Lake Shore Live Steamers.com

Located at

Penitentiary Glen
8668 Kirtland-Chardon Rd
Kirtland, Ohio 44094

When we got to the park today we found a lot of trees had been cut down by a tree service and this is a view looking from Ridgeway towards our station. This view is along our Big Bend Bridge and a few of the tree stumps from where they cut down the trees.

This was an ash tree that was very close to our Big Bend Bridge but it was on the cut list. This ash tree was just a short distance down the track and it was removed also.

On the curve by Pandora on the outside track they must have driven over the track because they pulled it out of the ballast. We found they did more damage on the mainline by Lester near the Park access crossing.

Their moving equipment for the logs cut from trees drove over our track and it look like they turned while on the track and did this damage, we have a public run this Sunday. You can see how displaced the track was and this is just one area.

At the other end of the crossing this is the damage caused to the rail that we have to fix. This photo shows how the track was displaced downward by dropping a tree on the track.

A view from the other end of the displaced track at the Park access crossing. The mainline heading towards Horrendous from Zip Junction was also displaced beyond the access road crossing.

This was another area where they didn't protect the track when they dropped a tree. Even on the branchline we had damage on the track as it approached the Lionel Bridge which is quite evident in this view.

This is another view of the mainline near Lester looking at the grade crossing toward Drudgery. In this view is the far end of the grade crossing with more damage to the mainline which will have to be fixed before Sunday.

Dan Pappas, Ron Trenhaile and Dennis Chrislip start removing the damaged rail to replace it. Ron checks for the rail joint to see how far we have to remove the rail from the ties.

A close-up view of the damage going into the switch which will have the whole rail on the right side replaced. John Koontz starts cutting the rail where we will put a splice and a rail on this side will be replaced.

Ron using a rail gauge on the rail prior to screwing down the rail to the ties. Tom and John are cleaning out all the mud in the crossing by all the traffic that the tree service had using the access road.

Our rails couldn't stand up to their equipment driving over the steel rails which just bent them up. The work crew has replaced a section of the rail at this crossing.

Another segment of rail was removed where it had a vertical bend due to tree falling on it and replaced with a section of new steel rail. Due to the damage both rails had to be removed for a section coming off of the grade crossing and then it was re-ballasted.

Wayne Boron and Frank Smoley work on rebuilding the switch points and checking the throw to repair the damaged switch. Replacing some of the aluminum rail in the switch, they have the rail gauges down and are preparing to refasten the rail to the ties.

Frank cutting a piece of steel rail to length as Ken holds the other end of the rail to steady it. A view from the other side showing the progress as this is on the mainline which had to be repaired for the run this Sunday.

With the rail joiners holding the rail in place Frank Smoley and Frank Foti start screwing the rails down to the ties. After placing ballast Ron tamps it as Frank relaxes, Dick Scott waiting to sweep down the ballast as Ken watches.