Another Work Session, Another Rail-Mower Problem

The RPI work session on Saturday, May 19, went well, for the most part.  RPI gained a new member, Phil Hopper of San Antonio, who joined Leland on his MT-14K open car and helped lop off branches and brush.  Jerry Light also came with his hy-rail Gator.  He brought his chainsaw mounted on a long pole, enabling him to cut pretty thick tree trunks and limbs from a distance.  Frank Glatzl rode with me in my Woodings CBI, intending to operate the rail-mower.

The rail-mower, as previous posts have indicated, did have a few issues with the tensioner and one of the jackshafts.  We were nonetheless hoping we could get a good day's worth of mowing out of it before removing and taking apart the mower deck.  Alas, it was not to be.  After about a mile or two of mowing east of Llano a few miles, the deck stopped mowing.  When Frank went back to check on it, he found the belt had snapped in two, evidently due to severe wear provoked by the tensioner problem and maybe the driveshaft issue as well.  We found the belt is a 129" double-V belt, but it was not available at the NAPA store in Kingsland.  So the rest of the trip Frank and I stopped periodically to help cut brush and branches, which was about all we could do to help.

We are going to have our own "rail-mower work session" before the next RPI work session on June 30.  Frank is fabricating a triangular support for the tensioner so it does not cause wear on the belt.  He will also make new blade driveshafts so we have some spares in case we damage them.  Frank took the driveshaft hub off the deck and brought the whole assembly home with him to work with.

Meanwhile, the scenery was quite impressive.  There were some very heavy rains in the Llano-Kingsland region the night of May 11 (which also showed up down at my place in Dripping Springs).  As a result, virtually every significant depression along the Llano-Scobey Spur rail line was filled with water and many small washes and gulches, normally dryer than a revival preacher, had water flowing in them.  The Llano River itself was higher than I have seen it for quite a while.

We saw wildlife along the rail line, probably taking advantage of the abundant water, including a group of feral pigs, deer, and vultures.  We also saw a herd of goats, a herd of cattle, a feral hen out in the middle of nowhere and a cat that ran across the tracks.  My motorcar severed a snake that tried to slither across in front of us.

The water contributed to a lovely series of flower carpets across the meadows and fields, with golden and red flowers predominating (by now almost all the bluebonnets are gone; their peak was during the mid-March work session).  Here are the obligatory motorcar-in-flower-fields-with-passenger pictures:

The weather was perfect, cloudy in the morning, burning off by the afternoon but with a breeze developing that helped keep temps bearable.

We hope to be back on the 30th with the rail-mower raring to go.  Meanwhile I probably will invest in not one, but two, mower deck belts to be sure we are not behind the 8-ball the next time that problem develops.