The Weathering Depot

Here’s another story today from my time on the Indiana and Ohio railroad. There is a crossing on the line over to Monroe, Ohio right next to I would guess the largest flea market in Ohio called Traders World. This crossing is on state highway 63 which runs from Interstate 25 over to Lebanon, Ohio and perhaps further from there.

The crossing was a  rather old, torn up wood plank crossing that the railroad was going to replace with a rubberized one. So, being a non-union outfit and part of the track department guess who was going to help work putting this crossing in?

The railroad got permission to shut down the highway here for as I recall 26 hours straight to dig up the old crossing, check the track and ties, put in the new crossing, then repave either side. I believe we started at around 10 PM as I recall. The guy they put on the jackhammer to break up the asphalt around the crossing was me!

So here I am at night, all 140 lbs of me with of course lights set up working this jackhammer! A long hard job to put this new crossing in but we got it done. However, I bet my arms shook for a day and a half afterwards…..lol!