The Engine House is up, and Painted

This was a very productive weekend with just a skeleton crew, great weather and good times. Friday was a Good day and spring in the High Desert is worth the trip out. Allan and Lynn Ratliff made it out Thursday and I even made it out before noon on Friday. My buddy Don drug out the dump trailer with yet again another load of wood and pipe from my project in town. Matt Z made it to Corona for the soon to be famous Carne Burns at the Garage on Thursday nights. Greg and Becky rolled in before dark too. A afternoon trip to the store for paint in readiness to paint the fresh wood on the Engine House.
Saturday morning the paint crew was assembled and we put the first coat of color on the Engine House. It sure is easy when you don't have to cut around the windows. The windows will be installed as they are fabricated hopefully over the summer. The same goes for the engine doors. Bill Shepherd will install the people door and the roofing after he returns in the fall.  The rest of the day was spent enjoying the great spring day.
 Sunday we installed 50 feet of track on the switchback tail to extend it to the point where the turntable will be. Bill Shepherd had excavated beyond the old end of track so that we would have a siding equal to the length of the short leg of the wye at the bottom. That is the limiting factor, if you can turn on the wye you can clear the sidings on the high line too. There is a nice narrow hand dug cut before the track opens up for the turntable area. Great work Bill. Now we just have to get the siding in. We have plenty of fill that needs to get up the hill for that endeavor.
 It was a great weekend and we go back out in two weeks for the Spring Break run. April 11-13, make plans now to see the desert before all the wildflowers disappear. See you there. A link for the pictures on Picasa below. https://picasaweb.google.com/Ratsgarage/EasterWeekendAtJoshuaTreeMarch2931?authuser=0&feat=directlink