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plates were put in to place the rail was too far apart but by using tapered steel pins he was able with the use of a large sledge hammer, to bring the rail closer together so that he could replace the bolts. I was put to work holding a bar under a couple of ties as John repacked the ballast to bring the track up level again. Finally he filled the original track pin holes with pieces of cedar wood and then put new pins in place.The whole operation had taken just 20 minutes.
As we continued with our track in- spection John stopped to allow me to photograph Winniandy laid out below us with the coal loading facilities, Milner Power, a waiting manifest train. Our journey also saw a bear with 2 large cubs moving away as we rounded a corner, the second largest man made embankment which was made when the track was originally laid, the white sun bleached carcass of a horse that had been shot some years ago after it had become injured, plus a cross buck to nowhere.This was installed when there was a mine nearby and was never removed when the mine closed and the road removed.
The last stages of our journey took us over the lattice bridge that spans the Smokey River before completing the U turn back along the track into Winni- andy.There I asked about the unusual
turnout - unusual because there are no check rails. It has a self-checking frog and speed is restricted to just 10 mph.
I have long thought that this would make a great model both from a scenery and operational point of view.
In addition to the main track, there is a tipple loading track, 3 long siding roads plus short sidings holding ballast laden hoppers and a CN caboose and another short siding which holds various track maintenance vehicles and equipment. Trains are pulled by the latest high power engines. On my first visit in 2005 there was a train of empty coal cars
with another train coupled together with a manifest train that had a consist of 6 SD75i and SD40-W locos.At the same time there was a train loading at the tipple which had 3 SD locos on the point and another waiting in a cut off
to be added at the rear as a DPU when the loading had been completed.Add in the white CN hi-rail and there are great operational possibilities!
In addition to the photos shown here, further photos can be found on my Flickr site at https://www.flickr.com/pho- tos/mikehughes2011/albums/
Mike Hughes
ROUNDHOUSE - March/April 2020
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