, then erase or disregard the excess curve line.

I expect this to be the second most difficult task I'm facing, next to the original track planning stage."

Who is this mysterious Jeff? What "work" is the President and CEO of the Beecher City Railroad doing that keeps him from the railroad? Does his loyalty lie elsewhere? What could this mean for the future of the company? We can only speculate at this point. We welcome your comments and suggestions.

More as it develops.

Terrafoaming complete!

The bridge unit has been completed and all foam top has been attached. Due to the late hour, there will be no interviews tonight. Chris Sipe, President and CEO, has scheduled a press conference for Someday afternoon. Stay tuned for in-depth coverage!

All tables completed

All the tables have been completed and connected. The only benchwork left to do is build the bridge unit. After that comes the 1" layer of foam (I like to call it "terrafoaming") then comes the track.

I have a few pictures but blogger mobile is doing everything they can to make it impossible to upload them and I don't have time to use my laptop. I'll get them up later.

Labor problems abound: Construction at a standstill

(To my readers in Russia, Kak vy pozhivayetye!)

Labor problems on the BCRR have caused delays in the construction process. We sat down with Christoph, VP of Human Resources, to discuss the growing problem.

"Lately, there have been a lot of personnel problems popping up. Workplace injuries, schedule conflicts, illness, you name it, we seem to have it. Being a union shop causes its share of complications as well. Supplies are flowing in as expected, the skilled labor just isn't there. Railroads don't build themselves. We have to get this figured out soon if we are to make any forward progress. After the upcoming convention, we (the management) intend to start cracking the whip, both figuratively and literally, if need be. We WILL get this thing built."

There you have it, folks. More as it develops.

(Do svidaniya!)

Progressive status report

Table 4 has been completed.

No pictures are available as the cameraman was rushed to the hospital with a sudden case of Wrenchtotheheaditis.

No quotes from upper management are available as Chris S., VP of construction, is currently answering official inquiries concerning the cameraman's sudden illness.

Here's a quote from a crewman, name withheld upon request: "Should that machine be smoking like that? I don't think it should..."

More as it develops.

Progress Update

Table 2 has been completed!

Ready (ish) for track!

"Table 2 didn't go as well as expected, but it certainly went better than Table 3!" Chris S., VP of construction said in his press release. "With table 2, we encountered setbacks and frustrations no one expected. Between alien attacks (just kidding), the foreman breaking his new glasses, numerous phone calls, strangers delivering envelops full of cash (not kidding), and various mishaps on the job, we had a very interesting time with this one."

Thankfully, the boss broke his glasses and couldn't see our error. Can you?

"As we move forward with Table 4 construction, we hope for no mishaps or mistakes this time. And if anyone else wants to drop off large sums of cash, we are always accepting operational donations!"

Progress Report

Table 3 has been completed!

"We have reached our first major milestone here at the Beecher City Railroad!" said Chris S., VP of construction, in a press release. "We've encountered bumps and hurdles along the way, but we got there. I believe the hardest part was not getting mad when things didn't go as planned. We've had to make some unexpected concessions, some normal, (grid not quite level) some downright absurd (pre-drilling pilot holes for NAILS?!) but with a little perseverance and a lot of coffee, we muddled through."

Table 2 in it's final form

Chris muses on the problems encountered. "What we must remember is that we are all learning as we go here. The mistakes and frustrations that occurred during the construction of table 3 will be the experiences that make table 2 that much higher quality. By the time we begin building the bridge unit, I expect we will have mastered this whole "work" thing!"

Table 3 legs

No time for celebration, it seems. "As much as we would all like to kick back with cold Sam Adams (or six) to celebrate,we have deadlines to meet. Construction of table 2 is scheduled to begin immediately."

Sorry, Mr. Adams, we got work to do!

Well said, sir. Well said.

Construction update

Severe manpower shortages causing delays...

Update

Last night, the construction team learned a valuable lesson. Here's what Chris S., V.P. of Construction had to say:

"Apparently, when you assemble a table on the floor, if the floor isn't level, the table won't be flat. This will cause a minor kink in our efforts. It is too late to correct the problem on the nearly-complete Table 3, but future tables will be assembled on a different, (hopefully) more level floor."

More as it develops.

Welcome!

Welcome to the official Beecher City Railroad blog!

This is the official source for all things BCRR. Here you will find updates, photos, and exclusive interviews with the staff at BCRR! You can also create an account and post questions for anybody here at BCRR, from the lowly spike driver all the way up to the Big Cheese himself!

So stay tuned for our next update, coming soon to an internet near you,