As we rode on the train, I honest to God remember thinking, "How in the world do they know those walls supporting the tracks are safe?" Who knew I would be someone actually determining this!!!
Needless to say, I didn't need an alarm to wake up. I jumped into my clothes and grabbed my gear and waited outside the hotel to be picked up. We rode in a van to the Rockwood station and climbed into a motorcar that rode on the rails. I tried my best to act professional and not seem like a tourist, although I was excited as can be.
One of our first stops was the famous Highline bridge over the Animas River. I didn't take the picture below, but I wanted to set the scene. We checked the timber approach spans and climbed out onto the deck truss. The 100+ year old structure is showing its age, but remains fully capable of supporting the locomotive. As we climbed the posts to look at the pins in the upper chords, we heard a train whistle in the distance. "Hot rail," yelled the maintenance workers. We all grabbed ahold of something sturdy and experienced the train passing above us. The entire bridge shook like a leaf, but held strong. The experience was beyond belief.
Not all the bridges were quite as spectacular, but they all do serve an important purpose. We had 3 engineers from our company and 3 folks from the railroad. We took notes of problems we saw and told the maintenance guy what corrective actions to perform.
When we stopped at the Needleton Tank, I really had to go.
If inspecting a world-renowned railroad wasn't enough, the scenery was also pretty good. You know it is good when the railroad folks who had lived in the area their whole life were blown away by the scenery.
We ate lunch both days in Silverton. The restaurant owners give a large discount to the railroad employees since they bring so much business to their town via the train. After eating we noticed this dog just sleeping away...right in the middle of the road.
On Tuesday morning, we again started out with a neat old truss. We were again fortunate enough to be there when the early morning train was rolling by. It was advantageous to see the structure being loaded to see any deficiencies.
We started out the morning inspections by visiting bridges adjacent to the Million Dollar Highway. The views were just as good on the road as the on the rail.
After lunch we returned to the motorcars and finished inspection of the walls on the Highline.
Because the trains were returning, we had to be dropped off by the motorcars and left. 20 minutes later, the train rolled thru.
It was interesting to be such a popular attraction for the train passengers. They probably thought I looked pretty studly with my hardhat and safety harness on. :)
Here is a typical example of the walls we inspected.
Easily my favorite part of the inspection was climbing the retaining walls along the Highline. The walls generally consisted of old rails driven into rock with tie backs anchored in the cliffs. The rails retained the large rock and the rail bed.
As we were inspecting one of the walls, we noticed some larger rocks that had appeared to move out of place. As we were marking down the movement, we heard the rumbling of the second train. We both quickly moved away from the rocks and grabbed onto the wall rails. Feeling the power of the locomotive transferring down through the wall was incredible. 
One of the railroad guys told us about a new deal that the railroad offers is a $500 ride on a motorcar. Heck, we were getting paid to do it!The experience was great enough to be once-in-a-lifetime...of course, we inspect the railroad every 6 months. How awesome is that!
1 comment:
If you want to keep your job, you might want to make sure your mom doesn't read this.
Wow - exiting and dangerous work. Very cool.
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