Fall Trackwork... and Winterizing the Steamers

After careful consideration, I made the executive decision to keep the wye instead of replacing it with a turntable.  I rebuilt the south wye switch to correct some alignment problems, and relaid the tail track with 12 lb. steel rail:

 

I will re-align the west leg of the wye next year, and do some tie replacement on the east leg.  It should be good for many more years of service.

 

With some of the rail that was salvaged from the abandoned sidetracks, I was able to rebuild the mainline leg of the wye with the heavier, 1-1/2" tall Real Trains aluminum rail.  I replaced every third tie with 4x4 treated lumber, and other ties as needed.  The track was leveled and reballasted, so now the mainline is smooth all the way to the west wye switch:

 

After doing all the trackwork, I took a little time out last Friday night to run the steam engine:

 

 

But, with temperatures expected to drop into the 20's on Friday morning, it is time to put the steam engines up for the winter.  Everything is ready for a freeze... except for me!

 

Working on the Railroad in the Fall...

With the cooler weather, I've been trying to balance my free time between working on the railroad, restoring a steam locomotive and repairing windup trains.  Here are some pictures from the railroad of the downsizing project:

 

The new Turntable for Northview is under construction.

The black part on top is the actual turntable; the gray section under it is part of the framework to hold the ring rail in place.  The track under the gray frame is part of the wye that is slated to be removed... obviously the track will need to be pulled up before the turntable is permanently installed.

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This is a view of the abandoned switchback as taken from the former site of the switch.  The mainline is visible toward the upper left, one of the bridges has been left in place with deck boards added so it is safe to walk across, and the sawmill is visible to the right of the old right-of-way that goes down to the lead mine.

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This is the view from the enginehouse switch looking west at Northview.  The former site of the old, small enginehouse is toward the left of the picture.  The ties for the switch that was removed along with a siding are visible toward the right.  Sitting on the ballast is another switch that was removed from Tombstone - it will be used for the turntable siding when the wye is removed.

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A visit to the Wabash, Frisco & Pacific Railroad

This past weekend, I made the trip to Glencoe, Missouri to visit my friends at the Wabash, Frisco & Pacific Railroad.  They had 3 steam locomotives fired up, plus others to see in the roundhouse:

#400 in the roundhouse.

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#534 after a hard day's work.

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#535 drifting through the yard with a full passenger train in tow.

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#928 on the service track.

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The WF&P operates on Sundays from May to October.  While there are quite a few 12" gauge railroads in the US, this is the best place to see - and ride behind - large 12" gauge steamers!  I highly recommend stopping by to visit if you are in the area.

The Trackplan...

I recently had a request to post a track plan of the railroad so that it is easier to see the extent of the downsizing project.  It hadn't occurred to me to do so - after all, I'm around the railroad all the time, so it's all familiar to me - but it was a great suggestion, so here are a couple of very crude track plans.  I traced these off of a satellite photo of the property, so they aren't the best quality:

BEFORE:

 

 AFTER:

 

Although a couple of minor sidings have been removed at Northview, the majority of the downsizing that has been completed is the switchback that connected the mainline to the old Frisco Valley Carbarn, Brown's Sawmill & The Stansbury Lead Mine.  The carbarn, sawmill and lead mine still exist, they are just no longer connected by track.  As you can tell from the maps, the "Wye" at Northview will eventually be removed and replaced by a turntable.  I am in the process of building (well, rebuilding) the Northview Turntable.  Once it is ready to install, I will start pulling up the 200+ feet of track that make up the Wye.



Rails to Trails on a small Scale...

The downsizing continues.  The entire switchback from the mainline to the lead mine is now history.

 

The view from the Lead Mine trestle up toward the sawmill:

 

As you can see, the rail and all the ties have been removed and the ballast raked smooth.

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The mainline at Tombstone:

 

The switch on the mainline for the switchback was removed intact... you can see the underside of its ties to the right of the picture (it's leaned up against a couple of trees).  The steel rail from the siding (actually part of the original mainline!) is to the left of the track.  The portion of track with the new ballast replaced the switch.  The new track has a slightly different alignment to provide a smoother transition through the old switch site.  It has also been lifted a few inches to help minimize a dip that was necessary with the old switch.  Trains will be able to stop at Tombstone for passengers to take a walk down to the Lead Mine on the old Right-of-Way.

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Finally, hauling a long, heavy switch to another location:

 

The switch was suspended between two cars, and pulled upgrade to Northview.

It will be reused on the mainline by the enginehouse and will lead to a new turntable that will replace the existing wye.