The Rubber & Rawhide Railroad

Progress Report for 19th January 2009

Last Garage Grade Crossing Set!

The photo at left shows the grade crossing material securing the Lot Circumnavigation mainline as it crosses in front of the Trike side of the Leather Oaks garage. To assure safe operation of all rolling stock, board corners were trimmed and leading edges planed down. Operations has not tested these most recently installed crossings, although all of the porch grade crossings were tested in weekend operating sessions. But as the rail height is now about a sixteenth of an inch above the material in the crucial area nearest to rolling stock appendages, it is expected that these crossings will not impact equipment in a deleterious manner.

Roadbed Progress on Behind the Briars Route

With the completion of the Grade Crossing work, our roadbed crew was eager to once again tackle the sticky business of building the Beyond the Briars route. The surveying team had done a first cut, as it were, on the serious growth of briars and other undesirable vegetation in this forgotten eighth of Leather Oaks, the Rural Location. But that left several persistent privets to root out, and an uncounted number of shoots from the former tangled mass of blackberry vines and other briar-like vegetation to discover with unpleasant tactile results

The photo at right shows the new roadbed laid out but uninstalled, to the Northeast corner of the lot.

Behind the Briars roadbed work continues

A second photo of the Behind the Briars route's roadbed, laid in place but uninstalled. While not evident from the photo at left, this roadbed work is complete to the North Neptune Switch. Installation preparations should begin tomorrow, weather permitting!