THE TWO FOOTERS         

In the spring of 1992, my late friend C.J. Moore and I completed our only passenger coach for our Tuckahoe Valley Railroad near Tyrone, Pa. We spent all winter building the large car from scratch. We called the car “Sylvan Brook” after the small stream running next to C.J.’s house. One of the dreams we had at the time was to put a nice set of arch bar trucks under it.  However, we could not find any and building a pair from scratch was beyond our capability and pocketbook. 

Fast forward to 2004 and much has changed.  C.J. passed away several years ago, and the Tuckahoe Valley Railroad has been pulled up leaving only an abandoned roadbed, photos and memories.  However, much of the Tuckahoe Valley Equipment survived and went into storage at the Bucksgahuda & Western Railroad in Saint Marys, Pa.  Coach 92 sat inside one of the B&W buildings and was used very little on the B&W due to its tendency to have frequent derailments. The car was built with worn out wheels because that was all we had at the time. I wanted to preserve the coach in C.J.’s memory and use it.  But I was not comfortable using a car subject to derailments.

But something happened that changed everything.  An ad on railroad equipment broker D.F. Barnhardt’s web site led me to some arch bar trucks that could be used for coach 92.  I had seen a pile of 20” gage arch bar trucks on Robert Stanton’s farm during several visits to his Riverview and Woodside Railroad in New Jersey.  A call to broker D.F. Barnhardt confirmed that Mr. Stanton was selling several pairs of these trucks.  A friend from the standard gauge Wannamaker Kempton & Southern Steam railroad purchased the entire lot of trucks.  I then obtained my pair from him. Once the rusty and rotted arch bar trucks arrived at the B&W, the shop forces figured out what to do to change the gauge from 20” to 24”.  Over the winter of 2003-2004, I disassembled both trucks, taking measurements as I went.  I then cut apart the axles on the band saw.  Tom Bauer then welded them back together using machined sleeves to make the gauge 24”.  One arch bar was bent severely, and efforts to straighten it up wound up with my melting it in the B&W forge.  So, I cut, drilled and bent out a new replacement.  Then I boxed up all of the various parts and hauled them to my garage in Williamsport, Pa., and started to clean, paint, and reassemble all of the steel with all new bolts.  I also started cutting out replacement white oak bolsters to replace the original rotted wood.  By the spring of 2005, everything was completed and painted. Using an engine hoist, we lifted the finished trucks into the pickup for the return trip to the B&W.  My goal was to have then under the car for use by August.

The photo below shows the new oak bolsters during truck reassembly.

Here is a photo of the completed arch bar truck in B&W Shop.

Coach 92 is now sitting on a nice set of sprung arch bar trucks with the help of friend Tom Martino. We finished lowering it onto its new wheels in late June. Some minor work needs to be done like hooking up the brakes (B&W had cast new shoes) and adjusting coupler height on the coach.  But hopefully the B&W Shay will now have a nice rolling coach to pull on occasion.  A test run recently indicates a smoother ride with no derailments! C.J. Moore would be proud!

 Photo below show WK&S Steam Railroad Volunteer Kyle Kinter turning coach 92 around on the B&W turntable to position car for installation of second arch bar truck in June. One done and one to go! Car is now complete.

Photo by Tom Martino

Pictures attached of brake van ("remwaagen" or "remwa" in Afrikaans) as it was when delivered and during rebuild.  There is much activity up there at the moment:  The next 4-mile section of old track bed is being cleared, drained and fenced ready for the start of more track-laying from September.  That's why we need to finish the brake van.  It is going to be the tool van and shelter for the volunteer track gang.  We are also trying to speed up the restoration of the third big Garratt, No. 140 and rebuild retaining walls on embankments etc.

Derek and Marcus Ingram working on brake van 06-03-05

remwa shunt 31 May 04

My friend ( 4 miles away) with the 36" gauge RR has 4-new 20 lb. rails that are15 feet long for trade or sale.  He uses 30-35 and 40 lb. rail, and the 20 was extra from a load of rail he just got.  Also I plan to start going through by RR supplies soon and see if I can find some of it a home before someone comes in and scraps it.  Have 2 full size switch throws that I am tired of mowing around.

Anyone need them? 

The Tuscarawas Valley now has its own private electric system.  We are also working on a 3 block signal system.  All wires are buried underground so as not to spoil the 1920’s appearance.

David and I finally finished scavenging through a pile of 8’+ switch ties on the weekend.  A 6 hour session on a typical winter day yields about 80 ties, and we try to spend 4 days off season building up a truck load.  Our pile of cut ties totaled 280 as the chainsaw lost its edge for the 12^th time that day and the demanding work of sorting switch ties set in. 

We hired a log loader to load and a 20’ dump to haul the salvage 25 miles to our boathouse. After the dump load of ties landed at the lakeshore, it was 17 hard hours later we had the ties across the lake (18 at a time), hauled up the hill on our 4.5 hp home built 1955 buggy to the RR site and neatly stacked on each side of the track ready for the new track work planned later this summer.  It is a lot of handling, but we enjoy it. 

As strange as it sounds, these ties are ready to be laid on the switchback spur back down to the lakeside jetty we just poured and built a few years ago.  In the future, our 4,000’+ of stored 40lb rail, a dozen switches, plus other various pieces of rail and additional ties and rail cars will come up by rail from the lake once we complete the track. 

As mentioned previously, we are digging and filling a 4% grade for switchback supply rail link.  It is about 50% prepared and hopefully will be operational this fall, though more likely fall of '06.  It will take about 650' of track, plus switches to climb the 26 vertical feet between the two lakes and across ‘Shady Creek’, hence the name.  Should make for an interesting journey in to our little rail yard and mainline.

I received a long-distance email recently … from a gentlemen in Switzerland who came across the www.thetwofooters.com website.  He was most interested in this site as well as the www.bnwrr.com site – especially Otto.   The image below is of a Henschel engine that runs through a garden nursery in Switzerland.  Originally, the tracks were laid to move trees from one part of the nursery to the other.  Today, it is a garden center (like a supermarket) and through the whole terrain, a 60cm gauge railway is pulling cars with families.

The Two Footers
534 Armory Road
St. Marys, PA  15857

tpbauer@alltel.net
or
tom@thetwofooters.com

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