Category: Railroad

Another great crew at the Austin & Texas Central. Panels were built. Track was laid. Ballast was spread.

A great turnout today to build panels and lay track around the curve beyond Austin. Of course, the end-of-the-day chat session is just as important.

Thanks again to Tim for taking photos. We see Bob, Ken, Johnny, and Richard was busy shoveling ballast while John was working ahead filling in ties at the joints.

Photo credit goes to Tim. Stephen, Tim, John, and Ken spend the day building panels, rebuilding old switches and contemplating track alignment in Austin.

Finally, #13 gets lanterns and is ready for night running.

Kari brought her architect friend Vanessa this morning. Vanessa programmed her drone for a low altitude flyover. The resulting image of the entire ranch will be used for detailed surveying going forward. Kari and Vanessa then filled the trailer with root balls for the burn pile. (Stephen unloaded the trailer the next morning and positioned…

Stephen spent a little time Sunday in the shop addressing a couple of small projects. First task was to prepare fish plates for the upcoming work day. Using Ken’s rail slot punch with Stephen’s fish plate jig, approximately 150 fish plates were made in short order. Timing tests show it takes 20 seconds to punch…

Kari, Tim, Paul, and Stephen worked the morning clearing downed trees and branches from the Austin loop Saturday morning. This included two large dead cedar trees that the February ice storm brought down over the right of way. Stephen was able to grade the right of way from Austin around the loop and it is…

Another workday at the A&TC despite the Texas heat. Alexander, Tim, and Sam are sweating it out laying panels in Coleto. They are getting ready to tie in a switch for a spur to the White Aggregates ballast tipple.