The Rubber & Rawhide Railroad

Progress Report for 8th January 2009

This Page Created on January 8th, 2009

Viewing the Gravelled Grade Crossings takes the heat off of wiring?

Our foreshortened work session yesterday didn't leave time to report the magnificent job our Roads and Grounds Department did in gravelling the area around the newly protected grade crossings. Even though that project was finished fairly early Wednesday, the electricians wanted to complete the wiring of the Front Porch Sidings. That proved to be fairly easy using the contacts on a couple of remote switches. So we can report two working sidings on the front porch, that are only powered when the appropriate turnout switches are thrown!

This turned out to be the easy part of the job. Much more difficult was reconfiguring the electrical connections to break the layout into two independently operable sections! Part of the problem we'll admit was the heavy rubber gear the electrician was wearing (saftety considerations, of course!) despite the almost summerlike weather on the front porch. We think that's why the project was stopped partway through! Oh, there was some grumbling about two center off, double pole/ double throw toggle switches that we did not have on hand.

Bronze Trio Gets second route!

That's their take anyway. What is actually going on is the beginning of roadbed construction for the Beyond the Briars Route. With electrical work called on account of good weather, of course our roadbed crew wanted to immediately plunge into something cooler. With the replenishment of roadbed stock late last month, slow progress had been made in cutting some of the standard sections. So the crew was able to quickly measure and cut enough additional sections to add 32 feet of roadbed along this important backwater route. The linked photo provides a more panoramic view of the progress today.

Beyond the Briars looking South

One final view for now of the Beyond the Briars route progress. Some additional fern triming will be necessary, and a few more briars were located for removal. This photo is taken about fifteen feet East of Neptune, who is completely out of view due to the dense vegetation in the area, besides being off camera to the right. The roadbed crew did eye his cool, inviting pond longingly.

We can report that all track and switches required to complete Phases IV and V are now on hand! The exact order in which remaining projects are tackled will of course depend on weather in determing which crew we can field on a given date. We know Horse is impatient for his Sago Route to be tackled, but the roadbed crew views it with more trepidation and uncertainty than the merely scratchy Beyond the Briars Route! And, the track laying crew are still scratching their heads about the huge girder bridge they'll have to deal with soon!