Filling in Our Swimming Pool

Yesterday and today, we have had a work crew in the back yard
filling in the swimming pool to make a base for our new
WP 688 Caboose.
In the last few weeks, we have removed the old pool deck and liner
and many of the surrounding sand-laid old brick walkways. The soils
engineer has been out several times to see what’s what and make
suggestions.

Yesterday, the work crew put down the first 40 tons of base rock.
They spread and then tamped it down with a machine called a Whacker.
Just now, a dump truck delivered 20 more tons of base rock to the front
street. It is fascinating watching a huge truck bed lift from
horizontal to 45 degrees (when the load starts to pour down) and
eventually up to at least 70 degrees to get everything out. They
had originally ordered drain rock (which has less grit and dirt) but
base rock was delivered. Base rock is a higher grade and will work
better so we didn’t complain. The little
Bobcat earthmover went right in and scooped up a load before dumptruck
was even empty. The Bobcat then spun in a tight circle and dashed off to
dump its first load. What fun!

The workers on this project are a very American mix. The crew moving
the rock and dirt are Latino, the Soils Engineer is African American, and the
dump truck driver is from Asia. It reminds me of Agatha Christie’s 1934
mystery Murder on the Orient Express. At the end, Belgian detective
Hercule Poirot says:

…I tried to imagine whether such an assembly was ever likely to be collected
under any other conditions. And the answer I made to myself was — only
in America. In America there might be a household composed of just such
varied nationalities — an Italian chauffer, an English governess, a Swedish
nurse, a German lady’s-made, and so on….

Tonight we will report our progress at the monthly operations night of
our club, the
Silicon Valley Lines. “Silicon Valley Lines (SVL) is an HO Scale
Model Railroad Club the heart of Silicon Valley, in San Jose, California.”
They are all very interested in our project to move a real (or “prototype” as model railroaders say) caboose into our back yard. John was elected Club
President starting next month so we will get to report our caboose
installation and restoration progress every week.