After a Summer off and away from the railroad, the vacation is over. A weekend to make sure everything is operable and ready for visitors in two weeks. That is what this last weekend used to be. With our faithful and ever-present Summer crew the weeds that would be six foot tall in the middle of the track never get a chance to grow that high. The rodent burrows never hollow out the embankments and need refilling to be able to get a train over the line. The switches all are blown out and work as they should. And the grading project up on the hill has progressed miraculously over the months that us lowlanders have been away.
So the Opener weekend is a chance to catch up on the progress and run a train or two around for the weekend. and we did just that. I got a message that John Griffin sent me that Bill Shepherd was back in town. Bill will be in town for a short while and it afforded him a chance to bring his iron teepee with him. A good place to sleep is always in order. Saturday when I met up with him he had a good start on where he had finished up last Spring; the last of the rock work before we get into the trestle district on the High Line. John Griffin has done and has almost completely made the Gibraltar Boulders disappear from their locations of in the way on the High Line as well. Another good seventy five feet of grade is ready for track to be laid on our march up the hill. John's tenacity for boulder busting has to be commended. He tried a few new tricks this Summer that he said improved his ability to get things accomplished.
Greg and Becky rolled into camp mid afternoon and Colette was right there with them. Matt made his trek up from Chula Vista. A train could be seen crossing the grade crossing as Shelli and I rolled in about 9:00 Friday night to round out the arrivals. A warm night and the new fire stack wasn't getting much of a break in burn on the no rust coating they come with. Jerry McPheeters picked up a new stack from our steel guy, Vagabond, as the old one didn't survive a Spring Unwanted Rapid Air Movement. The Picnic Shelter fire barrel is back in operation if and when it gets chilly.
The #7 came home to stay after Matt with some help from Greg pretty much completed the transformation of her into a really nice and useful piece of equipment. She was run at three different railroads to test her ability and utility over the past season. Quite a transformation since October, 2012 when Matt and Greg started the project.
Art Barter rolled in on Saturday morning with his new engine and spent the weekend too. Saturday we had three trains operating mid day and all went smoothly. The weather cooperated all weekend, and it was just like baby bears porridge, just right.
Saturday being Halloween the ladies had a pumpkin carving contest and the jack o lanterns were very interesting and varied in sizes and decoration. A fun time was had by all who attended and we are looking forward to the Rudy Run in two weeks. Hope to see you there, any questions you can certainly contact the 7 1/2" Project Supervisor at
ratsgarage@yahoo.com.
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