This past weekend, SCRM accepted the new track in Rion from the contractor. There's a little TEA-21 money left over so we've left the contract open to build at least part of one of the future storage tracks.The "depot" building, formerly the Ri-Stone office, has been about 95% complete for almost a month now. The roofing sub up and quit for some unknown reason, leaving just a little bit of finish shingling to be done. The general contractor is working on getting that finished.As to the comments from Dave about changing things around in Rion -- the track is still pretty shortliney even though it's not on the "original" alignment. Particularly where we turned the remains of the second scale pit into the beginnings of a passenger platform -- the track comes down a hill of maybe 1.5% past the remains of the car loader, then suddenly goes perfectly flat for about 60-75 feet before dropping precipitously at 2.5%. The contractor was a little concerned about the grade transitions with our coaches, but a test train proved he got enough run in the vertical easements.We'll be open for FREE train rides this weekend as part of SC DOT's annual Transportation Day. If anyone's in this area, the event sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun -- exhibits of DOT construction equipment, emergency vehicles, a news helicopter and possibly a medevac chopper too, and of course our train ride. Since the rides are free we'll be running them short, only as far as the Ruff flagstop at MP 2. We have one "dignitary" trip planned for 2:30 that will probably go all the way to MP 5, though.

Matt,Sounds very cool! If I come all the way down from Delaware can I ride the long ride?Tom Gears

Sure! A visiting dignitary from another railroad would definitely qualify.We'll most likely be running the whole thing on a regular basis starting in June, BTW.

Matt,Sounds great, I'll do my best to make it. I'll look for you.Tom

As to the comments from Dave about changing things around in Rion -- the track is still pretty shortliney even though it's not on the "original" alignment. I think we can agree to disagree about this one. Had a similar conversation with Angel last week. We were talking about standards of restoration as now being applied to GOAT, and we both were sorry the old kink in the frame was being straightened out that lent her a distinctive droop under the cab. This is one obvious distinction that was a direct result of an incident in her history that seperates her from evey other 0-4-0T left in the universe, and doesn't interfere with her being a safe reliable switch engine. Graham County 1925 ran with a kinked frame for decades too, but no longer since her Spencer overhaul. How much history do we need to erase in our projects?dave