In 2017, the over mature forest north of the museum property was logged off.  Railroad service on part of the museum’s Red River & Gulf Railroad trackage was suspended and the line was severed in at least one place to allow logs to be dozer skidded across the track area.  In September, the logged area was control-burned to destroy wood scrap on the ground and undergrowth to prepare for re-planting this spring.  During this process, the fire got out of control and burned about 600’ of ties in two places.  The burn contractor, believing the RR line to be nothing more than abandoned spur, put the fire out with a bulldozer, with the result as seen below.

This spring, the burn contractor, Acorn Forestry, purchased material, and sent a crew to the museum to restore the railroad, and in addition, they restored the severed sections of the railroad, so that the track is again complete to the former end of operational rail road, as seen in the following photos.  

We had a work weekend to clear vegetation from the railroad and were able to work past both reconstructed areas as shown in the following photos.  

More work remains to be done, both in vegetation clearing, one spot in the track needs resurfacing, and numerous ties need to either be replaced or realigned as the logging contractors used the railroad as a convenient road for bulldozer traffic.