heres some pics mike piersa took sat afternoon while we were doing some track work.....

http://community.webshots.com/album/562 ... J?start=96

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I assume this is in the area beyond the tour that you are reopening?

What is the thought? to lengthen the tour, long tern stability or production?

Are you guys in there mostly every Sunday?

~S

This work that we are doing now is on the existing tour. The rail in this mine is the original from when the mine was in operation (it closed in 1972) After the mine closed and was sealed the rail was under water for 20 years or so. The switch we are rebuilding now is the last of the really bad stuff. It was getting to the point of every winter spending two or three days patching it together and then doing it again part way through the tour season so instead of doing it again that way the decision was made to rip it all out and start fresh with new rail,points, throw, sills etc.
We are down there just about every sunday for the most part.

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The rail should have a number (the weight), a set of letters, mill name, year and a number of "I"'s These will be repeated every 10 foot or so along the web of the rail.

What are you finding?

we are finding that its all rusted away to nearly nothing as the head is barely there in some places and the webbing is closing in on 1/8 of an inch in places that used to be 60# rail! so letters and numbers are long gone! hopefully like mike said this is the last of what really needs attention. we should have this finished sat afternoon then sunday replace 2 straight sections leading up to the switch and the rail work will be basically complete for a while anyways. in places the rail isnt bad, but what would be the nuts would be to pull it all up, bring in a bobcat and dig the bed down, new rail bed, new sills, new rail and new ballast. some day........

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I love the ore car shots...

Yeah those rails were wearing very nicely, too nicely.. Good to hear you made good progress..

Miner Greg

The rail that we are replacing was at one time 60lb rail. The rail going in is 40lb rail. I think last year the date was visible on some of what we took out and I think it was from the late 1940's or the early 1950's if I remember right and it was definitly from Bethlehem Steel.

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"We don't look for any money all we look for is a little help and the only help we get is for the government to shut us down and if you go to the gas station and buy the gas you'll see why..........................you'll see why"

Here are some more shots from Saturday that I just got back. These are the first images taken with my “newâ€

Nice pics. They have a gone 'back in time' kind of look to them with the shading.

mike those pictures are great!

what a great idea-get an ancient camera and take pictures that look like they were taken 80 years ago! i love it!!

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Woah mike thats awesome! ...you should take pictures of like... a space shuttle with that thing!

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Mike,

Yeah that was a neat idea.. I was considering doing that a while ago, but never got around to it.. Pretty neat..

Miner Greg

Couldn’t get to a space shuttle, but I finally saw the local F-14:



Also got a couple more at #9:

Now that is a wide spread.

No 9 Coal Mine and a Tomcat

Almost reminds me of my screen savers at Work.

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