Other toys indeed

[TC Chris]

What do you do when you live in a northern latitude and winter has melted? I've been doing some marathon sitting this weekend and decided that I needed to stir things up. The plan was to check on the sailboat at the boatyard, via bicycle. First I had to put the bike on the stand and oil the chain. Just 5 days of rain and melting had washed it clean so it was dry and rusty. Then it was off to the trail. I rode about 4 mi. north to where they stop plowing it. Past there it was slushy snow, nit useful for anything. After turning back I stopped. This is a rail trail so the have a caboose.

Then I detoured off the trail about a block to the boatyard and checked the boat. The cover lines always loosen so I tied them tight.

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Chris Campbell

[TC Chris]

"deleted". Tried tried to attach both photos. Try again.

[William]

Cool Caboose, I like trains.

Bill

[TC Chris]

When I was a kid down in Bay City, the D&M ran behind the house, across the road. It would make two trips a day. Later, it was one trip. Then it was a trip every now and then. In the 80s, we had high water on the Great Lakes and in a couple big storms, the ballast washed out from under the rails. The D&M bought unused track farther inland where the danger was absent and sold off their right of way to adjacent landowners. I own the chunk behind my cottage. Most of the other buyers bulldozed the ballast where the tracks had been but I left mine as a reminder that the RR had passed there. Originally, that was the only way to reach those properties, before they built a road for cars. You'd hop on the train and signal where you wanted to stop. Most people have no idea that a RR ran there, or that it was the original mode of access. One long stretch that passed our state park was bought by the state for a rail trail. It is heavily used.

Chris Campbell