Lake Shore Live Steamers.com

Located at

Penitentiary Glen
8668 Kirtland-Chardon Rd
Kirtland, Ohio 44094

Frank Foti, all smiles, takes the work train on the Short Line to dump a load of ballast in buckets at Horrendous. One of the switches at Horrendous showing the ties a little too exposed and in need of ballast.

Frank and Ron Trenhaile are dumping buckets of ballast on the switch previously pointed out. Ron and John Koontz are using the tamping rods on the ballast to get it around the ties to support the switch.

Dave Hird working on a switch by Drudgery on the mainline, part of the ever going on maintenance for the over 150 switches we have. A week ago last Monday the Park got in their recycled train, which was made from recycled bottles and had it out on display for the kids to crawl over and enjoy.

A view from the front quarter looking down the length of the train as it was installed. Greg Guy had been working on the Signal Bridge and brought it out to show us what he had accomplished.

The switch at Horrendous that had been ballasted, tamped and swept down is ready for some more traffic. Well the lunchtime bell was rung so the crew took a break for lunch.

Behind the Stanek Car Barn, Ron Trenhaile was checking the car brakes on a car up on the lift watching the gauges to see if pressure was holding. The crew were working on the Branch Line leveling and re-ballasting some of the track, here Ron Malinowski waits for John Koontz to finish placing ballast.

Tom Reder tamps the ballast as Frank lifts the track with the tool as Ken waits to tamp his side of the track. Frank watches the level as Ken and Tom tamp the ballast under the ties.

The next project was to remove a switch on Short at Zip Junction which was no longer used and it was decided to make better use of it at another location. Frank and Ken work at removing the bolts from the rail joiner's on our aluminum rail at this point as the others watch.

A view of our rail splice joiner plates at the head end of the switch that still have to be removed so we can lift the switch panel out of the ballast. With the switch panel removed, Tom and John scrape and scoop out the ballast for the replacement rail and ties to go in.

Dick, Ron, John Riba and Greg Guy watch as Frank removes the screws around one of the slip-on rail joiner's so it can be slipped back from the crossing's steel rail to remove the track panel. Greg starts scooping out the ballast after the track panel was removed.

As Greg swings the maddock he encounters a tree root that had been lifting the track. After chopping a bit with an ax Frank tries to pull out a portion of the root.

We found a couple of used aluminum rail panels and they were carried down and laid in place to see if they would work out for our needs. Here Frank is putting in screws to hold the rail down to the existing ties near the crossing at Zip Junction.

Dick holds the rail steady as Ken cut the rail to our required length for fill in with a battery-operated saw. Dick and Ken measure another section of rail for fill in and it will be cut and installed after the ties are spaced properly.

Ron watches as Ken taps the ties into correct position with a hammer. The track panels have been connected, the rail screwed down to the ties for the fill in sections and ballast dumped, tamped and swept. Another project completed.