Dave Moeller Running "Lil Bubba" on Bubba's first day over our Phase 3 Loop
8/12/06 .... AFTER 4 YEARS of TRACK WORK ! TODAY WAS THE DAY! ... FINISHED ALL THE ROAD BED AND TOOK OUR MAIDEN
VOYAGE (TRIP) THROUGH OUR NEW SWITCH, OVER THE NEW BRIDGE AND ALL THE WAY AROUND OUR NEW LOOP AND THRU OUR SIERRA
STYLE SNOW SHED! .... The trip on loop 3 alone takes about 6 minutes. Will have todays photos up shortly.
For the past 4 summers I spent every daylight hour, when not a the office, out working on this project. And
dawn to dark Fridays thru Sundays. And Dave Moeller Spent most of the time out there with me .. without his
help it would have been the end of next summer prolly before I could have finished it. Thank You Dave "CL"
(Cheap Labor) Moeller ... Dave works for all the Folgers coffee he can drink ... And all the time in the
steam engines he wants!!!
Dave Moeller and I designed and started building this stub switch into our in place curve and straight in May 06.
This is the beginning of our Phase #3 and our summer project running the track to our new railroad bridge which
we had built last summer and I had placed last November with a 100 ton crane just before the winter deluge hit.
See a link to our bridge and switch photo builds at the bottom of this page.
This photo is the first of a series taking you on a photo trip taken from our electric engine around the new loop
culminating in the gold splice bar completing this new loop into our Sierra Snow shed tunnel. Following that are
many more photos showing it as we built it.
Becky, Dave & Pat Moeller .... It's still 8/12/06 ..... 11pm ... Becky added white linen to our passenger
car and turned it into a dinner car ...still celebrating our completion of phase 3 with a long moon light
ride ... several of times around the loop ... we have a good headlight on "Davey Boy" and interior and marker
lights on the caboose. The weather was perfect and in the mid 70's. I mixed Dave & myself a little Knob
Creek bourbon, Pat had some white wine .... and Beck had decafe. A wonderful evening with just us enjoying
the fruits of our labor.
The old loop you still seeing going into our Sierra Style snow shed, pictured above and below this, will be moved
over 8 feet and the train barn will be widened shortly to accomodate both phase 2 & 3 tracks through it. We will
then have the extra room to store our new large Forney style articualted steam engine (kerosene fired) ... At
the far end where we will rejoin the rails we are already having Dave Jungkeit draw up a three way stub switch
for Dave Moeller and I to build before the winter rains set in we hope ...Dave Jungkeit is the one that
showed Melvin Harris how to build his very first switch.
The 3rd part of the switch is for yet another rail to run 8 feet along side the loop 2 rail ... but it will be
outside the train shed ... this is where we are placing our automotive hydrolic lift where visiting engines
can be unloaded and stored off line.
I should mention my other work horse ... "Moby Dick" .... my daily driver ... A custom built 1983 Mercedes AMG
.... I have over 275,000 miles on this car and have never rebuilt anything on it yet!
I carry and store all my power tools and welding equipment in the trunk all the time ... our electric hack saw,
etc. So it is always in the area we are working. It is my old and trust worthy friend. (And faster than greased
lightning!)... ( ; > )
I will use another 24 tons of 1" crushed decrative granite putting in the rail bed between here and the train barn.
and another 8 - 10 tons of rock and dirt fill. In loop 3 we will have used 75+ tons of crushed rock and 25 tons
of road base and 50 tons of fill and that is just in the rail bed and bridge abutments.
These splice bars from Harmer Steel are FANTASTIC!!! They are curved to fit and are beveled top and bottom and
maintain their spring tension to align the rails perfectly while still allowing for expansion and contraction.
This gold one was our last one placed in the completion of our phase 3 track thru the switch and to and over
the 70' x 8' Warren Truss railroad bridge and on around over our return land fill bridge and into our train barn.
