In May, I attended the NMRA Pacific Coast Region convention in Sacramento, followed by the joint UP/SP historical societies’ convention in Ogden Utah commemorating the 150th anniversary of the completion of the US transcontinental railroad. It seems that while I was gone the Saturday elves were hard at work in my absence, working to get the portable end of the line section known as Darestof installed in preparation for VanRail in September. What is not evident in the photos is the amount of stuff that had to be moved to make room for the new L-girders and benchwork to support Darestof. The event was recorded once again by John.
They did leave me to install the track to connect Darestof to Curlew. I didn’t want to compromise the design of Curlew just for VanRail, so the very end of Curlew was left unbuilt so that we could join it temporarily to Darestof. Once we continue along the wall and move Darestof to its next location, the south end of Curlew will get finished. For now, there is lots of track that has just been nailed down instead of glued.
Darestof was not the only location where the elves were working. The sawmill in Curlew needs some sort of a log pond, so the trusty sabre saw was put to good use to cut out the plywood. They installed another piece lower down for the pond bottom.
Many thanks to the guys for doing this to advance the construction, and to Suzy for inviting them over in the first place! . There was considerable consternation amongst the group that I may be mad at them, but why would I be, after they did so much to help me.