The RP&M, along with IPP&W crews, yesterday, lifted all trackage in Nelson Yard. After lifting the track, the complete benchwork was ripped out.
The yard is to be rebuilt in the Spring, to allow for better operations, and better switches.
All switches will be rebuilt Aristo wide radius ones. “S” curves will be kept to a minimum. All benchwork will be replaced, to our new standards.
Just for everyone’s information. The Pressure treated 2x lumber was in relatively good shape, considering that it had been in place for almost 20 years. For part of that 20 years it had a coating of stone dust on it that retained moisture. The only wood showing great rottage was the odd piece that was layed “Cup Up”.
The main reason we decided to rip up the bench work was that it had had a lot of add-ons added to it over the years. It was bolted together with carriage bolts and they were all rusted and were not worth trying to take apart. We just used a skill saw and cut the boards up.
The interesting thing, was, that the legs were of plain PT 2x4’s, just standing on patio stones. True they had been treated on the cut ends with Pentox…but they showed little sign of rot.
The bench work has never shown signs of frost heave, due to the fact that the patio stones were placed on undisturbed ground, and the legs were not sunk into the ground. The whole thing floated on the soil.
We may use deck blocks for the new legs, but it seems that they are not of that great importance, as long as you use a patio stone of at least 18"x 18" size, on undisturbed soil, to spread the weight of the structure.