40 car sign

[Paul Davenport]

The C work session's sign maintenance crew's to-do list included straightening the "40 car" sign, which was leaning toward the tracks on Windy Point. Well, it turns out the sign's post needed straightening. We had a bear of a time digging it out of the ground so we could redig its hole to replant the post to stand straight. We finally got it out after a lot of digging and then tugging the thing out of the ground. A lot of huffing and puffing at 10,000 feet. That's when we found that the bottom of the steel post had bowed into a sizable curve, probably due to underground slippage in the slope over time. No way we could replant it straight up in that condition, so we hauled it back to Chama and consulted the work session's site leader, Bob Ross. We had the idea that the RR shop could straighten the post for us, but Bob asked Friends volunteer Marshall Smith to see what he could do. Marshall cut off the curved bottom and welded on a new, straight bottom piece. All done in two hours. Impressive. We repainted the sign board and hauled the thing back up to Windy and replanted it the next morning. We'll see how it holds up. And if it doesn't want to co

me out of the ground again, we'll know why. In the meantime, thanks, Marshall.

[Paul Davenport]

I didn't think I had a shot showing the formerly underground curve of the "40 car" sign's post but I do. You can see the curve under the feet of team leader Jim Gross. At this point we

were waiting for two other crew members to rejoin us after they worked on signs father down the tracks.

[Jason Rose]

.

[Paul Davenport]

Perhaps beating a dead horse, here's a better shot of the curve in the "40 car" sign's post. Team member Barry Vincent was lugging the thing back to our vehicle at Cumbres as we hiked the ROW after waiting for daily eastbound and its accompanying fire patrol speeders to clear.

[Pat Maufrais]

Please remind us what does this sign means.
Thanks! Pat

[Paul Davenport]

Pat, it's a distance measurement that would have been very useful to train crews during pre-radio days. This one tells a train crew when they're the lengths of 40 cars from the last switch (at Cumbres). That's according to Jim Gross, leader of the C work session's sign-maintenance crew. Jim wrote a series of articles for the Dispatch explaining the RR's signage. The' article that included car signs appeared in the Spring 2013 edition of the Dispatch. It said there are two other car signs on the line. One is a 60-car sign at Mud Tunnel and the other is a "Clearance Point" sign near Toltec siding.

[Pat Maufrais]

Thank you for the info.
I'll dig thru the back issues.
Pat