Pictured here is the latest version of the East switch/Tye River/West Portal module. The frame-work sat unresolved for more time than I would like to admit but finally I have a compromise worked out. I went back and forth for the better part of two years trying to decide if the mileage between the portal and the bridge was of sufficient length. I wasn’t willing to make the bridge or switch area any shorter and figured at 9-‘1″ the combined length of the depot and tunnel modules was getting long enough. As a result the stretch from the 1000′ board on the East end of the bridge to the portal is really only 250’. The river bottom has to come up about 1/4″ under the bridge, more so nearest the portal. Green tape was a crude way of locating the river. Because of compression east of the river crossing the actual path is still up for some debate.
Below is the view railroad East from the highway bridge with some flextrack and a switch skeleton (wrong handed for this location) lending some context.
Next up is a shot showing the offending compression. John C Ilman made some terrific shots from this location as seen in Warren Wing’s Northwest Railroad Pictorial II and Jeff Wilson’s Great Northern Railway in the Northwest.
AH
Cascade Division 