Rods

Last week I got a tricky boundary survey in the door.

This particular boundary is in an old industrial area and has a Rail Road on a portion of the north.

I asked one of my contract guys who lives a lot closer to go out and shoot the section on Sunday morning because this is in a very high traffic area.

Upon receipt of the data I immediately dove in head first.

I pulled maps and documents and I also received a description and some easement doc’s from the client. No title report seemed to exist but they got all of the paper work from the city in which they are thinking of purchasing the 2 lots.

The description was partially written in Rods and it made some very distinctive calls that were just not adding up according to my section breakdown.

I did some further review on some very old subdivisions in the area and quickly discovered some non-nominal  1/16^th corners that everyone since the dawn of time has been using.

So I jumped in the truck and went out to do my own search and destroy mission.

The first thing I discovered is that the 1/16 corner is not on the mid-section line. The next thing I discovered is the 1/16 to the west which is an old pipe (which is in character with plats) is still there and checks awesome to the brass cap in hand hole 1/16 that is previously noted as a stone.  Oh, the pipe lands in the railroad right of way between the main line and a spur.

Right then I jumped all over those 2 monuments and started running around the subject boundary and man stuff started fitting like no one’s business.

I found some monuments in character with some older surveys and it all started fitting together.

I brought it back to the office, tossed it into cad and re-calc’d it all and soon discovered that the North East corner is clipped by the Rail Road right of way.

I am sure that no one has really ever considered this one, upon looking at all of the documents anyway. So now here we are with that little thing. It only takes a tiny chunk that should never make a difference to anyone.

The track is funky as well. (I love straight track!!). It is in a curve or I should say a series of curves. I could stand there a see that it was obviously multiple curves, most likely spirals.

I took a bunch of center shots all the way past the tangent and in the office I drew a bunch of 3 point arcs and then offset the 33 foot half right of way.

There is a map that is quite illegible but I could still make out the 33 feet and adjoining plats confirmed it.

I will do some more research before making a final determination on that North East corner. I think I have buttoned up but want to be sure.

I like these kind of jobs. It's what makes surveying good and breaks up the day to day drag of the same old stuff.

Just the fact that this thing was written partially in Rods makes it unique along with the obviously long history behind the 1/16 corners.

Make it a great week surveyors.