Riding Between the Rails
I frequently go to the "Y". It's about a five mile drive. If the weather is appropriate I like to make the trip by bike. The only problem is that the roads are not the best for biking....West Main sux....Wildwood Road makes the trip too long...River Road jangles my nerves. Last Fall I discovered an alternative route. Norfolk Southern has two sets of railroad tracks, about 30 to 100 feet apart, and they go in the general direction of the "Y". RR track and signal crews often do service work on these tracks so that there are very rough, undeveloped service truck tracks thru much of this area. It constitutes about half of my distance to the "Y". The parts where the service trucks have not been on are filled with briars, scrub and big railroad ballast rocks...tough going for a mtn bke but do-able in a pinch.
I decided to make some improvements. Understanding that the railroad probably frowns on mtn bke trail building on it's right of way, ( especially since 9/11) I decided to make this a Ninja mission. Cunning, deceit, deception were the watchwords. I had to be able to do this in a highly visible area ( trains were coming by) while appearing to be doing something else...harmless.
I know that engineers are used to seeing rail fans with cameras in hand hanging out on the right of way. Their hobby is trainspotting/photographing and they always give these folks a friendly wave. This is pretty harmless stuff. So in addition to my pruners and clippers I had my camera. Whenever I spotted a train approaching I would drop the tools and get out my camera and pretend to be taking pix. Perfect! Then back to work. The trail is pretty much finished except for some cosmetic work. I occasionally ride it at night.
Now here is the great part. There are places where the trail is only ten feet or so from the tracks. At night it is a big scarey rush...o.k. mostly scarey...to be biking ten feet from a big assed coal train. There is a true draft effect, there is coal dust swirling and these trains are sometimes hauling at 45 mph or so, the earth is shaking. I am shaking. If the train and I are going in the same direction it can take ten to fifteen minutes for it to pass me. I get scared. I keep thinking about what I would look like if a train wrecked and mushed me. EEEEEEEWWWWWWW...!!!!!
I decided to make some improvements. Understanding that the railroad probably frowns on mtn bke trail building on it's right of way, ( especially since 9/11) I decided to make this a Ninja mission. Cunning, deceit, deception were the watchwords. I had to be able to do this in a highly visible area ( trains were coming by) while appearing to be doing something else...harmless.
I know that engineers are used to seeing rail fans with cameras in hand hanging out on the right of way. Their hobby is trainspotting/photographing and they always give these folks a friendly wave. This is pretty harmless stuff. So in addition to my pruners and clippers I had my camera. Whenever I spotted a train approaching I would drop the tools and get out my camera and pretend to be taking pix. Perfect! Then back to work. The trail is pretty much finished except for some cosmetic work. I occasionally ride it at night.
Now here is the great part. There are places where the trail is only ten feet or so from the tracks. At night it is a big scarey rush...o.k. mostly scarey...to be biking ten feet from a big assed coal train. There is a true draft effect, there is coal dust swirling and these trains are sometimes hauling at 45 mph or so, the earth is shaking. I am shaking. If the train and I are going in the same direction it can take ten to fifteen minutes for it to pass me. I get scared. I keep thinking about what I would look like if a train wrecked and mushed me. EEEEEEEWWWWWWW...!!!!!
posted by The Grandfather of Mountain Biking in the RoVa and the founder of the RoVa NMPB @ 9:26 AM
7 comments
I Love the VA!
