Finally running in 2009

[steamdonkey]

I finally whacked the weeds into (temporary) submission, re-levelled some track; backfilled a washout and replaced 2 sections of track and four rail joiners. Now I can run trains again. The nice thing about making a video of the railroad is that it highlights the dips, kinks and other imperfections in the track so I can go back and do further improvements. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bpuCNlQAFA

[ttrigg]

And I thought my weed problem was bad.  I've got it easy compared to yours.

[lownote]

That's a lot of weeds. Do you not ever run in the winter? In our neck of the woods stretches of the winter are regularly mild enough to run trains, but cold enough to stop weed growth.  

[GearDrivenSteam]

At least you're runnin. I think that's kinda cool how the train disappears into the jungle. You got somethin to work with, that's for sure.

[steamdonkey]

I don't do a lot of running in winter. The weeds definitely slow down as you can see in the (older) photo below: When we don't have snow, it rains. A lot. Temperate rain forest. btw the train is just posed. No track power. It would be fun to set up a battery-powered plow special. Future project.

[steamdonkey]

I got the railroad (and weeds) into decent shape before a party, but my Aristo Pacific decided to jump the rails just as the first guest was about to show up. I took the Pacific out of service and brought in my GP38-2, and it behaved for the rest of the evening. Three kids between 7 and 12 and a host of adults had fun watching and interacting with the train.

[gbbari]

steamdonkey

I got the railroad (and weeds) into decent shape before a party, but my Aristo Pacific decided to jump the rails just as the first guest was about to show up.

That requires the issuance of Slow Orders for that section until Engineering and MOW can correct the deficiencies. I do hope the Engine Shop can put the Pacific back into operating condition.

It seems that the MOW crew could use some help with some Roundup to keep the encroaching jungle at bay....

Al

[ttrigg]

Did the engineer & fireman survive? Hopefully they are doing well and we do not have to bury another crew. At first glance I missed the caboose! Hopefully the conductor survived!

[steamdonkey]

All survived. There is some repair work and paint touch-up to be done on the Pacific; the important thing is to figure out if the curve can be re-leveled or if I need to re-align that whole section. BTW I am experimenting with living chemical-free in the garden -- nothing harsher than acetic acid. I love the mosses and related organisms. BTWBTW I lived in Solana Beach during 2000-2002. What a nice corner of the globe you live in, Ttrigg!

[ttrigg]

Peter

steamdonkey

What a nice corner of the globe you live in, Ttrigg!

That's why we decided to retire here. Got tired of mother nature picking up the neighbors house and moving it blocks down the street, or the rivers moving in and taking away everything. Yes the ground moves a bit every so often but things generally stay where you put them.