Saturday, Nov. 20:  Brayden came over and he helped my cut up some of Jacks last tie material he had squirreled away.  We put a load in the dip tank and then we got the blowers out again as the RR was deep in leaves again. We did the roof on the Roundhouse and the shop and then set out to go up the hill to High Point.  This took us the rest of the day.

Sunday, Nov. 21:  Doug Fox beat me to the RR and I found him unloading some tie material he had brought down in his car.  John Atkinson and Brayden were on hand to cut up the tree that was over the tracks by M.P. 0.2.  We hooked a chain to the trunk and the tractor was able to pull it off the stump.  It was still up in the air some, so we moved the tractor so Brayden could tug it and that brought it down to where Doug could cut some of it up ( 8th picture ).  The rest we dragged away from the tracks.  The tractor path near here had one down, so we took that out before we retired to lunch.

Next was a dead tree near M.P. 0.4 which is the top of Casper Cut.  Doug did a great job of dropping it between the other trees up there.  I got the big saw out and worked on one end while Doug did the other.  We loaded up the pieces and hauled to Phelps for later pickup.  Pics of Doug cutting and John acting as safety person in ( 1st and 2nd pictures ),  Doug John and Brayden in the gon with the wood ( 3rd picture ).

Back at the Roundhouse, Marty Knox was taking measurements on #24 for the valve gear.  He felt there was something out of whack when setting or should I say trying to set the valves.  While we were putting the cars away, Brayden guided Noah, (Marty’s grandson) on running #3 out to Sumac and back ( 4th picture ).

Monday. Nov.22:  Tom Weaver and Brayden were here to help with tie work.  I wanted to update the crossing at the top of Casper Cut with the milled asphalt we have so the tractor could cross more smoothly so we attacked that first.  It was interesting as the ground up there had more clay and held water so had a frozen layer that we had to pick thru.  It  was more work digging the ties out than usual. 

Being as Brayden and I hadn’t had time to blow the leaves off to the East of  Phelps, we helped Tom put on the blower and sent him out to clean us a path to Jacks Pit. Brayden and I took out a load of ties from the dip barrel and loaded the flat up with the ties that were drained.  We took them down to the East leg of the wye at Jacks Pit and did the crossing there.  That was all sand and as the water drained there, it was easy digging this time.  Tom said he saw a bunch of ties on the way down that needed changing so I headed back up the track to look for them.  Most were in the S curves by Hare Park and we swapped a few out and then took lunch before doing some more.

Next up was the siding at Maples.  We sent Tom off again blowing us a path thru the leaves.  He worked the main all the way to Clear Lake for us.  Boy, there were a lot of bad ties that had to go at Maples.  As the sun was setting we got the last ones in ( 5th and 6th pictures ).

Tuesday, Nov. 23:  Brayden helped me cut up the wood Doug brought the other day. We got about 20 ties out of it. We loaded the tie barrel and as the weather was suppose to be bleak, Brayden and I worked in the Roundhouse all day changing oil on #3 and #25, greasing both and oiling the chains.  It was a day of maintenance!  We also moved #7 out so we had a track open to put #3 on to get underneath.  Doing so, we tried the air compressor of #7 on air and it was stuck. Back to taking it apart again!

Wednesday Nov. 24:  I was alone this day and I got the tractor and took loads of asphalt to the crossings and filled them in. See 7th picture for Jacks Pit.  With the tractor hot, I started changing the oil and filter while I ate Lunch. After Lunch, I finished the change and then pulled the last load of ties out of the dip barrel. After that. It was back to blowing leaves off the branch lines.  Now all the RR has the deep layer of leaves off it.  I did run #3 up the hill to see how that faired for leaves but found it will need another blow job if the weather cooperates on the next trip over.

- -  Tom