Mountain Extension - Official Work Thread

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Thank you for that comprehensive report Mike. Given the works that were carried out over the last week  at both ends of the roadbed things are on the right track to hit the 2000' goal during the FFW.

[Ted Miles]

Mike,
        You are putting down lots of rock that the original railway never had. Is it because the area is now considered a wetlands/preservation zone these 21st century days?

Ted Miles, WW&F Member

[James Patten]

I believe most of the new material has been put down to raise the roadbed, because the bridge is higher than the original.  The bridge is higher to get it out of the 100 year flood path.

[Mike Fox]

We needed good lasting fill that not only had to support the railroad and also the heavy point load from a dump truck. The material used will give us a problem free grade for a very long time.

All the stone that can be seen around the bridge are required because we included it in the permit. Extra protection from erosion. We had tried to plan out the best way to accomplish the brook crossing with minimal impact on the surrounding area, and what you see now is the results of us following though.

[John Kokas]

Mike,  is the plan to still install some large core stone around the pilings to protect them from ice-jam abuse?

[Graham Buxton]

The bridge has 'batter piles' installed that are intended to take abuse from the ice and protect the support piles.    See Steve Smith's comments near the top of this page:
http://forum.wwfry.org/index.php/topic,3417.msg41116.html#msg41116

[Mike Fox]

No stone needs to be added I am aware of.

[Mike Fox]

4 loads of ballast were dropped off this week.



Pre ballasting the bridge..





South side, 2 loads.



Roughed in with the Kubota



I had some ditches I intentionally left high last spring, thinking I had another year based on out past track laying before I needed to do something. With the track gantry increasing the track laying, I had to fix these before I loose access. 2 loads were backed across the bridge, and used as top soil on a gravel slope.







Finished grading the stone on the south side. Very close to bottom of tie height, about 1 inch low.







Trenched for wire. Turned out to be too much trench..



End of day, North side.



Brendans Laser Level works great for this. Pictured on the bridge.



Also, Found this today..

[John Kokas]

Looks like piece of a grate, but a grate to what? 

[Mike Fox]

Locomotive I would say. But based on where I found it, it is hard to know which.

[James Patten]

Would a coal stove have that kind of grate?  Thinking of the Mason's wreck.

[John Kokas]

I've never seen a locomotive grate with a V-shape pattern to it, too hard to clean clinkers out of.  BUT, a car stove ?  James you may be on to something!

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Locomotive 9’s grates are literally identical to this.  The V pattern allows expansion with less fatigue stress and resulting breakage.  Loco 4 is a decent guess.

Great find!
Jason

[Eric Larsen]

....and so the restoration of locomotive #4 began....

[John Kokas]

Well, V-shaped loco grates is a first to me.  Learn something new everyday!