Continuing work on spring construction

I've found some time in between other yard work projects to work on the railroad over the past couple of weeks, and activity is picking up as we've entered a long period of warm, dry weather. Not exactly record breaking heat but still about 15+ degrees warmer than normal for this time of year which makes being outside very pleasant. Here are a few pictures from the work I've done in the past week:

Now that it's warmed up I've glued missing trestle pieces back into place.

Another section of trestle that needed a little bit of help. It's only the older trestle that needs work as the newer trestle work I made last fall is still in perfect condition.

I'm getting ready to build the next segment of trestle for my upper loop, so first step was building some more bents as I only had a few on hand. Got out my table saw and chop saw for the first time this year.

A pile of prepared bents, ready to have their tops trimmed off.

I've had a couple of derailments in this location. I thought the issue was a dip here just before the switch, but after leveling it off I realized it still was causing an issue. So then I thought I would create superelevation here (raising the outside track above the inside track) and it helped.

This is where I left off the upper loop last fall, with a tight curve that heads off vaguely toward a bridge.

I realized I've used up most of my individual piece track, so I needed to assemble some flex track. And I had to remember the best way to thread the ties onto the track pieces. Answer: On a flat surface with at eight feet of space to work with. My workbench was the perfect spot. I'm using six-foot lengths of track that are flexible enough to define gentle curves without the use of a track bender. The ties I'm using are in connected one-foot lengths. 

Here is the redefined curve that leads into a long tangent over the bridge. I decided I didn't like the large rocks in the middle of the curve so I'm pushing them back to make room for buildings or other structures next to the track

Once I had decided on the track alignment, I adjusted the bridge location and then built the first pier. I realized that these piers are too unstable because of their height so I'm going to put something sturdier here instead, after a trip to the Home Depot.

A final view of where I left off today.

And here is a reverse view looking through the bridge structure. I like how this straight tangent contrasts with the serpentine route below.

We have gone for bike rides on the Fish Lake Trail a couple times in the past week, and saw many trains, but I rarely can get a decent picture as they always seem to pass at the wrong spots. Here is the lead locomotive on an eastbound grain train.

Here is the trailing locomotive on the same train, passing Queen Lucas Lake.

For comparison, here is the same view from the first week of April of last year, showing how much water would normally be in the lake. The difference is likely the unusually dry winter we had this year which has caused the water table to drop.

It's definitely spring and many mid-spring wildflowers are in peak bloom, such as these arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) along the Spokane river.

I love seeing fields of common camas (Camassia quamash), which from a distance can look like pools.

This red besseya (Besseya rubra) is a bit past it's peak.

Prairie smoke (Geum triflorum) is another favorite of mine.

First day of operations this year

I ran my first train of the season on the PE&A today. It might have been earlier in the month but other yard work has taken precedence the past two weeks, and today was the first day that I felt everything else in the yard was under control so I could shift my focus to railroad repair and maintenance. I had done cleanup in the train area over the past week or so, and today was focused on getting the track back in alignment and placing new ballast. The main track is now operational, and weather permitting, over the next week or so I'll turn my attention to continuing work on my upper loop.

Below are a few pictures from today's work:

First train of the year out on a test run once I got the track open. The SP&S boxcar in the back is a new car I picked up at the River City Modelers train show in Spokane about a month ago. It already had metal wheels and knuckler couplers so it was ready to roll.

Along the back fence a section of track has almost disappeared under dirt and bark. I blame our dog who loves to run along here chasing squirrels and barking at the neighbor dogs.

After clearing the track, it's more clearly visible how it has shifted quite a bit and was way out of alignment. The curve leading into this tangent was also out of whack.

I redefined the curve and held it in place with a number of stakes before placing ballast down. The ballast that had been here was all mixed into the soil.

A picture showing the finished track along the back fence.

I ran out of ballast and had to screen some more. I still have a few bags of 1/2"-minus gravel and I'm screening it down to 1/4"-minus. I'll need to get more this year.

A minor rockfall that was easily fixed. Had a few issues like this which wasn't unexpected.

I repaired this cribbing last year and it's in need of a rebuild again this year as several joints have broken and it has partially slid down the hill. I decided to replace it rather than repair it as it clearly isn't sufficient for this location.

I would have liked to use rock here but I've run out of available rocks, so I'm using some weathered concrete bricks instead. This should be pretty stable and not require so much work going forward. I still need to do trestle repair work and reattach a number of beams but I need to wait for slightly warmer and dryer weather. 

Here you can clearly see a sudden change in track slope. The issue here is the large rocks on the left are settling while the wooden trestle is staying in place,

As I can't really jack up the large rocks, I decided to just build up the track above the rocks, so this is the solution I came up with, at least for now. I'll replace the trestle pieces once the weather is better.

And here is another picture of the finished work with the test train rolling by.

And now for a few full scale train pictures from the past couple weeks. We were on the Fish Lake Trail west of Spokane on Friday and were passed by four trains that day, including a westbound mixed freight with a number of heavily grafittied refers. This is at a rock cut near Queen Lucas Lake.

Here is the same westbound train, now passing the signal for UP junction.

Lead locomotive on a westbound train at Latah Junction.

There are remnants of street running tracks all over Spokane but I hadn't noticed these until last week. Or perhaps I just hadn't walked by this particular intersection before? This is at Boone and Cincinnati, and are a relic of an electric trolley line. This line would have been built by the Spokane and Montrose Street Railway, which was reorganized as the Spokane Traction Company in 1903, and then the Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad in 1906, which I've written about in other blog posts.