More Work...

This past week was a very busy week for the crew on the Central Branch Railroad.  Following Monday's tree trimming, Larry Moon, our maintenance supervisor came up from Riley on Tuesday to do some routine maintenance on equipment and prep work for more spraying along the rails.  This has been a tough year to get any spraying done due to the frequent rains in May and June.  Larry and Dave Crawford did get some spraying done this week.

Also on Tuesday, Gene and Sandy Harding took an inspection ride going west out of Waterville.  They did not make it to Coon Creek due to downed trees. They returned on Saturday morning to cut trees, including the mess pictured below on the east side of Coon Creek.  Also pictured is a large tree down across the bridge towards the west side.  That tree is yet to be dealt with - not real sure how to cut a tree while standing on a bridge or trestle!

Wednesday morning was another big round of trimming east of the Vista RD crossing.  All together, Gene Harding and Dave Crawford trimmed 26 trees that had fallen across the tracks east of Blue Rapids.  Most were in the 6-8 inch diameter range with several in the 12-15 inch diameter range.  We thought excited when we could see the  Big Blue River bridge but then found 3 more trees in the last quarter mile or so at the east end of the rails.

At least now the rails are open for a ride on Monday going east from Waterville across the river and back.

And of course along with all the tree trimming, the grass in the Blue Rapids rail yard had to get mowed Thursday evening.

After a busy week, Friday evening provided a beautiful view of the Big Blue River.  The first picture is looking south and the second one looking north from the bridge.

PS - Almost can't count the number of deer we have seen this week.  Probably saw a half a dozen Friday evening between Blue Rapids and Waterville.  We had one jump across the rails at dusk that was illuminated by the headlight!

Day 2 of Tree Cutting

This morning was the second day in which Gene Harding and Dave Crawford cleared trees that had fallen across the railroad tracks during or after the storm on July 10.  We cleared several more trees and there are at least three more to but cut up.  We encountered a rattlesnake and a deer.  We never saw the rattle snake but could hear the rattle in the rubbish.  Fortunately the snake was off to the side where we could leave it alone.  The deer was laying in the grass along the right of way and jumped up and ran off as we approached it.

This afternoon, Gene and Sandy Harding rode east from Waterville to check for downed trees and limbs between Waterville and Blue Rapids.  They encountered some small limbs to be cleared away but no fallen trees.

Not knowing that Gene and Sandy had checked the rails between Waterville and Blue Rapids, Dave and Kathy Crawford took an evening ride west from Blue Rapids to Waterville.  That trip wasn't a total waste as they were able to return the sprayer trailer to Waterville.  On their ride they encountered a deer and a small group of turkeys walking between the rails.

Tuttle Creek and Big Blue update:

Tuttle Creek is at 1120 ft (45 ft above multipurpose pool elevation) and still releasing at 25,000 cfs which drops the lake about a foot a day.  The Flood Control Storage Space is now down to 75% of capacity.

The Big Blue River at Blue Rapids is at about 46 ft (20 ft above flood stage).

CBRR Storm Damage

Southern Marshall County had quite a storm roll through early in the morning on Wednesday, July 10.  Blue Rapids had a lot of damage to trees.  It turns out the railroad has quite a few downed trees to deal with also.  Dave and Kathy Crawford went east from Blue Rapids on Tuesday, July 16 and cleared several small trees and branches from the tracks.  Things weren't really too bad until east of the Vista RD crossing where they encountered a large downed tree (first photo below).  The tree was more than they could handle with the saws-all they had with them.

On Thursday, July 18, Gene Harding and Dave Crawford went out with the intention of cutting down that tree, which they did.  Three or four trees later (who's counting) it was time to call it quits and come back another day.  At one point, a deer came along and was very curious about what we were doing.  That provided a short rest break until the deer wandered off.  The deer is near the center of the 2nd (middle) picture.

After cutting down the tree in the last picture, inspection of the track further east revealed another large tree across the rails, thus the decision to return on another day.  The rails between Waterville and Blue Rapids have not been inspected and it is quite likely that some downed tress will be found there as well. (Current lake info follows the pictures.)

PS:  As of Thursday, July 18 the Tuttle Creek Lake elevation is down to 1125 ft.  They are currently releasing at a rate of 25,000 cfs and will do so for several weeks.  The present goal is to get it down to 1105 ft.  A release of 25,000 cfs is about 50,000 acre·ft per day.  They have about 1.34 million acre·ft of water to discharge in order to get back to the normal multipurpose pool elevation of 1075 ft.

The Big Blue River at Blue Rapids is at about 50 ft.  Flood stage is 26 ft so it has about 14 ft to drop in order to be back inside its banks.  Without additional rainfall, the lake and river elevation should drop about 1 ft per day at the present release rate of 25,000 cfs.

Email Notifications:  If you would like to receive an email notification of new blog posts, sign up in the "Follow MCRHS Blog by Email" widget in the right margin.