Wednesday, November 29, 2017

A busy season so far

Yes, we are alive out here At Joshua Tree. Things do and can get in the way and there has been plenty of that around here. October we had the opener and most of the things that used to be a big problem never grow into them as local Resident John Griffin keeps a handle on the weeds and washouts as they happen over the Summer.
November was the Rudy Run and we had quite a few people and trains running over the weekend and a few days before too. Work was started on the second track into the station. The switch and thirty feet of track have been in the ground and waiting for many a year, it was time to alleviate that bottle neck and finish it off. The eager crew put in 160 feet of track panels that Paul Westover had been making in his spare time around his home.
And over the Thanksgiving Weekend the switch was built to tie it into the number one station track. A re-working of the upper switch to this affair makes the new approach to the station up around the curve with a left hand approach, an opportunity to go either side of the station when the freight siding in put in later. The trains leaving the station are on the left track going up and can work their way to the upper switch without fouling the mainline till then. Allowing trains to better see traffic coming down the grade from Horseshoe.