Well folks,  a short update.

In the middle of December, Meghan and I returned to the states.  We had a great year in Costa Rica.  We had to return to the states because of some medical problems, and are now living in the Lake Arthur, La. area.
I've been working for a great company out of the Lake Charles area for a year now., also  First company I've ever worked for that had all the benefits and that you didn't have to beg for your paycheck. lol!

We are both doing well now, and hope to return to Costa Rica in the future.  It's a great place to live.

I regret to have to say that the Raspberry Gulch Rail Road will soon be no more,, at least not in it's present location.

In my last post,  I stated that the new house was in place.  Well, it didn't last too long.  It seems that the gestapo's of Marion County have gotten so greedy that I've written the whole thing off.   The house is gone, and the railroad will soon be.

It seems, that even though I'm 22 miles out of town, that they say I still have to have all the inspections, permits, and other dictatorial, and invasive crap that someone putting a house in the city would have to have.   I bought the property on the assumption that all that would be minumum.    When I found that it would take 3 grand worth of permits, inspections, and other crap to get them off my back,  I decided to call it quits on the whole thing.  The dust hadn't even settled from moving the house onto the property before the appraisers were out jacking my property taxes up twice what the house cost.  The zoning commision sending nasty letters threatening to fine or jail me.

Sad to say,  I thought I still lived in a free country.  So, with the current financial fiasco in the UpoliceSA, the fact that It seems almost impossible to get a visa for the Megmonster to come to the states,  our congress's penchant for crapping on the Consitution and wiping their behinds with the Bill of Rights,  I'm outa here.   The Megmonster and I are moving to Costa Rica.


I hope to build the Raspberry Gulch Shortline, again,  when I get settled in Costa Rica.
I'll try to keep the blog updated occasionally with news of the move, and progress in getting the railroad started again.

Till then,,, Keep'em on the tracks, and the smoke a roll'en.

Capt Turk

I bought another mobile home to replace the one on the south end of the property.   This last weekend, after finally getting the old one torn apart, and removed,  I got the new mobile home in place and basically hooked up.   This will be the new home for the Megmonster, and myself.   It's  76'x16'  With three bedrooms, and two baths.  We are turning the front bedroom into an office for the Megmonsters business.
Sorry, no pictures for the moment.  They are all on the computer at home, and I'm back at work on the tug in Lousyanna.  I will try to add pictures later.

Hopefully, the Gooberment  will get off their duffs and get the visa for the Megmonster to us right after Christmas.  The wait is killing both of us.

No work has been done on the rail road lately, as all my time off has been devoted to getting the house in place.   I did remove about 30' of track to allow access to an area that I'm bringing up to grade for the turntable, and possibly a round house..

It's been awhile since I've added anything here.  I've been sorta busy with some major life changes.
I'm planning on getting married again, in a few months, to a Canadian gal that I met about 17 years ago while I was living in the Keys.  We have been close friends ever since, and realized in April that we were more than just friends.   We are just waiting on our oh so efficent government to get around to issuing the proper visas, so she can stay permenantly in the USA.
I can't for the life of me figure out what she see's in an ole worn out sea dog like myself, but there is no accounting for taste, and I'm not gonna be stupid and look a gift horse in the mouth.  lol!   So,, here's a picture of the two of us taken at Gator Joes in Ocklawaha, in April.   Meet the Megmonster.  Meghan Henley, my soon to be significant other.


At the moment, I'm sitting on the tug in Houma La.  Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on us, and will be here in a few hours.   We've spent the last couple of days getting barges, and cranes, and boats, all anchored down and secured. 



I've already ridden out several hurricanes in this area.  I lived here in Houma for about 12 years.  It is considered one of the better hurricane holes along the Gulf Coast.   We will have lots of company for the big wind.  There are close to a hundred people here, three crane barges ranging from about 600 tons to 1000 tons lifting capacity.  A four hundred and some odd foot tanker, ten tug boats, a half dozen crew boats, and about a million sea gulls.


When I get time,, as I'm likely to be pretty busy in the next few days, I'll post an update.

Just a note that I've done at least a partial update to the website.  The website software people didn't prove to be any help on recovering the old site, so, I've had to build the site again from scratch.  It's mostly the same stuff, with some new pics added and a new section on how I build my switches.

The track length is up to around 1200' now.  The east line to the south end of the property is in and runnable.  I rented a tractor with a backhoe and a loader bucket last weekend.  Got the ramp fills for the bridge built up, and the south yard area leveled.

The east bridge is now in.  I built it from an old mobile home frame.


Today cam the addition of a crane.  It's not built to scale, or as a model of any crane. It's built from junque(good junk) and is to save my poor ole trashed back.



It still has a ways to go before it's finished, but at least now I can move the generator, the welding machine, the oxy/act bottles, and other heavy stuff around the railroad with out risking crippling myself. lol

I had two, hundred and fifty pound men hanging off the boom today.  It didn't seem to strain anything, so I figure it should lift up to at least 400 lbs.  That should cover anything I need to lift on the railroad.

It's back to work Sunday morning, so, it looks like additions to the railroad will be put on hold for at least a few days.

Till next time....

Yesterday, I hit the 1,000' feet of track, mark.  I've almost completed the east spur to the big ditch. 

Rented a backhoe, with a front end loader, today.  Started building the earthen ramp to the north end of the bridge, and did the preliminary leveling for the yard at the south east corner of the property.

I've found that the west leg will probably have to be shifted more to the north.  I got the backhoe stuck in a boggy area where the west leg was planned.   It looks like it is just too soft an area to be practical.  It would take way too much fill to get it solid enough, or would require a very long trestle to pass over it.  That leg is way off in the future, so I'll have to do more surveying to see where it will end up.  It took over two hours to get the backhoe winched out of the bog.  I'm getting way too old for that kind of manual labor!

The main loop is completed and ballasted.  Here's a pic of the shop area. 

NOTE: My web publishing software crashed on me and I may have lost the web pages.  When I get back on the tug where I have a decent web connection, I'll see if I can recover everything and update the site with the new pictures.

At the moment, I'm stuck on the tug in Baltimore.  Had an interesting trip up from Green Cove Springs, Fla.  The crane barge that I towed up was so tall that I couldn't see over it from the pilot house when I was pushing it up the intercoastal.  I spent about 12 hours standing on top of the pilot house with the remote steering control, in the cold, wind, and rain, steering the damn thing.
The owners of the barge didn't want it going around Cape Hatteras offshore, in the winter time.  They were afraid the crane would roll off the barge if we got any heavy seas.   Towed it offshore till we got to Bufort NC. then in the ditch to Norfolk.  Sure was fun getting through Coinjock. 
I probably will heading back to Florida in the next few days.  Doesn't look like I'm going to get to make the Winter train meets this year.  Maybe next year...

Got back on the boat again, last night.  Headed, with a booster barge, for Wilmington NC.

Managed to cut in a new switch on the shop lead, and laid about 20' of track.  This track will go beside the shop where I'll be building the tie shop

Got the beamer running again..  Found a sheared roll pin, and another one about to shear.   I'm not too surprised, as hard as I've worked that little engine. lol!

Will try to add a picture to the website of the new tie shop lead.

I got home on the 1st.  After dragging 35,000 feet of 38" dredge pipe, several barges, and misc. other rusting equipment, I'm ready for a break.  Spent the first two days being lazy, and just resting up.  Played with the computer trying to get PCLinuxOS running instead of Winders.  From what I see of PCLOS, so far, I like it.  It's supposed to be a lot more stable than Winders.  Once I  got it running, it hasn't crashed since.  A lot more than I can say for that Microshaft crap.  Now if I can just get my navigation software working on it.

Cut a new switch into the shop track and started the lead into what will be a storage shed on the side of the shop.
I've gotten about 20' of track laid so far.  I'm out of rail now, so I'll have to make a trip to Ridge for some more.

fixed the problem with the Beamer.  It had sheared a roll pin in one of the drive sprockets when I was home for Christmas.  Turned out to be an easy fix.  Cleaned things up enough to see what was going on, a quick trip to the hardware store, a little tap, tap, tap, with the hammer and drift punch, and all was working again.

I didn't get any pictures taken today.  Will add them to the site as soon as I can.