Large Scale Central

Spring opening of C.V.S.Ry. delayed by storm damage

A possible tornado tore through our neighborhood on Tuesday evening. My house and immediate neighbors fared pretty well except for being off the grid for 100 hours. I had just finished spring cleaning of the railroad a few days before. Now I need to start all over again and repair a wash-out in Deep Cut before trains can run again. This was 3 doors down the street; just one example of the thousands of trees damaged or lost in our town…

This limb was typical of what was laying about our property when I finally got home 5 hours after leaving work 10 miles away…

There was also a ton of rain dropped in just a short time. Mother nature moved all the pine needles to the closest obstacle…

The wall at Deep Cut couldn’t hold back the water. A rebuild of this area will be required…

Our Engine House suffered some minor damage, most likely from the branch strike…

The house was shoved off it’s foundation. When I upgraded/restored this building last fall I was going to pin it to the foundation. That didn’t get done because winter came along. In retrospect I’m glad I didn’t because if if couldn’t move it probably would have snapped off a wall…

All-in-all we were very lucky. There are still many without power and some that have had their homes destroyed. One person was killed in town when a tree fell on her car. I’m surprised I didn’t loose any neighbors as they cut through trees tangled in primary power lines to open our roads long before the town crews / National Guard arrived to open roads. There are still some places that roads are blocked or only one lane getting by, but it gets better every day. I am very grateful to our power company Eversource, multiple tree companies, the National Guard, our Town of New Fairfield government and Public Works personnel, plus those from neighboring towns who are putting forth an amazing effort to get life back to normal. I have never seen so many power and tree boom trucks in one place. Just WOW.

Terrifying stuff. Any loss of life is a disaster, but it sounds extremely fortunate that much more damage wasn’t done. Good thing you’re safe.

Been involved in that restoration stuff quite a few times, even out-of-state. Most of the time it’s just clearing tree limbs and debris, but occasionally we’d have to replace poles and cable. It was always an adventure. And long days…:wink:

But glad to hear you guys fared reasonably well, considering.

Ouch. Glad to hear YOU survived OK, even though there’s a bit of clean up.

Crews got to work quickly to ready Deep Cut for opening weekend. Heavy equipment was used to clear all of the rock face and plantings from the area. Once excavated the pre-cast bridge abutment was placed and leveled. This abutment was originally cast here, but was poorly placed and removed when the rock face was re-worked a few years back. I decided to put it back as I would like to build a coal dock here in the future. Before beginning to replace the face…

Rocks were carefully fitted and back-filled…

Watered down and ready for a clearance test and planting replacement…

From near track level…

The rest of the railroad still needs debris pick up, but that should go pretty quickly. Maybe now I can get back to that diorama at Northville.

Jon,

looks like you got lucky, could have been a lot worse.

AL P.

Glad it was only minor stuff for you, Jon… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Seems the “OLD” copula on the shed that you were concerned about only managed to rip off a few shingles!

Recovery in my yard is nearly complete. As I find more hidden tree damage my limb pile has grown to the size of an SUV. Two of my large Maples have no leaves above the 40 foot level. Removing one dangling branch near the back of the house pretty much destroyed my collection of misc. Pola building parts when it dropped. The parts that were just laying about on the back patio are now mostly broken parts.

But in the true spirit of recovery, most build it better rather than just rebuilding. The wall repair at Deep Cut passed the clearance test today so the plantings were put back. I was just about ready to throw away the old plywood bridge from Indian Hill when I realized it was only rotten at the ends. A quick pass over the chop saw and it makes a dandy temporary for “Bridge 5” With the bridge in place I couldn’t help but add a piece of track. Then I just had to stage a hopper on the bridge for photos.

From the lower mainline track…

Drone shot…

From the “If you build it, they will come” school of thought: It’s just a matter of time before that bridge is connected to the Walk Landing siding. It’s a 20 inch climb and there is room for a sweeping curve of about 35 feet long to get there. Just under 5%. Lots of Blue Spruce root to cross on the way. May not get built this season as I have already laid in supplies for a different project.

Recovery from the storm damage seems to be well under way. Glad to hear you faired well and that the neighborhood is being handled.(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)