Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

This forum is dedicated to the Live Steam Hobbyist Community.

Moderators: cbrew, Harold_V

User avatar
VO4454
Posts: 199
Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:12 am
Location: NorCal

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by VO4454 »

Hello Jack, The railroad and landscaping look great. You are quite the artist and craftsman. I will have see it in person. I think it may be a little like going to Disneyland. Will we need E tickets to ride the high line ? Keep up the good and hard work.
Vic
For Duty and Humanity
User avatar
Greg_Lewis
Posts: 3014
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:44 pm
Location: Fresno, CA

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Greg_Lewis »

VO4454 wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 12:28 am Will we need E tickets to ride the high line ?
Ah, you just revealed your age. I don't think anyone under 45 would know what that is. Remember how the E tickets would be gone first and we'd always get stuck with a bunch of A and B tickets? Perhaps Jack would allow a ride for an A ticket.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
User avatar
JBodenmann
Posts: 3855
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:37 pm
Location: Tehachapi, California

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
Thank you Vic for the compliments. E ticket ride.. yes I remember that, from the happiest place on earth. My favorite ride was, you guessed it the railway. I remember my brother and I riding in the baggage car behind the engine, that would have been in 1960. In those days if you showed up at school on Monday with a Mickey Mouse shirt everyone knew, you had been to Disneyland, as that was the only place on the planet you could get one. If you show up with an Alcalde & Coalfield shirt everyone will know where you have been, too much fun! Although my little pike could never compare, I have thought about Disneyland. Usually at the end of the day around sunset when wandering around and brainstorming. Lets see, a little town here, a red brick culvert there, a group of trees over there. So many ideas, so little time. The second steaming bay is in now. Today, more pavers. The pavers really aren't so bad and they are going in a lot faster than the retaining walls last winter. But now there is another jobstacle. There is a dry creek bed that drains the steaming Bay Area and the west end of the drive way. The drain pipe from the steaming bay drain pops out there. It needs a little tractor work before the main line and remaining steaming bays can go in. Some boulders need to be moved around, and another small mountain to plant a tree on must be made. No shortage of things to do!
Jack
Cary Stewart
Posts: 542
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 5:54 pm

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Cary Stewart »

The combine that Jack refers to above can be seen at the Los Angeles Live Steamers RR Museum on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month when the Disney Barn is open. It has been fully restored and beautiful.
Cary
User avatar
Harlock
Posts: 3833
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:19 am
Contact:

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Harlock »

Hi all,

Jack asked me to post a few pictures from the inagural steam run at the Alcalde and Coalfield!

Part 1: The day started with a work session with mainline track being built west of the turntable switch, the opposite direction of the existing hundred or so feet of main laid. once the ground is tamped to level and the track set up with light weight plywood templates, the real (heavy) stuff is brought in and put in place, and then comes the track laying on top, with pre-drilled ties and itty bitty 3/4" scale rail. Later Jack will go back and put a flat head nail through a tie every now and then to the treated side boards. The concrete pillars are not attached to the ground in any way so they can be adjusted easily over time.

As you've seen in this thread, Jack spent a lot of time studying and collecting 'best practices' for high lines and I think he's arrived at an elegant and flexible track by not permanently affixing it to the ground.

Part 2 in next post.
Attachments
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0027.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0032.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0033.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0036.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0040.jpg
Last edited by Harlock on Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Live Steam Photography and more - gallery.mikemassee.com
Product Development and E-Commerce, Allen Models of Nevada
User avatar
Harlock
Posts: 3833
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:19 am
Contact:

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Harlock »

Part 2...

At lunch time the tools were put away and everyone convened in Jack's house for sandwiches and split pea soup. Then it was play time. Mike Getscher (whom you may recognize from my Live Steam Magazine cover article featuring his amazingly detailed Falk) brought a partially completed OS Porter chassis, being converted into a Baldwin as be builds.

Larry Fisher, who has a growing collection of small scales locomotives brought his LBSC Juliet.

Contined...
Attachments
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0048.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0045.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0052.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0061.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0062.jpg
Live Steam Photography and more - gallery.mikemassee.com
Product Development and E-Commerce, Allen Models of Nevada
User avatar
Harlock
Posts: 3833
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:19 am
Contact:

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Harlock »

Part 3...

Larry also brought this unpainted 0-4-0 who's make and model has left my brain since yesterday.

Andy Romer brought his Raritan, a familiar sight to LALS small scales members. After a quick remedy for a leaky sight glass drain, the locomotive became the first ever to take the main at the Alcalde and Coalfield with a great cheer. Sounds of small scales chuffs were heard echoing off the scenery for the first time.
Attachments
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0070.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0076.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0077.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0081.jpg
18-10-03_alcalde-coalfield-first-run-0086.jpg
Live Steam Photography and more - gallery.mikemassee.com
Product Development and E-Commerce, Allen Models of Nevada
User avatar
Harlock
Posts: 3833
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:19 am
Contact:

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Harlock »

A few more general pictures of the day, showing good times and good friends. I had to leave before Larry got out on the main, someone else may have a picture or two of that.

All in all a great day and I feel honored to witness the birth of a new railroad.

-Mike
Attachments
20181013_155911.jpg
20181013_141350.jpg
20181013_160035.jpg
20181013_160317.jpg
20181013_141350.jpg
Live Steam Photography and more - gallery.mikemassee.com
Product Development and E-Commerce, Allen Models of Nevada
Andy R
Posts: 441
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2007 2:18 pm
Location: So. Calif.

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Andy R »

Jack has really put in a lot of time, thought and capital into the Alcalde and Coalfield. What a classy steaming bay - with fancy brick retaining walls and herring-bone pattern paving bricks. And of course very conveniently placed air and water lines. Note the height of the steaming bays too - very easy to work on the locos. What a pleasure to run on a highline instead of on the ground at LALS. No backache and no leg cramps. Time to schedule more trips to the A&C to help grade and build the rest of the track.
And we had a great time jawboning when not working or steaming. See Mike's last photo.
User avatar
JBodenmann
Posts: 3855
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:37 pm
Location: Tehachapi, California

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
It was a beautiful day here in the mountains. Last weeks snow and rain have dried up a bit so it was good time to put some more pavers down under the steaming bays. Here are a couple photos of today's progress. The top photo was this morning and the bottom one was taken this afternoon. The steaming bays and pavers are working their way around. Three steaming bays in place, one welded and painted ready to be plunked in place with some concrete. Every other steaming bay has two water and air outlets. No shortage of things to do!
Jack
Attachments
Morning.jpg
Afternoon.jpg
User avatar
rwmorris
Posts: 828
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 9:03 am
Location: Healdsburg, CA. USA
Contact:

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by rwmorris »

Simply amazing Jack... Can’t wait to boil water there.

-RM
User avatar
Harlock
Posts: 3833
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:19 am
Contact:

Re: Alcalde & Coalfield High Line

Post by Harlock »

The pavers will collect all your dropped and missing screws conveniently into the little crevices before they have a chance to roll too far away!
Live Steam Photography and more - gallery.mikemassee.com
Product Development and E-Commerce, Allen Models of Nevada
Post Reply