Western Railroad Discussion > SMART contractor ballasting while grading starts on Puerto Suello

SMART contractor Stacy-Witeback-Herzog runs a one-man ballasting operation on the the ex-NWP San Rafael branch south of Ignacio. The contractor marshalls rock next to ther mainline along with a skip loader.  The "train"  consisting of 5 high capacity Bballast cars pulled by a  remote controled track-mobile.  The train is stored on the main line at the Ignacio wye.  The operator rides the front car with his remote control pack. He spots the train sets the air, hops off, fires up the front end loader and loads the cars himself. The ballasting is also done by remote control as the operator proceeeds slowly down the track.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/15 20:36 by weather.

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Thanks Weather!  I have really been enjoying all of your SMART etc. posts.  Wow, how long does it take one guy with a skip-loader to load even one ballast car?

Meanwhile, seismic work on the Putero Hill has finished and grading has begun in preparation of laying ties and rails. The retaining wall near San Pedro Road is also finished. Only two gaps remain to connect the main line already in place south of the tunnel into San Rafae with track in place from Ignacio south to Cive Center.  The other small gap is just east of the Civie Center High level platform at the bottom of the grade.  The last image looks south from Civic Center towards across the gap to track built up the grade along Los Ranchitos Rd. I phone photos and terxt by Mike Pechner 

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Thanks for the update. At May 22 board meeting SMART GM said that they would be getting four cars in June. That's pretty much verbatim. 

I like the operators cool little removable mini platform he is standing on.
JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/15 08:30 by 3rdswitch.