RPI Work Session at McDade, TX

A major new positive development for RPI - Capital Metro granted our request to lease the Giddings Branch and the lease has been signed and is in effect.  The lease also renews our stewardship of the Llano Branch, from Llano, TX to Scobey Spur, east of Kingsland about three miles.  Our new segment runs approximately from Butler to the junction with UP-owned or leased rail about one mile short of Giddings.  It is about 25 miles long.  This segment is out of service, except now for RPI-organized motorcar activities.  Sunday, January 27, RPI held its first work session on the line.  We gathered at McDade, on the west end, and cleared overgrown trees, shrubs and vines almost exactly 1.5 miles west, to a private crossing next to a Valero station with a restaurant.  This was an important segment because now we have access to food and fuel for future work sessions, simply by returning to that point for the mid-day break.  1.5 miles doesn't sound like much for 12 workers to get done over six hours but on the other hand the track had a lot of obstructions to clear, including several trees that had fallen across it and needed to be sawed.

Ron and Grace Pereida, Bob King and I stayed behind at lunch in McDade to watch over Fred Fabian's motorcar and Brad Nelson's trailer (full of RPI member tools).  We ate our brought-from-home lunches sitting on benches under the shade of an awning in front of a block of historic stone storefronts, one of which was a former saloon now turned into the McDade Community Museum.  UP signal maintainer Brandon Nelson stopped and asked what was going on, so we filled him in on RPI and its mission and urged him to check out our website at railroadpartners.com.

Here are the photos I took from this historic work session showing the work in progress:

This shows the former depot at McDade, moved from close to the tracks to across the street from the tracks.  A row of historic stone buildings is just to the right, out of the photo.  In photo below, RPI President Leland Stewart talks with member Lou Houck as session begins.

Jerry Light and Bob King work on a crossing at McDade.

The crew is out lopping along the track to the west of downtown McDade.

Slowly but surely branches are being cut back enough for motorcars to get by.  Further cutting back will continue to occur once the line is passable the entire length.

Lou Houck and other members uprooting vines that covered the track in several sections.

Some heavy-duty chainsaw work was required in places.

Tired but pleased crew poses at private crossing that marks west end of track cleared.

That was our Saturday work session.  Weather was perfect, about 70 degrees high, overcast but no rain.  Everyone had a great time.  It will take quite a few more work sessions to clear the line in its entirety but hopefully within a year or so it will be done and we will have another route to offer our members and guest excursion participants.  This line is particularly valuable to our members who live east of Austin since they won't have to drive as far to participate in RPI activities.

There was also, for the record, an RPI work session on the Llano Branch on Saturday, Jan. 26, but I didn't attend so can't add much.  I did hear that the mowing done by our rail-mower last season was still visible so that means the rail-mower has helped keep the line passable.  And also, we have another RPI work session at Bonham, TX, next Saturday, northeast of Dallas, so RPI is really becoming what we have envisioned, a state-wide group offering rail experiences to our members in a variety of locations.