Today’s procedure involved wood grafting, starting with bridge beams and main stringers.
Then prepping for ties.
Then ties and curb(?) boards.
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Cliff will be using a lighter tinted ties indicating where the disaster occurred and were replaced by the GHA crews way back in ‘26, or will you be using original shades?
Bill, I’ll be slopping on the same stain, wiping it off the rails, and hoping for the best. My bar is much lower with repair jobs… 
Wooden guard rails? I thought their function was to sandwich the ties to the stringers.
Notched the ties for new joiners, did final staining and re-installed the handrail. So far so good.
Here’s the rail to be replaced… It took a nice whack. The bends drew in the remaining rail and loosened all the spikes, so they’ll all need inspection and re-spiking in places.
Today was rail laying. The jigs came in handy again.
The main problem was with the old intact ties, where about half the spikes got pulled on, so were loose in their holes. All those needed to re-nailed. Which was sketchy for around 18" on either end, where main and guard rails were spiked every tie, making new homes for spikes iffy… two ties cracked badly.
Other than that, the rail laying went well.
Next step is oiling the new wood work, which I’ll let dry through the week. I’d like to get this sucker re-installed next weekend.
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I’m gonna ignore that comment. However when you finish and put it back outside you can sit back and have a Chubby!
We’ve had a beautiful morning here, so I decided to go for it. Linda helped me walk the trestle out and plant it. I’m really pleased that it locked into the piers without any trouble. Then I reconnected the rails, oiled the new wood, and she’s done, yay!
Thanks for y’alls support.
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“Like it never even happened”
I’m assuming that is aluminum rail since I don’t think stainless would have bent so sharply.
Thanks Jon. It’s nickel-plated hardened brass from Train Li. Can’t find the formulation though. Not as strong as SS, but certainly harder than regular (Chinese-sourced) brass.
Time to sit back in a lawn chair and look at it with a Chubby !
Nice work, Cliff. Glad to see the mainline back in service. The tree damage was a lot to overcome.
Cheers,
Matt
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Four GHA’s, aces to you both.