We are finally filling out an old and underutilized yard at Rabbit Flat; the farthest point on our right of way. We have long planned to have a turntable, train bays, and lots of sidings. It’s a big effort with lots of switches and track and should add to the fun factor of the railroad. We’ll be adding industrial buildings and a roundhouse to facilitate operations meets. The new buildings will be 2.5” scale and built from wood with gobs of paint to protect them from the blazing sun.
Switch / Switch Stand Replacement
In 2023/24 we undertook a project to redesign our switches to make them more reliable, maintainable and easy to use. The switches engineered by Bill Boller are designed to work with kick switches, or with a local switch stand, or optionally one may attach to a remote stand for use in high use areas without getting off a train.
The completed design is uniquely our own, built upon experience from other clubs and ours. We also built/machined new switches ourselves. While the design looks like many that came before, the complete operation is easy and sure.
Our switch stands now support bright colored directional indicators. We are in the process of both replacing older switches and installing switches on new track currently being installed. Every new switch will receive a new switch stand and a color coded indicator.
We are happy to share this new technology with fellow clubs around the world.
Railroad Tie Production
As part of our long term tie replacement project, and to keep costs at a minimum because of the large number ties needed, we are now producing ties from recycled material rather than purchasing finished ties. We cut ties from long sticks of recycled material, pretrial scree holes for proper gauging, and insert outer screws to help speed up the install process. We don’t insert the inner screws during tie production to make sure people first screw in the outer screws when installed with jigs too insure ideal gauge in the field.
Small Building Refurbishment
We continually refurbish our small buildings and towns along the right-of-way. This is done in our workshop or, at members’ homes.
Railroad Tie Replacement
We have a long term project to upgrade all track panel ties from wood to plastic. All newly installed track panels use longer lasting plastic ties. As we perform track maintenance we upgrade existing panels to use new ties. We also upgrade active weathered sections of track periodically as time and manpower allows.
The first 3 photos show our older process of joining prebuilt panels built in the shop, transported to the field and then joined together.
The last 3 photos show our latest/greatest process of upgrading existing rail in place without using prebuilt panels. This process has been refined with more reliable results. At the same time we are shifting the offset between joints on opposing rails from 8” to 5’.
