Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

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JBodenmann
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Location: Tehachapi, California

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
Well, it certainly has felt like wintertime here in the High Mountain Desert. It's 31 degrees Fahrenheit outside. It was a beautiful sunny day here, but now the dark skies are coming over the mountain and it looks like we will be having more snow in the next few days. Here are some more snappies taken around the railway.
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The lamps scattered around the steaming bay area are a favorite feature. They were one of the first decisions made concerning this area. I especially like this photo.
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Here is a shot looking from the steaming bays down grade through the mountain division cut.
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Here is another favorite part of the railway. I have always liked S curves, great for viewing the train from the tail end. These storms have Brought badly needed moisture to the area. The normally dry creek bed that crosses my property is now actually a flowing stream. There should also be a lot of wildflowers this spring.
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Jack
Last edited by JBodenmann on Wed Apr 19, 2023 9:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Bbrrrrrr. That's chilly! Your forecast calls for snow through Wednesday and a low of 19 Wednesday night. Hope your propane tank is full.
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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Charles T. McCullough
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Charles T. McCullough »

Nah... that just looks like it is time to break out the long sleeve work shirts.
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Dick_Morris
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Dick_Morris »

Something I have loved since I retired was to be able to look outside when there is a layer of snow on the ground, think, "Oh how pretty," and not set foot outside for a couple of days.
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tsph6500
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by tsph6500 »

Awesome snow photos. Time to hook up the Russell Plow!

This is Liz pushing one built by Steve Bratina with our 3/4-inch Berkshire a few years ago at the Montreal track. Great fun!
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ccvstmr
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by ccvstmr »

Jack...great photos! Looks like you've had more snow than Chi-town this year. Your snow looks "light and fluffy". Not good for making a snow man or a snowball fight. And the snow on top of your steaming bay lights? Now you know how much snow has fallen...that's better than anything a weatherman might report! Enjoy the view. 'Cause as you know, the white fallout will soon be gone and temps will be at the other end of the thermometer! Carl B.
Life is like a sewer...what you get out of it depends on what you put into it!
I don't walk on water...I just learned where some of the stepping stones are!
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Charles T. McCullough
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Charles T. McCullough »

tsph6500 wrote: Mon Feb 27, 2023 9:24 am Awesome snow photos. Time to hook up the Russell Plow!

This is Liz pushing one built by Steve Bratina with our 3/4-inch Berkshire a few years ago at the Montreal track. Great fun!
Oh, I think I'm in love! A Birk in steam and a pretty girl to run it!
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JBodenmann
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
Yes, the propane tank is full. There is plenty of fire wood for the stove, and the house is warm and cozy. It's 31 degrees outside and the neighbors will be picking me up in their 4 wheel drive for a trip to town. I enjoy the snow but usually it only lasts a day or two here. Lately it's been like real winter! That Russel plow is very cool. Where has Steve Bratina been? I miss his posts. I hope he is OK. There has been talk here about building a rotary snow plow. That would be a cool project. There is more snow in the forecast this week but then it will probably return to normal. I hope so as I have to finish up the high line. There is a trestle to build. It will be about 16 feet long and about 30 inches tall at the highest point. Finally almost finished. Then time to move on to other projects. No shortage of things to do🤪
Here is a photo from a couple years ago when we had just over two feet of snow. Same lamp, more snow. That was really something. The power was off for two days. The wood stove saved the cat and I from freezing.
2 Feet.jpeg
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Jack
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Greg_Lewis »

When we moved from New York to So. Cal. some 66 years ago we were incredulous to see people actually getting into their cars and driving to the snow. Then they would fight to get a parking place and then get out of those warm cars and flail around in said snow just to get cold and wet. I still don't understand it.
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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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
The snow has melted and things have dried out, no mud! The plan is to get the railway finished soon. Basically all that remains is to build the trestle to fill the gap we have here. The weather report looks good for the next few weeks. Although you never know here in the high mountain desert. I have seen snow here in early June. So the push will be the trestle. First, the position of the footings must be determined. Then simple forms will be made and concrete will fill them. Then the bents will be made. I'm really looking forward to this. Then the decking, the pylons which will be wood instead of concrete on the trestle. And finally the track. I'll be posting snappies as we go.
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Jack
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JBodenmann
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My friends
The weather here in the high mountain desert has been very nice. I will basically be working on the High Line until it's finished. All that remains is the trestle. The trestle is curved. It will be part of an S curve. The curves are all transitional. The points in the curve were all laid out with an offset tool. The tool is very simple, just a 12 foot piece of 1" square tubing with an adjustable perpendicular rod on one end. At each point a metal stake was driven into the ground. The stakes were then joined by lengths of 1/8" x 1" hot rolled steel as we have here in this first photo.
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This monkeying around with the steel strips was done for a couple reasons. All the rest of the offsets on the railway were based one the pylons being 6 feet apart. The bents will be four feet apart. This allows the metal stakes be located using the six foot spacing. Then the points for the four foot spacing can be located using the steel strips.
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The second reason for this is that these points will be used to locate concrete footings. These can not be moved around and adjusted as the concrete pylons the rest of the railway is built on, up, down, right, and left. The steel strips allowed me to see exactly what the curve is doing. I could stand back have a look, which I did for several days. Once I was satisfied with the curve, the four foot spaced points could be located using the steel strips and a plumb bob as shown here. Re bar was whomped into the ground, and these will locate the forms for the footings.
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This is my bonehead way of doing this. I wanted this S curve to flow nicely up to, and onto the trestle, and then into the railway. As I have been working on this trestle I have been reading a book on I K Brunel. He was an amazing engineer from the 1800's. He was the engineer on many famous bridges, and the Great Western Railway. The GWR, often referred to as Gods Wonderful Railway. As I was fiddling around with my little trestle I often thought of him. When building a railway we have to come up with solutions to many challenges. It doesn't really matter if the railway is HO scale, or full size. A delightful puzzle, too much fun!
Jack
Jack
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JBodenmann
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Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
It's a beautiful spring day here in the high mountain desert. The mud has finally dried up from the wet winter we had. The trestle is progressing and the railway will soon be complete. Here we have some trestle bits and pieces. The pilings are all 4"x4". Here they have been cut out and treated with preservative stain. It's the darkest stain they had at Home Depot. The color is called slate. All parts were treated before assembly. A 4" roller was used to apply the stain. Everything was given two coats.
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Here are more parts and pieces. The stain looks very much like creosote.
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The parts were clamped and stuck together with 2" nails with an air nailer. This was just to hold things together for drilling and fitting of the 5/16" steel and square nuts.
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Here an alignment fixture is being used when drilling the 11/32" holes.
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I wanted large square washers with square nuts. To me this is what they might have used to hold a trestle together. The washers are 1/8" thick. The ones for the 5/16" fasteners are 1-1/4" x 1-1/4". These were marked out, center punched, and drilled. Then nipped off using the band saw, and de burred using the belt sander.
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