Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Thank you Frank. The track will be just over seven hundred feet long.
Jack

[KidAmato]

Dang! Look at that. Great work, bud. Enough of my union break. Gotta’ get the ol’ gloves back on and get ready to start setting pylons again. Fantastic push.


Nico

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Hi Nico, bring your favorite shovel, break time is over. Here is what has been going on with the high line. The top photo is looking down hill at 1-1/2% from the end of the mountain division cut onto the fill. The tractor is setting on the fill. The second photo is looking uphill towards the steaming bays. There is still a big pile of rubble at the very end of the cut. The last photo here shows the pylons working their way onto the fill. I can plunk them down a lot faster that I can cast them. There are three sixty pound bags of concrete in two pylons. Them sixty pound bags seem to have gotten heavier over the years... My trousers seem to have shrunk too. Funny how that is.
Jack

[NP317]

Jack:
You really need to get a hobby...
RussN

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Your'e right Russ, I need something to do I might get tired, but I never get bored!
Jack

[Greg_Lewis]

... My trousers seem to have shrunk too. Funny how that is.
Jack

You're right about that. It's like ice cream. Remember when a container of ice cream was a half gallon? Now it's 1 1/2 quarts (but they didn't lower the price). Same thing with trousers. I measured my waist four decades ago at 32 inches. But as time has gone by, Levi Strauss is putting less and less fabric in the waistband of their 501s. Now I have to buy 40-inch pants to get the same thing. They may be saving money but they can't fool me.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Greg is absolutely right. Pay more...get less. I bought a box of ice cream sandwiches the other day. They shrunk too. I hate it when that happens!
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Here is a bit concerning the pylons that the Alcalde & Coalfield high line is built on. I thought about several different types of pylons before I decided on this set up. Steel and wood pylons were both considered. Concrete was picked for a number of reasons. I wanted something heavy that would stay put but could still be shifted and adjusted when things settle. Also concrete would be the most cost effective. In the top photo we have an opened mold with a pylon ready. The sides of the mold are 1" plexiglass. The front and back is 1/4" PVC plastic. After pulling the pylon the molds must then be scraped clean as seen in photo #2. After cleaning the mold is given a squirt of Pam to act as a mold release and to make them easier to clean. Then we have the mold starting to be put back together. There is a rebar assembly, and a piece of conduit that goes in. The conduit forms a passage for the tie rod that holds the two by sixes in place with a 5/16" rod and two square nuts. The bottom photo shows the mold ready to be closed up. The front and back of the mold are held in place with clamps.

[JBodenmann]

Now that the mold is closed up the rebar assembly can be tied up with wire so that it stays in position when the concrete is dumped in. A friend loaned me a mixer into which the ready mix is put. Three bags of concrete is not quite enough so a couple shovels of sand are added with another shovel of Portland cement, also some plasticizer and concrete dye. The plasticizer helps the concrete slurp into the mold. The dye makes the pylons a muted brown color that blends in with the local terrain. The concrete is mixed pretty stiff as you can see here in the bottom photo.

[JBodenmann]

Now the whole mess is given a good zoom with a vibrator. It's amazing how well the concrete liquifies when it's hit with the vibrator. Middle photo shows the filled mold. I like to leave the pylons in the mold for two days before opening the mold. And the last photo shows some pylons wrapped up in wet blankets and covered with a tarp. I learned from Andy Romer that hydration is the trick for good curing of concrete. As soon as it drys, curing stops, so you want to keep is moist for a while. I try to keep the pylons moist and covered for a week. Making these pylons is real donkey work and I have a feeling that I will be pretty sick of these buggers before the high line is finished. But there is no way around it. The good part is when one is set in place with the track assembled it's done, and shouldn't need much attention from then on. So progress progresses here at the Alcalde & Coalfield. No shortage of things to do.
Jack

[NP317]

Looks like a LOT OF WORK!
Respect.
RN

[Wayne Davis]

How many done and how many to be built yet?

Wayne