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[quote user="Quincymine"] I am sure that the Quincy Mine Hoist Association would be willing to entertain thoughts of allowing the ownership of the Russel Plow to go to a serious restorer.  I am equally sure that the Pine Creek Railroad would like to see it gone from their premises.  This would be an excellent project for a student of railroad history and industrial archaeolgy and one outside the limited finances of the Hoist Association.  [/quote] I agree that it would be an excellent project.  Being that the plow is of composite construction, the physical part of the restoration would be pretty straightforward with the production of new wood components.  If I recall, that plow was built at a relatively late date, so the iron and steel components might be quite sound, so they could be used without rework or repair.   <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> However, the restoration would have one very formidable component.  That would be the amassing of knowledge of how all the pieces go together.  For as bad as the present deterioration is, I suspect that there is still a lot of assembly information embedded in the debris.  While the plow has fallen apart, there are still many wood parts existing, and a lot of them are still attached to adjoining parts of both wood and iron.  And a lot of the detached parts are still in close enough proximity to the parts they were attached to that is can be surmised as to how they went together. <o:p></o:p> Therefore, as difficult at a restoration might be today, if the ruins are picked up, moved, and re-piled, it will be nearly impossible to restore the plow.  Once the present ruins are scrambled by moving and re-piling, any restoration will be likely out of the question.  That would be unless one could locate a complete set of engineering detail and assembly drawings for the plow.  Otherwise the assembly detail will be lost history, and any restoration attempt is likely to end up as a sort of cheap, inauthentic mockup. <o:p></o:p> I visualize the restoration producing the snow plow in the same condition as the day it was manufactured, minus a little imperceptible wear on some of the moving iron parts.  This would require the utmost care in woodworking and material selection.  It would also require complete knowledge of the design details.  Some of this design information might be gained from historic photos of the plow, and possibly from historical information and/or drawings from the manufacturer.   <o:p></o:p> The rest of the design details must be gotten from the existing ruins.  This is where the archeology would come in.  This is the process I would use:  <o:p></o:p> 1)          Measure all of the existing parts in the ruin and sketch them in orthographic views with all dimensions.  2)          Make assembly sketches showing how the parts go together.  3)          Model all of the parts in 3D cad.  4)          Make 3D cad assembly models.   <o:p></o:p> At this point in the deterioration, there may be some assembly detail that is very difficult to figure out.  However, the cad modeling of what is known will aid in learning what is not now known.   <o:p></o:p> For all I know, the ruins may have already been scrambled, and we are therefore beyond the point of no return.  But if they have not been scrambled, I would urge Quincy Hoist Association to proceed with much caution, and not go with the urge to scoop up the ruins and return them to Hancock.   Here is a link to a photo of the plow that was posted recently on the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum: <o:p></o:p> <A href="http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,116091,116255#msg-116255" mce_href="http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,116091,116255#msg-116255">http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,116091,116255#msg-116255</A> <o:p></o:p> It does look grim.  In fact I wonder if some of the wood parts have already been destroyed or otherwise lost.  Knowing what the plow looked like when it left Hancock, it seems like there is not enough material bulk in the photo view to represent the whole plow body structure.  It sort of looks like it has been picked apart perhaps to “stabilize” it once the roof began to cave in.
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