I'd love to post some photos from our work session today but no can do--I forgot to bring the digital camera. So let's go with telling instead of showing. I headed to Kingsland to try to take care of some particularly important highway-rail grade intersections before the fall Llano excursion on Saturday, Oct. 22. These intersections have had a lot of weed growth, obstructing lines of sight for approaching cars, and I was determined to clear as much as possible during our limited work session period. I set out a red flag in the direction of the approaching motorcars to ensure no nasty surprise while working around the rails.
Leland, Jerry Light, George Gray and Frank Glatzl went to Llano. They set on Jerry's hy-rail Gator and Frank's MT-19. Jerry and George rode in the Gator and Leland and Frank in the MT-19. The Llano group cut trees and tree branches on the way down. They saw several nice-looking bucks. They had to dig out the crossing at the Antlers Hotel, as usual, and showed up at Campa Pajama Lane for the lunch stop at Spyke's BBQ at about 11:30 am.
Meanwhile I was having a time of it at the second Campa Pajama Lane rail-highway intersection a few hundred feet east. I unloaded my DR push weedwhacker and started whacking away. But--and I do wish I had some photos--the 5-6 feet high weeds wrapped themselves around the jackshaft almost every time I made a foray into the dense weeds. That meant stopping the machine and pulling the weeds off the jackshaft. Eventually I figured out that a gradual attack was better than a frontal assault but I still had the weedwhacker down for cleaning weeds more often than it was cutting. I had thought it was going to be an hour or two job but I worked 3.5 hours before being called for lunch by Leland.
One item in our favor was the weather. There were some showers on the way up and it began to rain after a half an hour at Kingsland. I put on a raincoat and kept working but if the rain had strengthened I would have had to sit it out. Eventually the rain stopped and the rest of the day was completely overcast. As a result, temps stayed in the high seventies to low eighties. I was able to work without a break for 3.5 hours, which would have been simply impossible any day during this summer. The motorcar group reported some intermittent showers on the way down as well. But the great weather for working didn't keep me from raising some blisters on my hands, which are now beginning to make their presence felt.
After lunch, the motorcar group headed down the line to Scobey Spur and return while I attacked the weeds at the Spyke's BBQ spot, since that is where we will stop for lunch during the Oct. 22 excursion. I cleaned it out pretty well but not as much as I would have liked since the weedwhacker died on me. I suspect it needs a new air filter since the old one was a mess. I loaded everything up and returned to the Campa Pajama Lane intersection I was working on in the morning. Took out my loppers and began attacking the only corner of the intersection that still needed attention. The motorcar group returned, having done a lot of tree trimming along the way. We had a good yarn standing by Frank's MT-19, the motorcars left and I finished up the trim job. I'm sure the motorcar group did some more trimming on their way back since there are always trees and brush to be cleared from the ROW.
We got a great deal accomplished today with only five people so the line is in decent shape for the forthcoming excursion. But it is clear that even if we get the rail-mower I am working on going, we will have to continue to work hard to ensure clear lines of sight for approaching traffic at problematic rail-highway grade intersections. That will be a major challenge during wetter years. Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
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