The original Boston Line BACK on track!

[Ian MacMillan]

...driveway over a week. ...

Man... I'm again looking at moving out of state, and its gonna be a culture shock not being in a Camp Dowhatyawant state   

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The waterproofing guys came today and started cutting into the cement. It turns out a previous owner tried to cure the flooding issues by adding another layer of cement to the floor. This is what it looked like at noon:



They should have stopped at the tank, then finished the job when it was moved. I will need to talk to them tomorrow about this.

On to the dumpsters... one of the firefighters owns a dumpster company and I can get a 20 yard cheap.

[Ian MacMillan]

You mean you cant solve flooding problems by dumping concrete on it? 

[mcjaco]

Mike Holmes would not approve.

[conrail98]

Looks like they are putting in what's in my basement. It's a very efficient solution, just make sure your sump is a good one. Mine runs constantly and the only time I had any water in the basement was when it went on strike for about 30 minutes in a heavy ran last year after a heavy snow and the well overflowed,

Phil

[Dave Schneider]

Depending on how serious the water flow is you might want a small generator to run the sump if the power goes out. Very heavy rain and power outages are rather well correlated. A backup pump is also handy to have on hand in case the sump dies. They go for maybe $100 or so and they have saved my bacon 3 or 4 times over the years. The last thing you want to do is run to he hardware store while the water is rising.

Best wishes, Dave

[daniel_leavitt2000]

OK, pump system is in and running. They finnished up the cement work this afternoon. I will post pictures tomorrow.

The guys were very efficient and friendly. I opted for two pumps on the system: the primary pump is powered by a wall outlet. There is a secondary pump with battery backup if that one fails. The battery will last two days without power. Finally there is an alarm in place that will alert me if both pumps fail. Finally, I have a suction pump connected to a garden hose that will plug into my cars power port should the rain apocolypse come.

[Sokramiketes]

It will pump for two days continuous on a battery?  Wow!

[davefoxx]

It will pump for two days continuous on a battery?  Wow!

Yeah, if you get a good marine battery, they can do that.  But, you must remember to replace the battery every five years or so, because after some time, they don't hold their charge as well and will not be up to the job when needed.  My father failed to do this and found several inches of water in the basement during Hurricane Irene last year.  Despite the massive power outages in the area, he managed to find a marina that would sell him a new battery.  Once the new battery was in, the water was pumped out in a few hours, but it still caused several thousand dollars of damage.

DFF

[conrail98]

I got my battery sump right before Irene, the big WatchDog combination one, think the last one in SJ. The battery I have will run continuously for 7 hours but your sump is probably going to go on/off and not run continuously. Mine has an alarm to let me know when the acid level is getting low, but you never put acid back into it, you fill the tops with mineral water. Knock on wood I haven't had to use mine yet (the plugged in sump works like a champ),

Phil

[conrail98]

My last suggestion for the whole water thing is, if you have an alarm system, see if they offer a water bug alarm. That's really the only thing that saved my basement when the sump stopped working at 3 AM. Never so glad to get a call from mine that early in the morning,

Phil

[daniel_leavitt2000]

OK, here is the new pump system in place:


Next up:
1. Move oil tank.
2. Have Basement Tech return and finish the water tract along the wall where the tank used to be.
3. Hire 15-20 yard dumpster
4. Contractor will fill windows; fix a few problems in the concrete (along with fixing the front porch).
5. Demo party!

Now I need to use the dumpster for both demo and the contractor, so those will happen in pretty short order. I hope to have a demo party with a few friends somewhere around June 9th.

And after that:
I need a plumber to move some pipes up into the joists.
I need an electrician to move wires into the joists and fix the electrical panel.
Look what I am working with now:




And after all of that cleanup work, I can finally submit plans to the building inspector, throw up the studs insulation and wiring, and get it inspected.

[jbcz]

Daniel

I too am a fan of the Conrail/CSX Boston line and have made a modest attempt to capture some of its flavor in a small N-scale layout (19x22 along two walls).  My daughter went to BU so that I made an attempt to do a charicature of Beacon Park with the BU campus overlooking it.  I took photos at BU's West Campus and photos of Boston from the BU bridge and created a 10/11 ft photo background at an appropriate scale. My Prudential Tower is about 18"-2 ft tall.  In this context, the Miller Engineering Citgo Sign was a perfect fit.  I made a rendition of "Kenmore Square" somewhat warping the real scene and cut the sign into the roof of Barnes and Noble (N-scale city building from model power).   It was almost a perfect fit (and size for N-scale) for the Citgo sign that I then cut of of the phtographic background.  I am not an expert modeler by any means but am very happy with my phoitgraphic background and Citgo sign.  Good luck on your Boston line layout.  I look foward to seeing your progress and hope that his inspires you.

V/R

Bruce

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Do you have any photos of your layout? I would love to see what you have done. I would also be interested in any real photos taken from the BU towers.

[jbcz]

I have several photos.  I am a new refugee from Atlas and have to figure out how to post some.  If it's OK to pass email addresses I can send a few to your email.  I have real photos and simulated images from graphics for building that would be hard to photograph.  I'll try to get you a photo of the Citgo sign in operation ASAP.