Jim Henry posted a neat areal video of MCC on youtube, see https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ctr1QSiDb6E. This video shows how much of the track is in the shade, not the greatest for shooting areal videos but a blessing in the hot summer sun.
Construction continues. This photos shows Dick standing at the center of a future turntable in the field at the north end of NORATS block. The turntable bridge is setting on the siding in the foreground.
These photos show a new track running from the east end of the transfer table to the very north end of Barney yard. This track will be the access to a planned new transfer table that will be at the north end of the steaming bays.
MCC is out in the country so we must contend with the local critters. Mice are a constant problem as illustrated by the nest in the upper photo on the right. The nests are easily removed but in this case removal exposed a severely chewed ribbon cable. Fortunately the damage is easily repaired by moving the press-on connector to the other side of the chew point.
The nest was empty so maybe the black snakes or the feral cat ate them.
We've been visited by beavers occasionally. Beavers are active on County Road 17 which dead ends into Ohio 541 about 5 miles west of MCC. The activity is about 3 miles north of the 541-17 intersection. The beavers build their dam next to the road and raise the water level to just below the pavement which undermines the pavement. For many years the country would remove the dam and a few days later the dam would be back. We hadn't see the dam after late fall 2014. This spring they were back and so was the county as shown in the photo. The dam will likely be back in a few days if anyone is interested. The beavers seem to only be active at night so don't expect to see one.
