The Rubber & Rawhide Railroad

Progress Report for 16th September 2008

This Page Created on January 20th, 2009

Roadbed moves on apace!

Thanks to visits from Mike and a long weekend with Major Mack, considerable progress has been made on the Rubber and Rawhide Railroad's somewhat ambitious Phase II building program. The roadbed has been excavated, improved and laid along the entire Western wall of Leather Oaks, the Residence. (No, not THAT kind of residence -- yet!)

The first photo shows the extent of roadbed production by Sunday afternoon. While the line had been cleared of vegetation, due to the extreme grade and tendency for heavy rains to erode the soil, further work was planned to assure that the roadbed would survive such assaults.

Fill Dirt and Gravel Treatment

Red fill dirt was tamped into place to lessen the grade as the roadbed passed the northwest corner of the house. Once the roadbed was assembled in place, the area was immediately backfilled with topsoil, and sprigged with monkey grass salvaged from the earlier sub roadbed preparations. (See photo at right.)

As shown in the photo at left, the area was mulched, then topped with gravel.

House-Side Roadbed after treatment

The entire area was gently hosed down, and the gravel heeled into place banked against the roadbed. The photo at right shows the result when viewed from the back yard looking South. It was indeed Providential that the work was finished Monday by noon, as the rain began shortly thereafter. While it was not a true gully washer, the rain gave an early indication that this tricky area is likely to survive most future climatic activity!

Progress continues, with roadbed now cut out past the deck steps! More photos will be provided once that area has been bedded down, and the roadbed fastened in place.