Garden Railroading: Workday Wednesday Ferrying of Equipment

Workday Wednesday Ferrying of Equipment

Today a group of lads and lasses headed over to Joan's home to help her clean up Lawrence's workshop.

Bernie, Pat Brennan, Robin, Lisa and I arrived Joan's home at 8:30 AM sharp.

The clear-out began and Joan really appreciated the assist we gave with Lawrence's railroad items.

Later, Joan asked Lisa and me to give her a hand in assembling a new bed she received from Sleep Country Canada.

So-o-o, while the lads were busy downstairs cleaning out the basement workshop, I was busy in the upstairs bedroom with two lovely ladies! I'm no dummy! Big grin!

Here is the back of my new Hybrid RAV4 loaded with some 15-20 of Lawrence's carrying cases full of equipment.

Fred is getting through the pain with meds and he was delighted to see us arrive to assist with the Wednesday chores!

Upon our first return, I began showing Fred many of the examples of Lawrence's rolling stock, many of which were carried in custom carrying cases he had made from scratch.

Lawrence was an eclectic collector as this more toy-like locomotive showcases.

He particularly enjoyed small but "brutish" locomotives.

We found this B-unit in the mix.

It was painted and lettered for the Lehigh Valley.

This was the only A-unit we came across.

While I show both rolling stock and motive power, a small handful of these engines may go to new homes right away as we want our members who currently have no locomotives to enjoy an engine (or two) as soon as possible.

We are not certain if some of these steamers are actual runners.

Further investigation will have to take place.

For those willing to purchase any of Lawrence's locomotives, we must remember that he usually had a battery car following in behind.

Most of the group now chooses to put their batteries within the confines of their locomotives.

Lawrence taught at Algonquin College, thus the naming of this U-Boat.

Another battery car that may very well be converted back to a regular boxcar seeing as we have no Erie 40-footers in the group's inventory.

A classic logo if there ever was one!

I recall Lawrence running this locomotive within the recent years.

One of our vehicles arrives Fred's with tools and a great deal of trackwork. Along with many bundles of long, straight sections of track, there were many bundles of curves of differing sizes and quite a few turnouts, both right and left.

So-o-o, why not photograph the collection for all to see. Here is Lawrence's Christmas special car with "circuit board" Christmas trees!

This car made me think of Mark with his White Pass & Yukon diesel locomotive!

Cool.

A Bumblebee!

Perhaps one of our members in need of a locomotive would like this puppy...err...I mean, this insect!

A camelback tender I believe on this little one.

Lovely.

Lawrence often ran this unit during out standard gauge sessions.

I believe this was one of his coveted gems.

A 4-6-0.

Maple Leaf #12.

Here is the Algonquin diesel once more.

I recall seeing this 4-axle unit running on IPP&W rails before.

Yet another steam engine lettered for the A&O.

Engine #2.

Lawrence always amazed us as a scratchbuilder and we learned more about his efforts as we uncovered some interesting rolling stock, such as this handmade crane.

Lovely.

The ball bearings beneath the platform allow the crane to rotate!

An old NYC transfer van that Lawrence must have had plans for at some time in the future.

He had already scrubbed off the NYC logo in anticipation of putting something different in its place.

A CNR flatcar.

Lawrence had many flatcars in the collection.

An NYC triple dome tankcar with large couplers.

This puppy may just find a home in the OVGRS roster in short order.

As far as we know, we don't have a gondola like this in the standard gauge fleet.

A stockcar.

I believe we have plenty of those!

A bulkhead flat.

Lawrence must have been playing around with the load.

We definitely have one of these on the railroad the lads tell me.

Still, a nice looking 40-footer.

This triple dome car should look nice plying IPP&W rails!

Or...rails of the RP&M!

Yet another flatcar with a scratchbuilt load from the creative genius of Lawrence's imagination.

This would add variety to our narrow gauge sessions!

Yet another loaded gon.

The Southern Railway.

Another triple dome example.

Cool!

This car made me think of Andrew.

It would look great being pulled by Andrew's SOO LINE RS3 as his train heads into Nelson Yard!

We already have a number of these cars on the railroad.

Lovely though.

Some narrow gauge passenger equipment.

The tail end passenger car.

The combine.

The headend express car.

The Tweetsie RR.

Another narrow gauge combine.

Perhaps Lawrence intended to letter these for a railroad in the future.

Maybe one of our members would take this puppy and do just that!

Ditto for this tankcar.

Hey, we could letter it as LMHM # 2024 for the "Ludicrous Metalianus Heavy Mining Company!" that Fred dreamed up this calendar year!

Yet another friend waiting to be dolled up.

Anyone want to take that project on?

A flatcar.

With chains.

Fred thought of Chris Vernell, the Englishman when he saw these five small cars.

Chris is the lad who is a great ambassador to the hobby who sets up the Thomas the Tank exhibit at rail shows around the province.

An endcar.

A hopper car.

A bulkhead flat.

Another hopper.

A boxcar?

Still another unlettered and un-decaled car.

Ripe for the picking!

And another.

You'll have to straighten the brake.

A specialty car.

Obviously brought out in anticipation of the Y2K turnover!

Fred tells me that the motors inside were there to simulate the power for all the lights that lit up all over the car.

This was Lawrence's special car that calculated the distance traveled as it rode along the rails.

Fred is examining the innards!

Another flatcar with load.

Another foreign jobbie.

A flat!

A cattle car.

Sheep with cow!

The black sheep of the family!

Still more cattle.

Trailers on flatcars...with a Rube Goldberg support.

Another TOFC.

And...of course...this one which I showed earlier.

Boxes of additional containers.

A white Genstar thrown into the mix.

It's somewhere around 3:30 or 4:00 and Bernie is found outdoors cutting the grass in the 38 degrees Humidex!

In some of the boxes there are collections of large scale vehicles so I snapped this little guy for our beloved Rust Garden because...

...every garden has "bugs"!!! - or beetles!!! Heh heh!

Another of the many large scale vehicles found in the boxes is the black pickup truck which has now taken up residence in Spruce alongside the already existing light red farm truck.

Bernie had painted more of the bumper stops and wouldn't you know it...we found even more in Lawrence's collection that Bernie has taken home with him to paint for the group.