A quick, arm-waving summary of the first three days at Ridgway, with one more to go:
We are averaging 11 workers per day (it's hot and windy, so we have also gone through more than 125 bottles of water). So far we have completed about 885 feet of new track, bringing the total since November 1st to about 1800 feet, We expect to do around 250 - 300 more tomorrow. The full loop will be about 2700 feet. The last three days we have accurately set around 425 ties (they were roughly in place beforehand), driven around 1700 spikes (with a pneumatic driver, thank God), and positioned and bolted about 80 pairs of joint bars. We had spent weeks getting all the rail and track material basically in place so this would go smoothly.
I will post a more accurate and complete report when we are done, the plan is to stop early tomorrow and run Motor 1 back and forth on the completed track as a reward for the dedicated crew.
The contractors started disassembling and moving the train shed to the new location today (should be done by the end of the month), and the current plan is to move RGS coach 252, D&RG Business car C and the depot outbuilding to the new location next Tuesday. Things are happening!