WW&F Railway Columbus Day Work Weekend Summary *LINK*

The WW&F Railway Museum had a work weekend over Friday-Monday of Columbus Day weekend. Usually we lay lots of new track. The plan this year was half new track and half maintenance. Unfortunately things didn't quite work as planned.
Friday was OK. The curve north of Humason Trestle was adjusted by railbender, come-alongs, and men with bars. A fair amount of jacking/tamping got done, but only from Trask Crossing south to halfway to the trestle (I think some balky tampers had more to do with that than anything).
Saturday it rained. And it rained. Did I mention it rained? The crew went out in the morning and jacked/tamped more north of the trestle, but at noontime gave up and most of the crew went indoors for an enginehouse cleaning bee. The steamer #10 was ready to go late morning, but had nothing to haul, until after lunch when a small crew went north to retreive the Brookville and its cars. On the way up we noticed with some concern a potential washout in the making (just south of the old boiler culvert), once he got back the Road Master closed the railroad and got a crew to ditch out the backed-up water and thus averted disaster. Later in the afternoon we ran an inspection train, but noticed all culverts held up well. And it rained.
Sunday it also rained. And rained more, until around noon. Crew went out afternoon and spiked down about 250 feet of track. All this rain made for record high water levels: placid Humason Brook was 1.5 feet over the mud sills and would have made great whitewater rafting; Stockford's road got washed out at his culvert (we made a grocery delivery on Monday for them); West Alna Road got washed out, and the pond south of Cross road overflowed its banks and washed over Cross road, but didn't wash it out. The news mentioned 7 inches of rain on Saturday in Augusta, about 30 miles northwest.
Did I mention it rained?
Monday was cloudy but didn't start raining until 3:30 or so, when we were getting ready to quit. In the morning more jacking was done just north of the trestle, then the crew moved on to the new track and ballasted it the rest of the day, spiking almost another 100 feet as well.
James P.
WW&F Railway Museum