The Rubber & Rawhide Railroad

Progress Report for 5 December 2008

This Page Created on December 13th, 2008

Tunnel Tussel Tamed

In an uncharacteristic outburst, Jupiter made it known that he would have no tunnel in front of him. Even a rather interesting Cedar Lupus. We tried reasoning with him, after all the sod had already been cut and everything, but the big man was not backing down. Negotiators were brought in and two things became clear. He actually wanted Cedar Lupus tunnel as HIS portal, and he was a little intimidated by the strange creation in cedar to his right!

No Problemo, Jupitero! Faster can you can say roll a log, the foundation was reestablished at the crest of the Jupiter Loop, and the photo at left shows the result. Maybe the old god has good taste afer all!

The Cedarman Groin Tunnel

Our Roads and Bridges crew were a little put out, but not for long. Someone remembered that Jupiter Loop is just that. There's another exit from the Pittisporem Grove, and it happens to be on our mainline. Here's the big man of cedar tunnels in the photo at right!

We were able to capture this engineer's cab view of the tunnel as he approached the Jupiter Loop Switch (Click on the photo for this view).

InterCity traffic on the Rubber and Rawhide?

The gravel had hardly settled on the Cedarman Groin foundations when the familiar wail of a late model diesel was heard. The crew scrambled to safety, just in time to take the photo at left. Won't Operations ever give us a heads up on these things?

Roadbed Rebuild Number Three

We continue to have vexing problems with the short section of line between North Hercules Crossing and North Diver's Switch. While the South Diver's Wye now functions flawlessly, several passenger coaches foundered on a rather tame curve heading into the House Circumnavigation cutoff. After careful checking, while the rails appeared undamaged, they were not being held true by the crossties. and as can be seen in Photo 8258, the roadbed seemed to have a hump just before the switch. The roadbed crew re-levelled the whole section, while the track crew completely dissassembled their work. The track was rebuilt with new crossties, and the dual rail bender used to bring both rails into curve compliance. Repeated high-speed test runs proved successful.