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Welcome everybody, I was unable to get to chama, so I am taking
you back in time a few years... I will be showing you the Work
required to rebuild the "Roller Coaster Curve" at Milepost 316. I
was lucky to haul in the Equipment and Supplies necessary for the
rebuild and that allowed me the time and opportunity to Photograph
the whole thing. I hope you enjoy these Picture's, I feel this is
History and I wanted to share what I saw and experienced with all of
you.. |
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Well I wanted to take you back a few years and show you from my
Eyes and Camera the rebuild of the "Roller Coaster" curve, just past
Milepost 316. Fist thing First, have to get the equipment
into the Site, The Equipment was trucked in to the top of Osier and
Run down to the Tracks. Then a dirt ramp was built on the siding and
that is where the machinery was loaded. |
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The Track hoe is working on the ramp. |
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Still working. |
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Tuesday Jan 25th 2005... Work on
Car 505 continued today, we rebuilt the A-side Truck.. A-side
meaning, the side of the car that does not have the Hand Brake
Wheel, the B-side of the Car has the Hand Brake Wheel. We had to
replace the wheels as they were just a bit out of gauge, the
repaired set of wheels had arrived and we changed the old set with
the new set of wheels.
Ronnie is rebuilding the wear on the back of the Journal
Boxes, we actually add a plate and weld it into place. |
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Here is the old set of wheels, they will be sent out to be
re-gauged and then we will be able to use them again. It
was a Beautiful Day in Antonito, sunny skies and blue skies.
Looking west.... |
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Now here is a Picture of the Ties we picked off the side of the
Tracks.
They are kinda beat up.. we have been using the really bad
ones for Firewood to start the coal stoves in the morning.
And the Sun sets on the Antonito, but tomorrow is another day
and the work will continue on. |
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Wednesday Jan 26th 2005... Well we
have a big update today. First lets look at this Morning Sunrise.
Take a look at the Weather, it started getting cloudy early
morning.
We had to do some switching, the Tamper Machine will be
shipped out Tuesday to be rebuilt. This means we had to get the
Tamper on to Track One.
We moved the "Quinlan" Parlor Car over to the Main, it is
completely done and ready for the summer. |
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Next we separated Locomotive 484 from its Tender to make room in
track one and to ease its movement, its pretty hard to handle with a
backhoe.. Ronnie is in the backhoe and pulling Locomotive
484 out of track one. |
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Now we backed Locomotive 484 into Track three... Now we
pulled the 484 Tender out of track one and we backed it into track
two where it will be staying for a little while..
We cleaned out the 484 tender and removed its light and it
will be stored outside for awhile.
We will began servicing the Tenders of the Locomotives on a
Yearly Basis like the Passenger cars in Antonito, so here in
Antonito, we are going to empty the Tender, clean out all the coal
and jack the tender off its trucks for a full inspection.. we will
also service the brakes and check everything for any necessary
repairs this winter. |
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Check out the first picture, the snow is rolling into Antonito.
Tender 484 is backed into track two.
There is Tender 484 passing the Locomotive 484. |
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Now we started up the Tamper and ran it into track one.
Next we switched Locomotive 484 back into track one and into the
shop. |
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Finally Locomotive 484 is backed into track one. Under
Sam's watchful eyes, 484 rolls back into the shop.
We now have the "Vigil" Parlor Car and the 505 passenger car
in the shop, 505 is having the interior white ceiling repainted and
the Parlor Car is in for repairs. |
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Thursday Jan 27th 2005... Good
Morning from Antonito, there's the Rabbit that hangs around.
It was a little Foggy this Morning, not too cold. |
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The Morning finally cleared and Beautiful Blue Skies came thru.
Look at the Third Picture, want to know where Antonito is.. X
marks the spot. |
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There's Caboose 0579.. And the Pettibone Machine..
And I am standing next to the "Aircraft Carrier" Flatcar
looking east, in the background you can see 2 Locomotives of the San
Luis and Rio Grande Railroad working the Antonito Yards.
And here the Caboose again and one of the EBT Ballast Cars,
this is in service and I have hauled it all over the Railroad. |
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Looking North, the open cars are waiting for their turn to go
into the shops. Today we did a Inspection on the 489 tender
to see what it needs for repair and rebuild.
Today in the Shop we jacked up the Parlor Car 511 and took out
its A-side Truck, we rebuilt a little bit of lateral motion, we
rebuilt one of the Brake riggings on the truck, made new Hangers for
the truck, repaired a broken bolt on the center plate, then put the
truck back under the car and lowered the car.. that's it for this
week. |
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Friday Jan 28th 2005... The
Antonito Local Passes me at Romeo, Colorado heading South.
Love those Rio Grande Hoppers.. |
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Running at restricted speed, the Antonito Local pulls away from
me. We had about 3 inches of fresh wet snow in Antonito and
Alamosa had about 7 or 8 inches.
Have a great Weekend. |
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Here comes the Track Hoe making its way onto the "Aircraft
Carrier" Flatcar, I am sitting in the Diesel making sure the whole
thing doesn't try to roll. |
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It is on board, now we will chain it down and I will be on my way
to the Work-site. Normally I would make about 2 or 3 miles an
hour.. any faster and the Machinery would start rocking back and
forth. |
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Here we are at the end of the line, Literally.. the Track Crew
had been here earlier and had already pulled up the rail. I backed
the Machine right up to the end of the tracks. |
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You can see the marks on the left behind ties from the removed
rails. |
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Here is the Roadbed, you can see where the Rails used to be. |
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Now the Trackhoe will build a ramp here for off-loading. |
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Another view of the Roadbed. |
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Look in the background, the Trackhoe is unloading the old way,
without a ramp. |
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The Trackhoe is off, now it gets to work. |
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It will now build that ramp, we still have another piece of
machinery to bring in. |
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Back in Osier, now I have to haul a Huge Bulldozer. |
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The Bulldozer is coming on board the "Aircraft Carrier" Flatcar. |
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I had to hold the brakes on the Diesel and lock down the
handbrakes on the Flatcar. That Bulldozer was rocking me back and
forth while loading. |
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The Bulldozer is loaded, time to chain down. |
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Diesel 19 and me are ready to haul a Bulldozer.. |
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I have hauled Passengers, Movie Stars, and Big Machinery.. Whats
next?? |
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The Bulldozer was pretty wide, we had to inch thru the cuts East
of Osier. |
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I was worried, we weren't going to make it. |
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We actually had to stop, start up the bulldozer on the Flatcar,
turn the Bulldozer a little to the left, then move past the Rock
wall, stop and re-position the bulldozer again... |
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We made it thru. |
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The bulldozer is on the scene... |
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That's quite a Brute and it rode the Cumbres & Toltec. |
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Diesel 19 is right up against the Dirt Ramp at the end of the
Rail. |
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The Bulldozer turns around... |
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and it gets right to work digging down and removing the old dirt
fill at the Roller Coaster. |
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The Machinery actually cut the entire curve out of the mountain
and rebuilt it. |
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After I went back to Osier and picked up a few rolls of soil
conservation material in rolls.. |
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The Bulldozer cuts away at the old Track bed. |
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In this Picture I actually hiked down below the curve and shot
the Machinery, in this picture a Trackhoe, is digging away the old
Roadbed. |
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More of the Work. |
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These machines tore up the old curve pretty quick actually. |
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You can actually see the hole getting deeper and deeper. |
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This was History, and I was glad to be there to witness it. |
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Now I am up above the curve looking down at the Machinery. |
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The Trackhoe at work. |
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The Bulldozer at work. |
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That is the end of the Rail on the East side. |
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Digging away the old Curve. |
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I was amazed at how fast these machines could work. |
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The Old Roller Coaster Curve is lost to the Modern Machinery... |
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Now here is something.... You are in the Cab of Diesel 19 with
me.. I am Eastbound just West of Martinez Cut and Curve.. in the
distance where the "Red Arrow" is, you can see the Drilling machine
that punched the holes in the Mountain above Martinez Cut to hold
the Explosives that blew the Mountain up to re-align the Curve. |
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Making my way thru Martinez Curve and Cut. |
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I am hauling a few supplies and now get this... You are looking
at the Last Train ever in the History of this Great Railroad to roll
Thru Martinez Cut and Curve.. Diesel 19 and I rolled thru the Curve
and I took my time and took picture's, because I knew this was the
last train in this railroads 100+ Year History to roll thru this
section of track... right after I came thru the Track crew pulled up
the rails in preparation for the explosives that would soon re-align
the curve.. |
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Taking my time and feeling like I was making History. |
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The last time I would see this Curve from a Locomotive, the last
time I would see this curve ever. |
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Now look at the "Red Arrow", I had noticed this before, but I
made sure to get a picture because I knew it would all be gone
soon... look closely at where the red arrows points... can you see
the profile of a face in the rocks, that is the Martinez Cut Face...
I had seen it before, but this was the last time and then it was
gone for good after the explosion. |
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That was it, the Last Train ever thru Martinez Cut. |
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Well the work is done, I was unable to get more shots.. but I was
working the passenger trains and was away from the work zones. |
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I did run another work train into the Roller Coaster, I hauled in
the ties for the new Track. |
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The Trackhoe is unloading the Ties. |
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In this shot you are way below the Roller Coaster Curve, you can
see the rock layers put into the new Curve. |
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The Trackhoe continues to unload ties. |
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The Track should be solid here for quite a while, those are all
Oak Ties.. |
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Looking East at the New Roadbed without the Track. |
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Now that the Job is done, I will be hauling out the Heavy
Machinery. |
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One..... |
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Two... |
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Three.... |
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and the Bulldozer is back on the Flatcar... |
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I must admit, that bulldozer scared me, it pushed the limits of
that flatcars load capacity. |
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Crawling and Squeezing thru the curves again. |
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Back thru the Cuts... Now the next Chapter of this will be in
next weeks update. |
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A view of Chama... about 10 years ago,
Well see you Guys and Gals next week, hope you liked the
picture's!!! |
