The Rubber & Rawhide Railroad

Progress Report for 28th September 2008

This Page Created on January 20th, 2009

First Serpentine Roadbed Installed

With the delivery Friday of the stainless hardware, progress on the Serpentine has been exceptionally rapid. Both of these photos, taken late Friday afternoon, indicate graphically the superiority of the aluminum plates over the scrap roadbed as an assembly method. While only two temporary supports are currently employed, the roadbed is already following an almost constant and quite moderate grade. Early measurements indicate we may surpass our goal of 5% and achieve something of the order of 3%! Operations would really like that, as it would partially offset the negative affects of the comparatively tight curve radius employed in the Serpentine.

While Saturday was employed to complete the install of the second series of Serpentine sections (those shown with the plates on the top side in the photos) and cut and fit the third series of sections, no further photographs were made.

The few hours of work available Sunday were employed in completing assembly of the Serpentine to a point in the Leather Oaks back yard expected to be the "on grade" transition, and to spray painting the complete assembly in flat black enamel. We'll try to get some photos early tomorrow, but the visual impact was dramatically changed. Our chief Arborist is calling for subtle employment of camouflage tones to further reduce the Serpentine's visibility. As he said, "We don't want anyone tripping over the track, but we'd rather they be able to appreciate the Skeletal Stream's own blending with nature." Environmentalists will be encouraged to note that there will still be adequate access to the stream for most amphibians. In fact, the leopard frogs are all but hopping mad at the construction but show no signs of departing "their stream"!