Saturday, November 15, saw the creation of Rattle Snake Hill. Crews on the MD&SM got word of the arrival of Engine # 3, a maroon 2-4-0, and worked feverishly to get roadbed laid across the top or the hill.
Roadbed engineers don't know if there will be other places on the layout where they will need to use cribbing. The original plan called for the entire elevation that is now Rattle Snake Hill to be cribbing filled with "rock dust" road base. Upon discovering the amount of "rock dust" that would be needed, the decision was made to build up the hill and then put in the road bed as needed. It just worked out to put a little bit of cribbing on the end where the abbutment rocks were too short.
To Mojave Desert and Southwest Mountains Railroad home