It's a WDWD on a Saturday
Mother Nature was in our court this past Saturday morning.
The railroad was not yet prepped for operations seeing as we had a cold and wet spring so this past Saturday was deemed as a 'workday'.
With 17 folks in attendance, the IPP&W and RP&M railways will be in 'working order' for our first operations of the season to begin next Saturday.
Some alterations to the operations will be made due to our continued efforts at Brennan Gap.
Father Fred is a happy camper when our most helpful crewmates join him to get the railway in decent working order.
Claire worked diligently all morning long and then gave Freddie some company in the crew lounge.
Upon my arrival early in the morning there were a number of structures still needing to find their homes trackside.
We have a newcomer of a diesel making the rounds of the layout.
Indeed, we asked folks to bring out some of their locomotives to run around the railway to help determine any track issues after the rail bed awoke from its long winter's nap.
Bob arrived early and got right down to business with the track inspection.
Bob tells me this diesel has been introduced to the IPP&W railway.
There's always a first time for sure.
Stanchions will be added to this big puppy in due course!
Some video takes of Bob's locomotive at Bell.
While Bob was out on the 'high iron' Pat made it his duty to oil all of the choke cables attached to ground level turnouts.
This is a necessary assignment which Pat conducts two or three times a season.
Jim got out his hair dryer...err...the large blower and cleared all of the trackage of fallen pine needles and other natural debris.
Meanwhile, Nelson Yard looks in pretty good shape!
It certainly won't appear this barren next week at this time of day!
Bob takes a break as John looks on.
Shortly thereafter Bob continued on his run and John got down to assisting Chris with the re-leveling of Mercer Siding.
The re-leveling begins as John holds the crowbar as Chris removes some of the earth around the inside edge of the siding.
Trains traveling this route would 'cant' into the direction of the house.
Chris came up with the idea of adding earth beneath the roadbed thus eliminating our use of popsicle sticks underneath the ends of the ties on the 'house side' of the tracks.
We spot a clever usage of a bulkhead flat as a 'leveling' car!
A test car with level is used to help determine their success as spotted in this video showing.
Felicity snapped this image of me place ties through 'all' of the grommets - which Fred had asked to be done.
Felicity spotted me throughout the process even though the stepladder was rather solid.
Here she is moving the stepladder to a new location on my behalf.
Teamwork that is!!! 😀
Bob reaches the depot at Ironwood.
Before I climb the ladder once more I manage to snag this video effort of Bob's train running through Ironwood and on into Spruce.
Gerry devoted his time determining which umbrellas needed setting up at which locations.
Looking good there Gerry!
Mr. Scobie and Mr. van Zijl will be happy!
Claire got that whipper snipper a-going cleaning up the tall grasses growing along the edges of the walkways.
Here is an interesting looking CP hauler!
Meanwhile over in St. Helens Jim runs his CP diesel with battery mounted (for the time being) atop the rear section of the roof as captured in this video.
Jim tells me he will create a battery car in either a boxcar or a gondola.
Pat's steamer runs in behind on the main heading in a westerly direction.
Pat arrives Ironwood.
Dilip follows through with the blower.
Pat arrives Ironwood in this video where we spot Dilip with the blower in hand.
Pat is taking a break for lunch...provided by the trackside treasures found along the 'right of way'!
Jim and Pat in silhouette.
Pat rounds the bend to the west of Spruce.
Bend video work!
Pat is on the bypass track around Nelson Yard heading for The Glen while Bob is nestled in Nelson Yard.
Duo train video!
Steve & Seanna clear up the area in and around Firgrove.
The work at Mercer progresses as the lads in the background discuss the happenings at Brennan Gap.
Chris watches on as John backs a passenger consist through the siding at Mercer.
Mercer Siding test video results.
Gerry continues with the umbrella placements while Bill is about to get started on the removal of the Lawrence Watkins Trestle...which we have now determined is strong enough to remain on the railway.
Lots of hard work and planning will allow us to retain the trestle and make it sturdy enough to weather many more seasonal changes.
The trestle has been lifted.
Felicity and Bill remove the steel plates and save them for when we re-install the span.
Jim cleans up our mess! 😎
Clean up video.
While we were at it in this vicinity, we decided to repair the terrible 'cant' on the Fred Mills Trestle.
We have determined that the length of the board upon which the trestle piers rest is either 10 feet long or 12 feet long.
This ground-level beam will have to be adjusted as it is canting towards the house as well...helping to create the 'lean' in the bridge itself.
John continues with the work at Mercer Siding.
Thing are progressing nicely.
Pat continues oiling all of the choke cables.
Gerry manages to located more umbrella locations.
Malcolm assists with the whipper snipping along the west end of the line.
Seanna and Dara say 'cheese'! 😄
Seanna is all smiles as the pedestrian crossing lights she and Steve installed continue to work beautifully!
Pedestrian crossing video finds.
Pat assists with the running of a train across the entire line.
By all appearances the railway is in good order!
The lads check out the issue with the bridge as Chris shows Malcolm and Bill the cant.
Iron threading video fun!
Steve & Seanna Heisler locomotive breezes downhill out from Spruce.
Heisler video activities!
Steve & Seanna find daylight after crossing the gut.
Spanning the bridge video.
Still more trains testing the bridge span.
This time a passenger run.
Follow up passenger run through the web of iron as spotted in this video.
Approaching Mercer from the east (geographic west).
Continued video work around Mercer Siding!
Could there be congestion in Peter's Pond?
Proof of perfection on video down in The Pond!
Folks congregate in the shade near Peter's Pond.
Jim relaxes in the shade of St. Helens.
I'm adjusting the turnout to the west (geographic east) of The Pond.
There's something wrong with this picture...!!!
...just like a typical Ottawa City road crew! 😎😎😎😎😎
Pat does some final brooming up!
The Fallentree Mine has found a temporary sheltered location while work will be done to the east of Nelson Yard at Lilly.
Progress has been made as all of the trackwork leading into Lilly and the Fallentree Mine has been lifted.
We have finally found the end of the base for the FM Trestle underground.On Wednesday we will address the 'lean' in the trackage here.
Sometimes you just have to 'open up' for surgery!
Sometimes you need to create a 'mess' in order to clear up a 'mess'! 😁
Pat backs his train into the terminal area at Craig Leigh.
Back up video along the east end.
Thanks to Mark for these next few images of the wainwright shop I am currently working on in O-scale.All windows will be seen from both an exterior and an interior perspective...thus the individual glazing of the window panes settled in between each muntin bar!
I used Microscale's Krystal Klear product to complete this procedure.
All the walls and floors are scratchbuilt.
The shelf casting is from Sierra West Scale Models.
Painting these castings is a lot of fun!
The wagons and horses come from Berkshire Valley Models.
The figures come from Rusty Rail and are much improved from their earlier offerings seeing as they are now 3D printed.
They require little cleaning but you have to paint them yourself.
There is still much work to be done with this facility which is probably about 20% complete at the moment.
Thanks Mark for sending these images my way!
Claire's wonderful smile tells of the tremendous fun we had at Fred's yesterday in preparation for our inaugural train ops next Saturday.
As does Freddie's smile as well! Thanks to all who managed to make it out to help get the railway in working order for the season.
Yes, the WDWD crew will have their hands full over the next couple of weeks but they are 'up to the task'!
We are the OVGRS (Ottawa Valley Garden Railway Society) based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
