That’s all beside the point.
The ME plates are for code 250.
I mean, sometimes you’re very observant, but…
Herself tells me that she wants some bling for our 20th anniversary.
- 20th Anniversary: Traditional: China. Modern: Platinum.
Damn! Pot metal is not listed anywhere! 
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Congrats, Bill! Go for it!! The platinum, I mean.
We’re heading toward our 41st, which I think is cobalt-chromium. At least, that’s the metal that’s destined to replace one of our hip joints soon. 
no room?
does that mean, that we can look forward to the next shed building log?
some kind of crannog/ pile building?
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I reckon you could mount a mini hydo generator in those slots. Did they have electrikery at the mine?
I can see you’ve got the water bit sorted…
Cheers
N
Edit: Really nice work Cliff - I kinda miss that bit out 'cause it’s always the case…
That’s no excuse, Cliff! I’ve designed and 3D printed both single-rail tie plates and double-rail (to make bridge work simpler). They cost me 1 cent per 3 plates to print. Want some? 
Hi Neil, yes those slots looked a bit dramatic, as I was digging out a bit extra for the mortar to bite. Here’s the “finished” product.
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Nothing like the slots in Vegas though. I can’t help myself…
Been playing in the dirt and rocks and mud today. Stepping stones, “river bed,” hiding the sprinkler lines, re-rocking planter and other borders, reworking the outer wall, add mortar to a section of wall that was failing, tweaking the sprinkler locations & connections, replanting ground cover, moving the excess dirt to a place that can use it, and lots of cleanup.
Tomorrow I’ll hopefully get the trestles in and the trackwork done.
Cheers!
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The trestles are planted. I was happy to see that the trestles fit their foundations and abutments without a hiccup.
Each incoming track took time, requiring a mix of cutting slightly longer rails, shimming, re-anchoring, additional bending, etc. So, it didn’t go as smoothly as I expected, but well enough.
I’d like to make a woodpile for the dump, but need to figure out how to mass produce cordwood.
The main next thing will setting up for the big curved trestle. I won’t get far though, because starting a week from tomorrow I’ve got almost a month of travel coming. Regardless, I’ve been pushing to get these straight ones done before all the travel, so I’m happy they’re done.
Salute and cheers!
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Ok, Governor Overthink! You have a whole property full of it. Just think of all those fallen dead branches as “scale lumber”…now quit being sofa king dumb and think beyond what the computer can draw for you! Think before there was any computers and power tools ran on steam.
Cliff,
There is no easy way to “mass Produce” cordwood. Just like in the real world it takes time and effort to produce a cord of wood.
What are you producing the wood to be used for? If for locomotive or most boilers they did not use standard size “stove wood” that is 16 inch lengths. Most lengths for boilers were 24 to 36 inches long with an average diameter to suite individual needs.
You probably know all this but a cord of wood is 128 cubic feet stacked, doesn’t matter the size of the individual pieces. A typical cord of stove wood is usually 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long but the stack can be any size or shape as long as it measures out to 128 cubic feet.
Back in the day the railroads as well as the steam powered riverboats would have Gyppo crews, excuse me, independent contractors, that would cut and stack the wood along the tracks or river landings and it would be paid for as used.
So have fun making your cordwood.
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Nothing beats the look of real wood. Mass production is unlikely. As Rooster says, find some branches with nice tight bark. Cut to length with a power saw then split with a utility knife or other sharp implement.
This is the wood load I made that way for my live steam Shay to hide the RC gear…
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Cliff;
Ditto what the others have said. I prefer maple sticks. as they are readily abundant in my yard and the bark looks about right. Don’t worry about the bark peeling randomly. That’s prototypical as well.
Best, David Meashey
Thanks for the ideas guys. I’ve been planning on using cedar scrap wood, to give it more endurance than the poplar wood we have around the house.
Did some photo digging yesterday, and saw that the cordwood used on the Comstock was around 4’ long. Rick, I think that was a standard that they knew could fit into the mines’ boilers.
So after roughing up and cutting some cedar leftovers to around 2", I set up a “cordwood mill” and chopped the pieces. Went quickly.
From the photos, I also noticed that the dump needed a lower wall, so I threw that on.
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In the FWIW department, I based by cordwood length on gauging piles of it near various Comstock minies and mills, and coming up with 4 feet. This photo, with the flatcar bed being around 9’ wide, seems to nail that length.
I contacted Wendell Huffman (NSRM) who wrote the book (literally) on Comstock wood supply, asking if that was so. He confirmed that the cordwood was 4’ long for cutting and transport, but said it would be further cut to 24" or 16" by the end consumer as they needed.
For example, the wood in a wood-burning loco needed those shorter lengths, so the V&T had a sawing facility for the cordwood they received. This reminds me of that swinging saw in Devon’s Hecla mine… if I’m remembering correctly.
Wendell also confirmed that many of the boilers on the Comstock might have taken the 4’ lengths directly.
The dump I’m modeling was for the Ophir mine, and perhaps they burned some as-is for thier boilers, and cut some for other uses.
My bad Cliff, that statement should have been 24 to 48 inches long, not 36 inches.
The 48 inch length made it quick and easy to judge a cord, just stack em 4 foot high and 8 ft long and you had your cord.
Remember most RR or Mines kept 30 - 40 cords on hand at all times, looks like you better keep splitting
All good points, Rick.
And to your mention of quantity, yes, understood. Years ago, I’d intended on making a cordwood pile for my model of the Hale & Norcross mine, but never got around to it. Sometimes they were tidy…
…and sometimes they weren’t.
Never did make that pile. Sometime.
All the mines and mills had these enormous piles, at least in their productive (or hopefully productive) times. Here’s the Sierra Nevada, on the north end of the Comstock. Never saw much silver, but it sure ate up wood.
And while I’m at it, here’s one of the mills in Virginia City, along Six Mile Canyon I think.
For me, I’m just going to suggest a disorganized wood pile, right after dumping off a V&T flat car, before stacking, and let it go at that. [edit] The reason I say this is because that’s what this dump was.
I haven’t seen photos of the Ophir Mine’s organized stacks of cordwood, but this is where the stackers started their work. And they didn’t have any Advil.
Nice.
It used to be that one could 3d print at Shapeways and have a color-printed exterior, and this would have been a great test for that.