Category: News

The Tumbleweed and Dry Gulch Railroad found a dozen spare switch stands in inventory and has donated them to the A&TC. (Thanks Philip!)

Using Ken’s newly acquired rail slotting punch, Stephen made a jig to create slotted fish plates. It is a piece of scrap rail with the center web removed. Two screws in the rail head keep the rail in position in the punch. Then the raw piece of aluminum bar can be slide into the punch.…

Thanks to Ben, Stephen was able to pick up another load of tie material Friday. Saturday, Stephen and Ken decided to just lay panels. Aided by Ken’s generator running two fans, they put down approximately 240′ including multiple switches. This work spanned two of the four (or more) tracks through Austin.

It was HOT! But, we were working. Kari arrived early and began clearing branches from the weeds around the steaming bay area. We all then spent an hour chipping branches before hitting the rails. Ken and Richard pumped out 15 panels with Linda priming washers on screws and John rebuilding a switch. Doug, Tim, and…

Bill Laird wrote a feature piece published in the July 2023 edition of the HALS Stack Talk newsletter. With permission of the editor, the article is available here.

Photo op of locomotives from both ends of the steam era.