Category: Railroad
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Continued Bridge Work
Mother Nature brought an arctic blast to all of Texas this past week which prompted the annual Houston Area Live Steamers Chugga Chilifest train meet activities to be curtailed. (The county even turned off the water to the park for the first portion of the meet.) Several railroaders from Central Texas opted stay warm by…
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Lift Bridge and Guard Rails
On February 16th and 17th, Stephen spent time welding up the lift bridge frame while John was installing guard rails on the trestle. (The lift bridge mechanism is part of phase 2. It is a stationary span for now.)
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Ties and Rail Added to Trestle
February 8th was another huge day on the Austin & Texas Central. Stephen and Lori had to leave for a funeral, but that didn’t stop everyone else from working on the railroad. The primary goal was to install the bridge ties and rail on the trestle and the crew really came through. Attendees: John O,…
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Prepping the Bridge Ties
This past weekend…
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Ballasting and Installing Trestle Stringers
An impressive 13 people joined the work for the workday on January 25. Here are the highlights: Lots of cameras captured the work. Be sure to scroll through them all. Photos from Linda: Photos from Ken: Photos from Stephen:
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Cross Bracing on Bents
Stephen added the cross bracing to the trestle bents and delivered the lumber for the beams that will span between the bents. The easiest delivery method is by rail, poling a loaded flat car. To save a bunch of steps poling the car load around the loop, just give it a nudge.
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Trestle Bent Construction
Bob built track panels and Ken, Alexander, and James laid panels on the approach to the trestle. Tim, Paul, and John T pre-treated the lumber, painted the assembled bents, and hauled them out to the right of way. Doug and John O built the bents. Paul’s wife Janet came for a tour. Linda prepped lunch…
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Trestle Bent Materials
Once the footers were in position, a string line was placed so the height of each trestle bent could be recorded. Stephen then calculated the lengths of each component of each bent. With the trestle bent #1 proving the data, he then cut the needed parts for the remaining 32 bents.
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Trestle Bent Prototype
Stephen built the first trestle bent with a jig to facilitate the construction of the remaining 32 bents.
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Trestle Construction Begins
While Bob built track panels, John O and Stephen drilled and labelled the sill boards for each footer and Stephen delivered the footers to the trestle right of way. Ken, James, and “Dead Eye” Rob positioned each footer. 33 footers were needed to reach the bridges around the lake.