Austin & Texas Central Railroad

Back to the High Iron Ranch

Category: News

  • Tying It All Together

    Ken showed up early two days early and laid panels around the loop, almost completing it with nearly 60 panels. This is the final loop of phase 1. The workday focused on aligning and setting a bridge and laying the final track panels. At the end of the day, the final fish plate was added…

  • Working Around the Lake

    Last week brought a lot of progress as we finished the long bridge spans and returned to laying panels on grade. Ken arrived early in the week and finished the bridge ties on the steel spans and then installed the final 16′ of trestle. Bob was busy building panels on Wednesday. John O came out…

  • Continued Bridge Work

    Mother Nature brought an arctic blast to all of Texas this past week which prompted the annual Houston Area Live Steamers Chugga Chilifest train meet activities to be curtailed. (The county even turned off the water to the park for the first portion of the meet.) Several railroaders from Central Texas opted stay warm by…

  • Lift Bridge and Guard Rails

    On February 16th and 17th, Stephen spent time welding up the lift bridge frame while John was installing guard rails on the trestle. (The lift bridge mechanism is part of phase 2. It is a stationary span for now.)

  • Ties and Rail Added to Trestle

    February 8th was another huge day on the Austin & Texas Central. Stephen and Lori had to leave for a funeral, but that didn’t stop everyone else from working on the railroad. The primary goal was to install the bridge ties and rail on the trestle and the crew really came through. Attendees: John O,…

  • Prepping the Bridge Ties

    This past weekend…

  • Switch stands ready

    The Tumbleweed and Dry Gulch Railroad found a dozen spare switch stands in inventory and has donated them to the A&TC. (Thanks Philip!)

  • Recent Work Day Activities

    Thanks to Tim for remembering to take photos!

  • Making fish plates

    Using Ken’s newly acquired rail slotting punch, Stephen made a jig to create slotted fish plates. It is a piece of scrap rail with the center web removed. Two screws in the rail head keep the rail in position in the punch. Then the raw piece of aluminum bar can be slide into the punch.…

  • Laying it down

    Thanks to Ben, Stephen was able to pick up another load of tie material Friday. Saturday, Stephen and Ken decided to just lay panels. Aided by Ken’s generator running two fans, they put down approximately 240′ including multiple switches. This work spanned two of the four (or more) tracks through Austin.