IT IS DONE! Steam locomotive 40 crossed Gleason Creek on September 8th pulling the 1:00 p.m. excursion train. On the way back to East Ely, 40 ran through a banner commemorating the completion of the Gleason Creek Bridge. The train stopped just off the bridge where passengers and staff witnessed the ceremonial smashing of two champagne bottles—one for each rail of the bridge—by Chief Mechanical Officer Marty Westland and Track Foreman Brad Lester. Then, in keeping with Nevada Northern Railway tradition, Marty, Brad, and yours truly drove home the last spike, which was made of copper!
It sounds grander than it actually is. Gleason Creek and the railroad both share the floor of Robinson canyon. The bridge I was referring to is not some stately structure and to be technically correct it’s a ballasted-deck timber-trestle. Nothing as glamorous as those tall, graceful, swaying timber trestles that you might be imagining when I say “bridge.” No, it was a pretty small looking thing, but a very, very necessary structure. It was short, squat, and failing. The deteriorating wooden structure is on the Keystone branch and it needed to be replaced.
But before plans could be made for replacement, funds needed to be raised. An appeal to our membership in mid-May raised over $40,000 in a little more than a month. Once the money was in the bank, the materials could be ordered. Two of our volunteers, Bear and Marty, designed a new structure. The new bridge would not be a bridge at all, but rather an elliptical metal pipe that would be concreted into place where the old bridge was.
But before plans could be made for replacement, funds needed to be raised. An appeal to our membership in mid-May raised over $40,000 in a little more than a month. Once the money was in the bank, the materials could be ordered. Two of our volunteers, Bear and Marty, designed a new structure. The new bridge would not be a bridge at all, but rather an elliptical metal pipe that would be concreted into place where the old bridge was.
Also, before the bridge could be removed we needed vehicle access to the bridge site. To get to our right-of-way, we needed to cross mine property and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property. And we also needed a road. Coordinating with the mine and BLM, permission was received to cross their respective properties and improve an existing road that was mostly likely used the last time the bridge was worked on.
The first step was to remove the track from the top of the old existing structure. This is easier said then done. First, there were two weights of rail: on the bridge, there was 115-pound rail and on the approaches to the bridge was 90-pound rail. What this meant is that we had compromise joints and they take special joint bars that have an inside and outside. Once we decided to how much rail to remove, it was time to pull spikes and unbolt the joint bars. Some spikes came out easily and some didn’t—surprise, surprise. Of course, the joint bar bolts and nuts were rusted and were a bear to loosen. Then once the bolts were out, the joint bars themselves needed to come off. Again all easier said then done. Rails were finally pulled up and moved out of the way. Then the spikes and tie plates were collected and stacked out of the way. Now it was time to start the demolition of the old bridge.
Thanks to Marty and his little Kubota excavator, this was not as backbreaking as it could have been. Marty is an artist with that Kubota. It is a pleasure to see him wheel that thing around; he has the touch.
Marty started by removing the ties from the structure, then the ballast, and finally the beams themselves. As Marty was removing the beams, a special train was dispatched from Ely carrying the metal culvert pipe. Once at the site, the metal pipe was unloaded and set aside.
With the beams removed, it was time to place the pipe. Once the pipe was in, forms were built and we were ready for the concrete. Then Mother Nature played a cruel little joke on us. We had monsoons right here in the high desert. Every day it rained, for weeks it seemed. The problem with the rain was that it turned our newly bladed road into a quagmire! With the road saturated, concrete trucks could not make it in. Finally the rain stopped, the road dried out, and concrete was pored—success!
Now the job was half done, but the hardest part was still to come. The track needed to be rebuilt on our new metal-lined, concrete culvert. This meant new ties and lots of ballast. We are not mechanized other than Marty’s excavator and a tamper that belongs in a museum (which is where it is at). Everything is done by hand—and by hand, I mean driving spikes with a spike maul. Since we plan for this new work to last for decades, we used new ties and some of them were oak. You can tell an oak tie because when you drive a spike into it, it is like driving the spike into granite. You hit the spike and the hammer vibrates in your hands, goes up your arms, through your shoulders, down your back, and works its way down your legs. You feel like one of those cartoon characters.
After the rail was all spiked in place, it was time for ballast. Two ballast trains were run up to the bridge site. Ballast was emptied out of hopper cars and then tamped into place. To tamp the ballast into place we used our museum-piece tamper, which does work—it just takes awhile. Back and forth the tamper went, tamping the ballast under the ties. Finally, the track was tamped and all was ready for trains to start running again.
The first train across was a ballast train on August 29th. Then the excursion train went across on September 7th. Finally, we had the official opening ceremony on September 8th. There is still some cleanup work to do at the bridge site. The new structure will be around for decades.
It was a tough task. We replaced the bridge during our summer excursion season when staff and volunteers needed to operate trains, repair equipment, and finish the bridge. Thanks to everybody who worked on the bridge and the track, and kept the trains running. WE DID IT!