Tie Work Complete, Ballasting Commences

With the distribution and insertion of 53,000 new ties on the 62 miles of Northwestern Pacific mainline between Lombard and Windsor complete, Balfour Beatty forces turned their attention to ballasting last week. During the next two to three weeks, approximately 22,000 tons of rock from the Syar Industries quarry in Napa will be dumped and the mainline will be tamped between Lombard and Ignacio.

In the above view taken at Schellville on July 29, nine former Helm Leasing ballast cars owned by Shamrock have been restenciled for the NWP and will be used by Balfour Beatty throughout the reconstruction. Two additional ballast cars remain in bad order status in the yard at Petaluma (Nate Muhlethaler photo).


Balfour Beatty crews dump rock in front of the Schellville depot on July 29, the first day of ballasting (Nate Muhlethaler photo).


After dumping two loads of rock at Brazos on July 31, the Balfour Beatty work train - pictured near Ramal - returned to Schellville for reloading. Rock is trucked from Napa to Schellville and a front-end loader is used to fill the cars at the latter point (Nate Muhlethaler photo).

Special thanks to Jamie Miller, Nate Muhlethaler, and Keith Powley.

Project Update: Lombard-Ignacio Section

Keith Powley of HNTB Corporation - also the resident engineer of track rehabilitation who works on behalf of the North Coast Railroad Authority - reports that 43,000 ties will soon be replaced by Balfour Beatty forces on the section of NWP mainline between Lombard and Ignacio. Rock is being trucked from Syar Industries in Napa to the NWP yard in Schellville now and ballasting of the 25-mile Lombard-Ignacio section will commence in June. Once the rehabilitation is complete, this trackage will be lifted to Class 3 standards.

In the above picture taken in Black Point on May 20, Powley is marking existing ties for replacement as Balfour Beatty employees behind him drop replacement ties at the appropriate locations.