Re: One more day on the Madera Sugar Pine grades....

Thanks for the compliments Mike!
Here's some more photos form the area in the last sequence.
The first one is another look downgrade at where the grade curves around to the south (turning clockwise behind the camera). A cut was made through a rock shelf for this:


Here's a pic of the barrel hoop which was next to the corrugated siding:


In this area the grade reduces significantly. Finding the artifacts next to the grade made me wonder if MSP had originally built the incline only to the top of the shelf of rock and then logged the area loading cars directly while on the slight incline then lowering them down. A piece of evidence for this possibility is what looks like donkey engine sites just to the north:


There were several sites like this one. Many had wire rope left behind, plus I found these two artifacts in the vicinity (about 100 feet from the incline grade):



To be continued...