The Museum has 6.5 miles of track extending west from Rion Yard. Most of the ties along this section are 50-60 years old and the track will not support a heavy train. Two years ago, a crew of Museum members and volunteers started clearing the track working on Wednesdays using motor cars.

	This photo was taken looking east from Chappelltown Road two years ago.
	This photo taken in late September 2007, also looking east from Chappelltown Road shows the progress that has been made.

The work crews are now spraying weed killer to each side of the track to kill back the plant growth. This winter the crew will be cutting down the trees and saplings on each side of the track with a goal of clearing the Right-of-Way to 10' wide on each side of the track.

Here are links to two low quality videos taken on the West End by the work crews.

The "Green Wall" is what we called the spot you come to heading west from Rion Yard where weed spraying ended. The video was taken two years ago and starts on the causeway just west of Rion Yard and was shot through the windshield of the motor car as it headed West. The crew had walked the motor car back and forth several times along this section of track before shooting this video. Although it looks like they were going 90 mph, they were at idle speed and knew that the track was clear and in gage even though overgrown with weeds.

This video was taken heading East "Along the Chinese Wall" last year. The wall was build of surplus granite by the original Rockton & Rion Railway crews in an attempt to raise a fill across a valley. The railroad ceased operations before the project was completed. To the right, behind the stacked blocks, is a large fill and there was a temporary track on top of the wall which was used to set the blocks of granite and fill on the south (right) side of the wall. Had the wall been completed, we believe the original railroad crews would have moved the main line to the top of the wall and filled in on top of the original track to stabilize the wall.

The Museum has applied for a grant which, if approved, will rebuild the track for about one mile heading west from Rion Yard and just beyond Chappelltown Road where the two photos above were taken. We hope to see this work done in 2008.

Because of the rotten ties, the West End track is presently open only to Motor Cars and has a 5 mph speed restriction.

Anyone who would like to help with this project should contact Jim Massfeller, the Project Coordinator, at info@scrm.org.