Trackwork time! With some better spring weather and drying ground, it was time to get back to constructing the railroad yard to support the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum’s restoration building. With 60 tons of ballast delivered to the parking lot of the Industry depot, it was time to load up the ballast for use at the building site. Here the museum’s Trojan front loader fills one of the museum’s ex-military 5-ton 6×6 dump trucks which will transport the ballast to the work site.
Ready to load… Museum volunteer Dan Waterstraat has a bucketful of stone ready to load into the truck.
Loading up! The 3A railroad ballast is loaded into the truck!
At the work site… The dump truck pulls into the restoration building work site under the control of volunteer, Jeremy Tuke. He will soon back the truck between sidings #6 & #7 to dump the stone for later spreading. Ballast is being added between the tracks to provide a stable surface and to protect a french drain installed last year to provide drainage for the yard.
Three loads down! Pulling away, the dump truck has just left its third load of stone to be spread.
Spread! With a little help from the front loader, the stone has been spread to give a nice solid base between the rails. Additional ballast was added to track #7, the track on the left, to bring it up to the proper height.
Moving out of the way… With ballast being spread into its storage location, the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum’s Lorain crawler crane had to be moved out of the way. Here the crane is seen crawling south toward the museum’s restoration building.
Sighting in… With stone being brought up, it was time to jack and level track #7 which leads into the western bay of the museum’s restoration building. Here museum volunteer, Charlie Harshbarger, checks by eye to see if the level of the track after jacking & blocking in preparation for stone. Stakes set by transit by our survey crew also aided the track gang in leveling the track.