Last month a contractor did some core drilling along the Washington Park line to aid in determining the cost for repairing the decaying retaining walls and culverts which have been in service for more than half a century. The initial thought seems to be that horizontal ties into the hillside underneath the right-of-way will be preferable to driving vertical piling. I understand that the problem was discovered when Jeff Honeyman (one of the two full-time zoo railroad employees) noticed that water flowing into a culvert on the uphill side of the railroad was not flowing out of the same culvert on the downhill side. A blow-out of a retaining wall was discovered between Siding 1 and Siding 2 when the track began sinking a little. I've run a work train over it but it's not considered safe for passenger service.

A couple months ago we heard that the line might be repaired by early fall instead of having to wait for the 2016 season. More recently the thought is that the major known problems might be fixed in order to get the line back in service some time this summer and then defer the lesser items until after the operating season. Time will tell. Apparently the funding has been identified but a major problem is just getting the required permits from the various governmental agencies who have control over the right-of-way easement.