Wow - what a night of storms

We had a Friday night of very heavy storms in the area. Saturday morning we got started by going to a supply store to pick up some chain link ties for the new fencing project. When we got to the track it was about 9:30. We looked the place over and realized there was going to be downed branches on the tracks. The site is heavily forested and branches fall several times a month. Usually they are small enough to be removed easily as the trains cannot tolerate the branches or pine cones on the track. The other problem is that the ballast gets disturbed and either washes into the turnouts and fouls their operation or perhaps builds up on one side or the other of the track and the wheel flanges get to climbing the rails and you get a derailment. Ballast gets washed out from riverlets that form during the downpours which destabilizes the track as well.

We decided to use Doug's locomotives and made up a work train to survey the inch track. Stewart was there and advised us he was going up to Summit to check out the bridge. When he came down he said the mud sill was damaged and we should look at it closely as we went over. It was slow going as we made our way along the route with the debris removal necessary. We were checking signals to be ready for Sunday - our public run day. We looked over the bridge at Summit and to us it did not appear to be having a problem but we are not trackmen. We did find a tree leaning over the track from being blown over. All signals but one were working properly. We reported our findings to Stewart and others when we got back to the bottom of the hill.

Rich went back up to remove the malfunctioning signal and brought it back. We decided to inspect the inch tunnel to see exactly what we had to do to start the lighting project. We got some extension cord and utility lights and road back up the hill and inspected the tunnel interior. We discussed different approaches and got on the same page.

Back off the hill we put the equipment away and Rich called Tommy to get some repair parts for the switch machines. We had two old-style motor assemblies with broken microswitches. When Tommy arrived we got the parts and I went over to replace the malfunctioning switch machine near the station and the trestle. Because of the modular approach that the swap out was fairly quick. I then cycled the motor and noticed the points did not move. After closer inspection I saw the points were too long and were binding on the rails so I told Don and he got a hacksaw and I went back to help him, We sawed off the points and then the turnout worked just like new. The high heat we have had lately has made the track expand and shift the geometry of some of the places and caused some problems.

Tommy gave me some microswitches to be able to fix the switch machines but told me that they need to be drilled to make them fit the assembly. I told Rich that we need to move the small drill press from the roundhouse to the Grelson Building to make it easier to do such things and he agreed.