Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

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Mike Walsh
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Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 10:14 pm
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Mike Walsh »

Jack, have you checked to see if your layout has showed up on google maps yet? :)
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JBodenmann
Posts: 3855
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:37 pm
Location: Tehachapi, California

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hey My Friends
Hi Mike, yes you can see the railway on Google. In the very early days you could see the line of rocks.
Jack
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JBodenmann
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Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:37 pm
Location: Tehachapi, California

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
Summers heat seems to be over for the year. It was a beautiful fall day here in the high mountain desert with the temperature never getting much above eighty. A perfect day to build some track here at the Alcalde & Coalfield High Line. Here is how things looked this morning. This end of the railway hasn't had any new track work since last year, mostly grading. The first thing was to locate the next concrete pylon. This track is on a long curve and for this I will usually use a string to the center point of the curve, but that won't work here as there are some large juniper trees in the way. So I use an offset tool. This is a 12 foot long bit of square tubing with an adjustable perpendicular rod on one end. It's placed on the last two by six span. and the adjustable rod shows where to put the pylon. Then a level is used to set the height of the pylon. The sand base is adjusted watered and tamped. When all is good some soil marking paint is sprayed around the light weight plywood pylon that has been used up till now. Then the hundred pound concrete pylon is plunked down. This light weight plywood pylon saves from having to wrestle the hundred pounder back and forth as things are adjusted.
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JBodenmann
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Location: Tehachapi, California

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
Fall is in the air, and the heat of summer is finished for the year. The trees are losing their leaves, the aspens are a beautiful gold color. There have been some beautiful days lately with the temps in the seventies, just perfect for working outside. It's cold and overcast today, but the shop will be cozy and warm. The work train was loaded up yesterday and run out to the end of the line. The focus was the mountain division, working up on the big fill. Progress is mighty slow, level the roadbed, set the concrete pylons in place. Then the two by six horizontals are shimmed up level and the 5/16" tie rods and square steel plates are installed. Olde timey square nuts. I like square nuts. The ties are laid down, rails can then be joined with rail joiners, screws and moly lock nuts. The rail can then be fastened down to the ties, six screws per tie. Pretty slow going. There is still about two hundred feet of track to build. Here are a few snappies taken yesterday. I particularly like the photo taken of the Valley Division curve through the golden aspens, also the S curve through Monolyth cut. Fall is a beautiful time of year here in the high mountain desert. The light and sky seem to have a certain quality. I look for beauty and happiness in every day. You tend to find what you are looking for...
Jack
Attachments
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Greg_Lewis
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Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:44 pm
Location: Fresno, CA

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Greg_Lewis »

JBodenmann wrote: Mon Nov 01, 2021 11:27 amI look for beauty and happiness in every day. You tend to find what you are looking for...


Ah, the philosophy of Jack. When will the book be out?
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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Chris Hollands
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Location: Vancouver ,Canada

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Chris Hollands »

Jack must have a different clock to the rest of us his must have 36 hrs in the day to get all his project done - I need one of those clocks lol
Mountaineer
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Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:45 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Mountaineer »

Ah, the southern Cali version of Morant’s curve!

Mountaineer.
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JBodenmann
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Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:37 pm
Location: Tehachapi, California

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
One snappy just for fun. It snowed a bit last night. Nothing running today :D
Jack
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Snow.jpeg
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NP317
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by NP317 »

BRRRRR!
It's now snowing heavily here at our home, too.
Stay Safe, and Enjoy.
RussN
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Greg_Lewis
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Location: Fresno, CA

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Some of the best days are those right after a storm. We got 1.25 inches of rain in the last two days — a lot for us here in the Fresno area — and today is cool and clear, with puffy cotton-tufts of clouds floating in the light blue sky. The air is clean and fresh, and we can see the snow on the mountains from our dining room windows while the sun, at its low winter angle, makes the carpet of mulberry leaves on the back lawn glow yellow. The only drawback to fall and early winter is that it doesn't last long enough.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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JBodenmann
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Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:37 pm
Location: Tehachapi, California

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
Beauty is all around us, if we take the time to have a look. Here it is a beautiful day, much as it was at Greg's. Sunny and calm. Blue sky with cotton ball clouds. A blanket of snow sparking in the sunlight. Beautiful...you find what you are looking for.
Jack
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JBodenmann
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Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:37 pm
Location: Tehachapi, California

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
It's a beautiful day here in the high mountain desert. Mid sixties, sunshine, blue sky. Short pants and tee shirt sort of weather. Attention has been focused on the last bit of fill and a small culvert on the mountain division. There is a dry stream that drains one end of the driveway. If we have some really good rain it will flow down towards the bottom of the hill passing under the railway twice. Originally it was a straight shot but for scenic interest it has been made to have some zig zags and curves with a boulder here and there. This little creek bed has been the hold up as I needed to make some little hills and bring in some big rocks with the tractor. Once the fill and culvert was completed I couldn't get the tractor in there. Now that the stream bed is pretty much finished the task was to put in the culvert pipe and work on completing the fill. The back hoe was first used to blast a small ditch. Then the drain pipe was covered with DG. Then the tractor was used to add to the fill and compact the soil after a good squirt with the garden hose. It was about ninety percent finished yesterday and will be completed today. Here are some snappies, the last being one of our wonderful high mountain sunsets.
No shortage of things to do! :D
Jack
Attachments
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