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Image 1: View from my driveway
Something you haven't seen it quite a while - New trackage
on the Island Pond Railroad. Now that the steam locomotive is nearly
ready to put on the rails, I need a way to get it there.Unlike all
other pieces of rolling stock I own, the steamer is much too heavy to
manually set on the tracks. So we started building this load/unload spur.
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Image 2: Entering the deep woods
Hidden away pretty well in the deep woods of southern New Hampshire is the
new loading spur. Although now the closest track to my street, it is still
fairly hard to see from the road.
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Image 3: From the other side of the chasm
The new spur is over 100 feet long and will have my first ever straight bridge.
All my other bridges are on a 40 foot radius.
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Image 4: Looking south
I could have built a shorter spur, but would have had to tie into a sharp 38
foot radius curve. The steam engine was designed for 40, but will probably be
OK on 38, but I didn't want to find this out yet. With the spur this long it
ties into some 100 foot radius sections.
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Image 5: Looking north
You can see the last of the 38 foot radius sections ending at the new switch.
As it is, the new spur's 40 foot radius must begin before even leaving the
switch itself. You'll see this later when rail is installed.
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Image 6: The new switch at Swaybend
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Image 7: Looking into Swaybend
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Image 8: Culvert #1
This track is being built on the edge of a seasonal brook so it is important
to take drainage seriously. This is a 5 inch pipe inline with a similar drain
in the original grade.
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Image 9: Culvert #2
A second pipe similar to the first. These pipes keep the woods inside the
circle of track dry.
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Image 10: Rock shoring in the chasm
This is an active waterway, and one that can see a significant volume of water
which can and is likely to erode the stream bank. So as a precaution, I have
armoured this bank with a wall of concrete and stone. I have not done the
same for the opposite bank. Should I?
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Image 11: Computer generated map showing new spur
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