Day 1 - Clearing Brush

I went up to Redwood Valley this afternoon, having called first to check that Ellen would be there. I parked in the crew lot and met up with Ellen for some foliage clearing on the track. We each took a pair of pruners and started out along the railroad's mainline*, clipping back any foliage that was close enough for kids to grab from the cars, or low enough to be a hazard. As the train comes around roughly every 20 minutes, we'd listen for the whistle and stand well off to the side to let the train pass. The sight of happy kids and parents waving to you as they roll on by is a fine thing to see.

It took a couple of hours to work all the way around the mainline, and then to work up the spurs that lead to the shop, barn, and roundhouse. We pile the brush in neat, orderly piles by the side of the track; later we'll haul a gondola with the work locomotive and pick up all the brush for disposal.

After the work was done, I went out with Grant on a run. He let me sit next to him on the footplate as he drove. I got to check out some of the basic operation of a locomotive during a run. It's a complicated balance of steam pressure, water level, fuel flow (these locos are fired with oil), and speed. Looks like it takes a long, long time to get to know how these machines work.

Edit: Someone on the crew today mentioned that several passengers had read an article in "the paper" about the RVRy. It was, in fact, in today's Contra Costa Times, and can be read here.

* the mainline is the primary stretch of track on a railroad, as opposed to sidings, spurs, and yards. The mainline is what the railroad is all about. It's also known as the "high iron", from which the name of this blog is taken.