Track Work 2019 (Not counting Work Weekends)

[Joe Fox]

Hey everyone,

Spring is upon us and so is our track maintenance season. Last year I did a vast majority of maintenance alone. This year I hope we can get some intetested in doing some track work on a few Saturday as there are some track projects in Sheepscot that need repair. One of them I hope to tackle as soon as the ground is thawed and will require at least 4 of us to make it happen in one day. Preferably a Saturday when guys are looking for something to do.

Other track projects include things we were unable to complete last year.

I will try to keep this thread active and give everyone as much notice as possible.

Joe

[Dave Buczkowski]

Hi Joe;
Thanks for getting this out there early. Track maintenance isn't sexy but it needs to be done. We've had a few new volunteers show up on Saturdays looking for something to do. This should help satisfy that urge!
Dave

[Joe Fox]

With a little luck, I hope to be there on Saturday and depending on the weather maybe we can tackle some telephone tie replacements. (Not to worry, there will still be many ties for us to use the new tie changer on.)

[Paul Uhland]

Telephone ties?

[James Patten]

Originally ties were telephone/power poles that Harry acquired (probably end of life from Central Maine Power) and had cut down with his bandsaw.  Much of the yard is like this.  You know them because they have rounded sides.

[Bob Springs]

In MODEL railroading, we say there is a prototype for everything.  My 7 1/2 gauge Bountyland Railway, which is based on the Sheepscot area uses 2 foot lengths of landscaping timbers for ties which, like your "telephone ties" have rounded edges.  Maybe there IS a prototype for everything.

Bob Springs

[John McNamara]

Bob, you're cheating. That's plainly a photo of  the three-way stub at Sheepscot.

[Dwight Winkley]

John, The metal parts do not look like WW&F stub switch.

[Mike the Choochoo Nix]

It was common for the big roads to use ties cut from crooked trees and just slabbed on both sides. Some of them outlasted the square ones.
Mike Nix

[Bill Baskerville]

Bob, you're cheating. That's plainly a photo of  the three-way stub at Sheepscot.

Actually, if you look carefully the throw rod is on the wrong side of the 3 way tracks.  Either the negative or digital image was reversed, or is is not the Sheepscot stub switch.

B2 (B squared)

[Bob Springs]

For my REPLICA of Sheepscot I had to do a mirror image of the track layout to fit into my limited back yard space.

Bob Aprings

[Joe Fox]

Back in the early days railroads took logs, ads one side by hand for the rail to sit on and threw it down. If they had time they would try to do the top and bottom.

[Wayne Laepple]

When I was working on the railroad, there was still a number of hand-adzed ties to be seen in track. As mentioned above, some of them were almost a foot wide! During the Depression, folks who lived near the tracks in wooded rural areas would supplement their income by cutting ties by hand, adzing them down and then stacking them by the track. It must have been hard work! The track foreman would pay 25 cents a tie for those he accepted, and not all were acceptable!

[Stephen Greif]

I enjoy track work, sadly I am in Texas...

[Joe Fox]

Hey everyone,

With an EXTREMELY busy year this year ahead of us this year, and so much to do for track work, I have developed the following schedule of events for most track work.

No later than May 25th we need to get the tamper back to Sheepscot for some quick repairs and turn around to do some main line work. I estimate we have 2 more days of tamping on the mountain for the initial pass.

We need to coordinate a ballast train at some point to put some ballast down on the main line in a few areas, and or possibly a few other areas. I estimate there to be about 6 car loads of ballast left at Alna Center. Unfortunately on weekends the only time to do this is either early morning, or late afternoon.

June will be designated to rebuilding Janes Way, and hopefully running the tamper up the main line in a few areas.

July 20 & 21 we are planning a Summer Work Weekend, see the "Rock the Mountain" thread for details. July, August, and September is also our time crunch for getting materials ready for Fall Work Weekend. I estimate it will take us up to 8 days to get the 180 rails ready. (That will give us 20 extras) We also need to cut, stack, and possibly pre bundle the ties.

Some time during all of this we will also need to do brush cutting as needed in July and August.

Thank everyone for all your help, and this year will be an incredibly busy year on many levels with the ever ending project list growing. All in all, I hope to hammer out a fair amount of track work this year. My target goal for track work and FWW prep is around 16-20 days worth of help between now and the end of October.