Anybody heard from Kevin? His job will naturally put him in harms way with all this rain. We may be seeing some of his work on the national broadcasts. Another one would be Marc Horovitz of Garden Railways magazine.
Hope the guys, their families and all the railroads are okay.
Kevin posted this in the Tracks and Trestles Forum. It looks like he’s a little damp, but otherwise OK.
Kevin Strong said:
Yeah, it’s pretty wet out here at the moment. Boulder County’s all but shut down. There’s a dam up in Commerce City that’s failed, but hasn’t yet fallen apart. The community in its shadows has been evacuated. Lots of towns up in the mountains are completely cut off due to road damage.
I’ve got about 10" of water in a bucket that–on Tuesday–was dry. I’ve been watching the local wildlife walk down the street 2 x 2 all week. (Yet my dogs won’t stick their noses outside…)
The railroad has held up well, though it’s quite saturated and I’ve got pockets of standing water here and there. I just finished putting in a bunch of rocks to hold my ballast in place on one of my loops, and this has certainly proven a good test of its efficacy.
Go figure; I’ve got an open house this weekend… Hopefully things will dry out by then. The rain’s supposed to stop later this afternoon, and Saturday’s supposed to be mostly sunny with only scattered thunderstorms. Sunday’s a wildcard. One forecast shows rain all day, one forecast shows much like Saturday. Even the weather guys I work with have changed the Sunday forecast seemingly for every newscast. At least I’ll be able to answer that tired question “what do you do when it rains?”
Later,
K
Thanks Steve.
He just posted something on facebook. Sounds like he’s ok.
Flooding in Fort Collins, but nothing that directly affected us. I did have to pump out my pond twice (about 6 to 8 inches of water) to keep my electrics from tripping the GFI ( a design problem that should be documented in “I should have known”. I have the same problem with large snow storms). Our main interstate highway, I-25, that is the north south artery of the state, is closed from Wyoming to Denver due to the fact that it is now a series of lakes. Pretty amazing.
I’m pretty far removed from the flooding as well, and so far, no ill effects from any of the rain besides a very soggy back yard. The railroad appears to have survived unscathed, though I’ve got a bunch of cleaning to do before Sunday’s open house. The rockwork I put in to keep the ballast from washing away seems to have done its job (talk about a test!!!) The waters up in the canyons are beginning to recede, but who knows how long it will be before the roads passable again to some of the communities.
(Del, if I-25 is open on Sunday, come on down!)
Later,
K
Kevin, Del–my wife puts Damp Rid in our closets to cut down on moisture, so maybe if I sent you some you could put it around your railway. 
Get dry.
I think he’d need to use it for ballast.
Kevin …Del …Good to hear all is well …rain is amazing when it comes down that much that fast. Have seen it myself more than once.