Lake Shore Live Steamers.com

Located at

Penitentiary Glen
8668 Kirtland-Chardon Rd
Kirtland, Ohio 44094

We were having problems with the rail joiner that had rusted and split due to the tie rotting under it and allowing the top of the rail to twist when a train passed over it. Ron Trenhaile and Frank Foti driving out what is left of the tie so we can replace it.

After replacing the tie with a new one, Ron drives in the retaining screws to keep the rail joint from moving. This spot is a problem because of the water coming down the Park's access road flows to the crossing which diverts it to this side keeping this spot wet.

At the Switch Shed, Ted Nyland and John Koontz are building another switch for our turnaround track. On the car hoist Wayne Boron is checking a problem that came up on one of Steve Zaken's cars.

Frank Smoley checking the movement of the brake pads on Steve's riding car looking for any problem. After removing the track and leveling the roadbed where the new switch will be installed, Dick Clark, Ron and Frank are about to lay the new switch in place.

With the new switch in it's place, Dick looks at the rail overlap of the inside rail of the curve. Dick marking the existing rail where it should be cut to match the end of the switch rail.

Dick cuting the aluminum rail with the battery powered circular saw. With the existing rail cut the switch was able to be dropped in place and just needs rail joiners.

When we located the switch, we used the outside rail joint to be into the frog thus elimating a short piece of rail.Since we use bolted rail joiners on aluminum rail, Ron is drilling the cut rail for the bolt holes.

To keep the rail on the curve from shifting outward, Dick is driving a short piece of rail at the end of one of the ties to keep it from moving. The ground in this area is exceptionally hard so Frank helps out with driving the rail stake in.

Frank driving in screws to hold the rail where we had bent the aluminum rail clips over to remove the track panel for the switch. Ron and Frank look over the installation of the new switch which just needs to be ballasted and swept down to be complete.

Ron taking a break from shoveling ballast over the top of the switch. Ron and Frank redistribute the ballast on the switch panel as Dick takes a break.