Lake Shore Live Steamers.com

Located at

Penitentiary Glen
8668 Kirtland-Chardon Rd
Kirtland, Ohio 44094

Dick Clark, Tom Pappas and Rick Nagy in conversation about the joining of the track panels we had laid to the Short Line track. Tom continues to put the ties under the bent rail as he approaches the culvert.

Dick and Tom putting the steel rail into the rail joiners that we use which are bent steel clips that slip over the foot of the rail. You can see Tom using "old yeller" and driving on the rail clip at this end onto the aluminum rail.

While we were working on joining the rail, Dave Hird was doing maintenance on the switches as he is here on the Short Line, lubricating, checking the throw and spring tension. Looking up the track from Zip Junction on Short Line where the far switch will connect the Nyland crossover.

Dick adding more ties under the rail at the culvert pipe as Tom and Lew Fowler look on. George Metts continues to spread the ballast with his tractor making life easy for us.

Dick backs down the crossover track with the ballast car spreading the stone at the sides of the track. This ballast car really is a great boon to railroading as it really saves us from having to lift 50 to 70 pound buckets of ballast to spread.

Between the ballast car and George Metts and his tractor dumping the stone on the PVC culvert we managed to ballast up to the Park's access road. George dumped more ballast on the culvert on the opposite side of the road and the guys were spreading and brushing it off the rails with Edith Hacker making sure there was no stone in the pipe.

Dick watches as the ballast flows out of the the hopper as he spreads it along the rail. After sighting down the track Dick decided that the track panel had a be lifted and is pulling it up out of the ballast under the watchful eye of the crew.

Dave, Dick, Rick and Don Speidel agreeing we will need at least another load of stone in the ballast car. Tom raking out the leaves and debris out of the trench so it doesn't wash down and plug up the culvert.

Lew inspects the progress in putting down the ballast as we now have to wait for the boards to be placed in between the rails so truck traffic can drive over the track. Dave Foster brought some plastic impregnated decking boards which will be cut to fit the curve of our track going across the access road.

After the ballast car was refilled, Dick ballasted the track from the culvert to the trackage on the Short Line. A view looking at the boards just lying between the rails on the access road.

Wally Pausch and Dave Foster were placing the boards in between the rails for the grade crossing as Edith, Wayne Boron and Joe Banzer watch. Dave cutting the end of the board for a flush fit to match the radius between the two boards.

The crossover track from the Park access road is all ballasted across the westbound mainline to the eastbound mainline beyond. Wally screwing down the board as Dick applies finess to get the curvature of the boards to match the track panel radius with the blade of the shovel.