"I've been working on the rail road..."

Lathan gets to see some really beautiful places when he travels for work. I am always sending him with a camera asking him to take pictures...and he only snaps a few here and there on his cell phone. I guess that is better than nothing!

I think that these pictures look like they would come from out of the UP's calendar.

I thought that I would post a little "show and tell" so you can see a little more about what Lathan does for work. And to answer the question, "Does he ride the train to work?"=No. That would be pretty neat. But right now he actually car pools with some fun guys that work on the same gang as he does. Right now he is driving with 2 other guys from Mt Pilier, ID.

For the past 6 weeks Lathan had been working in Mount Shasta, California which is about 750 miles from home. And he had been working on a piece of machinery called a RAIL LIFTER. A rail lifter lifts the rail and inserts plates, so the machine coming behind it can put spikes in the plates that hold the rail down to the tie.


Here are some pictures I found if his cell phone of Mount Shasta where they were working on the track:

Lathan is now working around 650 miles away from home in Crescent Lake, Oregon. He caught a "bid" on a DYNA CAT TAMPER which is a part of the "Surfacing & Lining" gang. A Cat Tamper puts curves in the track, makes the track flat and straight, & also lifts the rail and puts rock under the ties to help support the track. Lathan says that this picture doesn't due it justice...he says that it is HUGE. (Around 150 feet long & 154,000 pounds.) And it takes 3 guys to run this piece of equipment.-1 on the inside and 2 walking along the outside. (It even has air conditioning on in the inside.) Wouldn't want to bang up this equipment, it costs 3 million smack-a-roos!
Here are some pictures I found on his cell phone of Oregon where they were working on the track. (Lathan hasn't taken any this year of Oregon so they are actually some pictures of the same area in Oregon when he was there around this time last year.



Here is a video clip that shows the Cat Tamper at work. FYI~It is 2 mins long-the first 30 seconds are pretty much the same as the last minute & 1/2. Check it out!

(PS-Keep scrolling, I can not figure out how to delete all of this space before the video.)