Remember the Western Railway Preservation Society?
| September 15, 2020 03:19PM |
Well, the WRPS is still around and going strong. As a reminder, these are the guys doing railcar restoration work up on the Sumpter Valley Railway. So far the best know restoration was of the West Side Lumber “coffin” tankcar that they completed a couple of years back. The current project is West Side Lumber Caboose #3 to be followed by Sumpter Valley Railway Tankcar #99.
Along with their work on the Sumpter Valley, the WRPS is also building a new shop and a ½ mile loop of 3 foot gauge track in Brooks, Oregon (1/2 hour south of Portland) as part of their new site at Powerland Heritage Park. This past weekend, they have been very busy installing the first section of track.
Just thought some may like to see some pictures of the progress.
Friday the 4th started off with final surveying for grade and curve. Then our newest member Evan Burroughs (who is also on the Antique Powerland Museum Associate board) and Carl had most of the 75 foot cut done.
Saturday started with us reviewing the cut and removing the last of the dirt to get the grade just right. Road fabric was laid into place, and 3 inches of slag fines followed. We started with 8-foot ties for supporting the road crossing and finished up with our 6-foot ties.
Sunday started with spiking. An electric jack hammer and spike bit made the spike driving fairly easy. With all of the utilities and fire pump house on both sides of our track, a guard rail was also installed to help in case of a derailment.
Monday morning started with ballasting with the bigger slag, and more road fabric over the top to keep dirt out of the ballast. Evan then moved the salvaged road gravel over our new track work to finish up the road crossing. Too bad our first section of track will be mostly buried and unseen!
This fall, our second track project will probably be the continuation of the ROW north towards the Caterpillar museum with a newly required gravel road crossing between the Cat Museum and the Logging Museum grounds. More updates to come.
Along with their work on the Sumpter Valley, the WRPS is also building a new shop and a ½ mile loop of 3 foot gauge track in Brooks, Oregon (1/2 hour south of Portland) as part of their new site at Powerland Heritage Park. This past weekend, they have been very busy installing the first section of track.
Just thought some may like to see some pictures of the progress.
Friday the 4th started off with final surveying for grade and curve. Then our newest member Evan Burroughs (who is also on the Antique Powerland Museum Associate board) and Carl had most of the 75 foot cut done.
Saturday started with us reviewing the cut and removing the last of the dirt to get the grade just right. Road fabric was laid into place, and 3 inches of slag fines followed. We started with 8-foot ties for supporting the road crossing and finished up with our 6-foot ties.
Sunday started with spiking. An electric jack hammer and spike bit made the spike driving fairly easy. With all of the utilities and fire pump house on both sides of our track, a guard rail was also installed to help in case of a derailment.
Monday morning started with ballasting with the bigger slag, and more road fabric over the top to keep dirt out of the ballast. Evan then moved the salvaged road gravel over our new track work to finish up the road crossing. Too bad our first section of track will be mostly buried and unseen!
This fall, our second track project will probably be the continuation of the ROW north towards the Caterpillar museum with a newly required gravel road crossing between the Cat Museum and the Logging Museum grounds. More updates to come.
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.