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Ossipee Line - CVRTC/OVSC Work Ride

Written by Ian MacMillan

Tuesday, 01 May 2007

Removing signs on the Ossipee line

Paul, John (from OVSC ) and I arrived at Mountainview station and got the two cars set on the tracks. Our project for the day was to get all the remaining trail signs down from the snowmobile season. Normally the Bureau of Trails does it, but the flooding last week had them pretty much tied up with damage control and assessment.

I seton and tried to crank over my engine. The car had run fine the week before on the NEGS run, so there should have been no issues, but there were... The starter motor sounded like the gear was stripped. You'd turn the key and just hear it spin with a slight grinding noise. A look in the engine compartment while I tried to turn it over showed that the starter motor was kicking to the left when you turned the key. I checked the 3 mounting bolts and everything was tight, so I think it may be a weld on the mounting plate, or the plate is bent. It will have to come out to take a look at it. I was able to use a tire iron to wedge the starter from moving, and then turned the key. The engine fired to life as if there was nothing wrong.

Helping Paul with his car, we also found that he was having starter problems. The solenoid would click, but it would not spin the starter gear. Paul checked the wiring and we pretty much figured that the starter is shot. We decided to tow his car with mine so that we could get it started. Heading north towards Rt. 16, we finally were able to get Paul's car started with it being towed at 15MPH. So much for the start of the railcar season, huh!?

John and Paul clear some downed trees

Traveling north we experienced a few blow downs. All of them were hanging over the tracks, and non blocked the rails, but we cut the branches back to clear the larger A cars. There are several other trees that will need to be taken down, but that will be left for another trip where I can dedicate an entire day on the line with my chainsaw. We picked up a few of the remaining signs, and then headed south to old Rt. 28.

Paul's car leads us South through the marshes

Pushing over the crossing at Mountainview we headed south to pick up signs. The Rail Road crossing that we repaired last year looked really good, but a small pile of sand had to be moved, left over from winter plowing. Paul's first time over the crossing derailed his car, but we soon got him back on the rail, and we continued south.

As we entered the Archer's Marsh area we had to cut a few low hanging branches back, but nothing major. A landowner is currently logging along the tracks just before the marsh bridge, but the logging crew respectfully cleaned up any trees that they had fallen across the ROW. Traveling up the grade towards Polly's crossing, the remaining amount of water from last weeks floods was still evident. Trackside streams were swolen, their currents raging down towards the marsh.

Stream along the tracks before Polly's Crossing

As we reached the area before Polly's crossing I was able to get a better look at the stream along the tracks now that the snow was gone. The week prior when I checked it, the flood waters were so high that the water was flowing downgrade between the rails. While this cleared some fill between the rails, it also did alot of errosion between the ties, and under the ties, and is something that Trailmaster Bruce should check out. The actuall crossing at Polly's looked really good, and we were able to cross over it with no issues. Just south of the crossing John showed us where they had the Bureau of Trails come down to clean out a box culvert under the tracks. This culvert had long been a problem, and caused alot of the water back up at Pollys, but now it flowed really well under the tracks, and the water entered a stream that does not connect with the marsh by Polly's.

Paul clears out a culvert in Archers marsh

We went south all the way to the end of the line at old Rt. 28, turned our cars and headed back north. On the way back we stopped at Archers Marsh to fix a clogged culvert that we had installed with OVSC last fall. Paul and I were able to clear the culvert of any obstructions and water began to freely flow through the pipe. We will have to add a grate infront of the opening to keep debris out, and some 6' rip-rap around the openings to prevent erosion. We also checked a 10' box culvert on the south side of the marsh, that oddly enough the water level was lower on one side than the other. A quick look down found that branches, logs, and marsh litter had become clogged inside. I was able to clear a good amount it out, but there is still a lot left. I'll need to bring some hip waders so that I can get down into the culvert and properly clean it out.

John's photos from the ride can be viewed here .

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