The cave Cove Bridge, near Terrapin was one of the most distinctive scenes on my old central peninsula. I had packed it up carefully, as I “intend to use it on the lowest level of my new Central peninsula.
Getting the box out of storage, it was obvious that the box had had a corner crushed. The main span was OK, and there was little damage to the taller set of pilings, but one side of the shorter set of pilings was stoved in, with broken cross and sway braces.
I had NBW castings on each side of the pilings, where a cross or sway brace attached, so the broken pieces would only fit correctly in the exact original place, making it a real puzzle.
With so much going on on my RR, and the intricate, and distressing nature of the repair, I had put it off, but the subroadbed on the lowest level extends all the way to where the bridge will go.
It’s appearance will change considerably, as it will be on Dead flat track, so the odd trestle bents that provides for the grade will be gone. It will also be flipped, as it was on an outside curve, and now it will be on an inside curve.
We have not been at the lake much, as we had a lot of ugly weather. But we went to the lake this weekend. I had not planned projects in advance, so I grabbed the partly smashed bridge pier assembly , and some of the biggest pieces , to start putting the pieces together.
Massive frustration, but have made serious progress. I brought one piece that must belong to the other tower, and an short some tiny prices, that are should be in the box still. However, I have it together enough that I know it will be salvageable, a good thing considering all the tile I spent drilling holes and gluing in all those NBW castings that push these over the top, Need to do similar with the arched truss. A shame this will be closer to knee level than to eye level.
A close up of the area still needing the most work, shows both the kind of damage and the level of detail. At this point the assembly could be oriented so the other side showed, and likely no one would notice , not 18 inches off the floor anyway.
Not my only source of frustration this weekend. Last time we were at the lake it was super cold, and the pipe we drain the pipes with froze. It broke. Which is not surprising, but one of the pipes to the tub froze too. I fixed the first one, but I’m going to have to remove Sheetrock in a closet to fix the tub pipe,so I capped off that pipe, and I’ll bring tools next time I come to the lake to remove Sheetrock, and make a access door.
On the layout I I have the new block wired on the lowest level Against the Eastern Wall, toward the riverbottoms, where there is a long passing siding, and a very long siding, that can serve as a staging area until the lowest level of the central peninsula is ready for action.
I was planning on calling that area Sanders’ Switch, but will need anotherblock on the narrow gauge at the first mining area, and am thinking it will be Sanders’ ridge.
So I got to come up with a name for block, Possibilities on the radar so far are Midway, and Gilroy.