In late December and through parts of January, the Bay Area received significant rainfall with storms lining up one after another. The joy of having our Niles Canyon Railway in a canyon is the incredible natural beauty of the steep cliffs, scenic Alameda Creek and the surrounding hills which make for some dramatic scenery as our railroad winds its way through. On the flip side when it rains, a canyon with its steep walls and creek are the first things to slide or overflow; both which took place with the heavy rains.
Overall, our railroad survived the pretty well, but we had many slope failures where dirt filled our drainage ditches and culverts and in some cases, covered over our railroad. Since the rains started, our volunteer crews have been out working to insure our railroad is ready for our March rides to start and insuring our railroad is ready for the next rain whenever that may come. We certainly are not ones to not want to see our statewide California drought end.
Here are some photos of some recent creativity and work to clean our ditches and culverts using a combination of some of our railroad equipment; some custom built by our own volunteers and some of our earth moving equipment which is kept for just these types of events and more.
All photos below by Christopher Hauf – Used with permission
Alas not all of the work can be done with machines. The mud has covered our railroad in many places where hand work with shovels is required to remove the earth from the ties in between the rails. We are very fortunate to have a very dedicated team that typically volunteers on Wednesday and works on Maintenance-of-Way and occasionally helps with other projects including the rebuilding of our two open cars last year. We thank them for their dedication, and I am sure they would welcome more hands to help.
Photo courtesy of Bob Pratt – Used with permission
Photo courtesy of Bob Pratt – Used with permission
We want to thank all of our volunteers who have come out to help in the wake of the storms. From our Signal Department crews to this crew to our Brush cutting crew who took care of several downed trees to our Maintenance-of-Way team that has been spending several days shoveling mud from our ties and right of way as sometimes working by hand is the only way to complete the job.
We always welcome new hands to help so please check our Volunteer page for the many different departments you can contribute to including Signals, Brush Cutting and Maintenance-of-Way.