Railsplitter weekend ends with professional split

 

[September 22, 2021] 

On Sunday afternoon the last competition of the National Railsplitting Festival in Lincoln was the Professional Split event.

Eight individuals signed up to participate in the event. Each one was asked to draw a number out of a hat and that is the log they would be assigned to for the competition.

Drawing the number one log was Chris Friedlein of Gibson City. The second log went to Evan Coombs of Bloomington. Lawrence Dubbelde of Mackinaw drew the third log. The fourth log went to Jonathon Norin of LeRoy. Casey Ballinger of Atlanta drew log five with Zach Darnall of Bloomington getting six, Cody Friedlein of Downs getting seventh and Curtis Prochnow of Normal getting the eighth and final log.

There are specific rules for the professional split. The contestants cannot begin until time is marked by the announcer which was Heidi Mueller.

Each full log must be split into eight rails. The rule for a good rail is that at each end of portion of the saw line from the end must remain. If a rail splits crooked and loses that end, it doesn’t count.

When done splitting, all rails must be separated and all tools must be removed from the worksite before calling time.

If a wedge is left in the rail or tools left in the work zone, there is a 30 second dock for each offense.

Rails are to be completely separated with no threads or splinters connecting any two pieces.

Once time is called, the contestant is done and cannot go back and correct an error.
 

It had been noted by Bob Rankin with the Association that the contestants are at the mercy of the luck of the draw. Sometimes a log will be particularly tough while another may be softer. There are also occasions when the grain of the log is twisted, making it very difficult to get a good clean split with the proper finish on each end.

All of the logs for splitting events this year were provided by Baker Tree Service and Mad About Trees of Lincoln. On Sunday afternoon, after the sign up was completed it was announced that because there were logs left over, there would be an additional sorting of the logs and any that appeared to be better than what was on the field would be switched out.



Thomas Madigan with Mad About Trees moved logs into place and made quick work of laying the original logs and also switching out the replacements.

When the event began, Casey Ballinger was off to a ferocious start. He worked quickly and was the first contestant to call time with a finish time of just over five minutes.

Timer/judges were assigned to watch and time the splitters. When the log belonging to Ballinger was examined, it was noted that there were two rails that were still connected. It was a hard blow, but the contestant had to be disqualified according to Railsplitter rules.

Because he had called time, Ballinger could not go back and correct his oversight.

The split went on with the other seven contestants working to get the job done. The logs were not cooperative as several of the men struggled to get the split accomplished. Long time contestant and often winner Chris Friedlein had a tough log as did his son Cody. However, Cody beat out dad and was the official first place finisher.



Cody finished with a time of nine minutes and two seconds. Third place went to Norin with a time of 9:56. Evan Coombs came in fourth with a time of 10:30:05 and Chris Friedlein finished fifth with a time of 12:33.

Curtis Prochnow finished with a time of 13:27:15 and Lawrence Dubblede recorded a DNF or did not finish.

Dubblede gave it all he was worth but the log was not to be persuaded to split. After nearly 20 minutes of effort, the contestant conceded that the log had won.

This year there was a nice purse involved for the first five finishers. Cody Friedlein was awarded $1,000 for his first place finish. There were also monetary awards for the remaining top five finishers.
 

Each winner received a certificate and a little brown pouch along with their checks. Mueller explained that each pouch contained 50 $1 coins. The coins were a throwback to the mid-1800s when there were no paper dollars. The first one dollar bill was circulated in the United States in 1876. Prior to that dollar coins were the currency.

Mueller also called out for Casey Ballinger to come to the circle of winners. She had in her hand a roll of coins that she presented to Ballinger, calling it the newly invented “hard luck” award.



Ballinger's disqualification was due to an oversight. All the other contestants knew that if he had seen the error before calling time, he could have quickly severed the ties and still beat the rest of them by several minutes. Around the circle, all of the top five winners congratulated Ballinger on his outstanding performance and invited him to join him in the group shot of the winners.
 

New this year was an “All Around Railsplitter” award. Throughout the weekend, points were assigned to each competition and a tally was kept. At the end of the day, Cody Friedlein won the first ever All Around Railsplitter with a total of 42 points.

Others on the board included Jonathon Norin with 40 points, Heidi Miller with 26, Bryce Muir with 25, Lawrence Dubbelde with 24, Stephanie Friedlein with 20, Chris Friedlein with 19, Jackson Johnson with 18 and Curtis Prochnow with 16.

This year’s organizers were well pleased with the weekend. The weather was warm and sunny, crowds enjoyed the camps on both days, and the competitions were well attended.

Sunday’s events marked a memorable end to the Golden Anniversary of the National Railsplitter Festival. The community looks forward to the next half century of rail splitting competitions. We thank the Abraham Lincoln Railsplitting Association for preserving our heritage through re-enactments.

[Nila Smith]