Garden Railroading: Grant's Locomotive Cases

Lovely Locomotive Cases From Grant

Grant sent the following e-mail message my way.

Hello Mike, I have been reading your blogs very religiously and quite enjoy the pictures, story line and the banter your postings promote. You had recently suggested we share any projects we have on the go with you for posting in the blog – great idea.

I have a number of railroad related projects on the go, most of which I share through the SLD’s Face Book group and thru the MailCar publication so there is no point in publishing them in one more forum, also since these are not large scale, they would not be of primary interest to the OVGRS members. But I do have one item that would be of interest to them and one I’d like to share with them. Attached is a set of photos and here is an introductory paragraph and description for the photos. You can adjust the photo captions as you see fit.

Before we check out the locomotive cases, let's find an image of Grant out running a train shall we!

In this July photograph of 2020, I have found him following his train into Ironwood with Bernie watching on.

Here's his train!

Now, let's focus in on the locomotive cases! The following words continue from Grant's e-mail.

Garden Railroad Locomotive Cases

As a result of my retirement at the start of the summer I have been able to visit Fred Mill’s garden railroad empire on a more regular basis often dragging my equipment over in cardboard boxes. I soon found myself admiring the carrying cases the other lads have built to move their equipment around, I needed to come up with a similar solution as I felt embarrassed to show up with cardboard boxes in tow! I studied the other carrying cases noting their neat features, functionality and construction materials all the while churning ideas over in my head.

What you see here is the final product. The lower section houses the locomotive with track slots routed into the base which allows the loco to move in/out under it’s own (battery) power. The upper half of the case is a tray for holding the supporting components like throttle, battery charger, tools and my lunch. For transporting the model, the end ramps are inserted into slots at the of end the lower case, the upper case is latched into place with the suit case catches and the whole assembly is carried by the dowel rod handle. The first case was made for my LGB 2-6-0 mogul and since it turned out so well, I made a second, longer one for my Bachmann 2-8-0 consolidation. Now the true test will come next spring once the snow leaves for me to actually test out their functionality!

For those into carpentry, the cases were made from scrap in the shop: maple, fir ply, pine, etc. I used dado slots for mating the pieces together and finger joints on the tray’s corners. There are no screws or nails, just glue holding everything together.

I want to thank the group for their valuable input and motivation.

Grant Knowles.

Though I had penciled a dimensional diagram together, the design was validated as I progressed along as a result some elements were changed / added.

The LGB mogul was test fitted as work progressed.

As any carpenter will attest, you never have enough clamps! The clamps are holding the upper cases together while the glue dries on the finger joints.

Here is the finished case, with the upper/lower boxes latched together and the doors in place.

Here the top tray has been unlatched and the door/ramp laid down. The ramp slides down in dado slots to double as a door when in transit.

Here are both cases, the consolidation case has the same width and height dimensions but is longer.

Thank you so much Grant for sharing your project with us through these six images. Very enlightening! We can't close off this blog posting yet as I feel I must share a few more pics of your trains plying the rails at Fred's from a July morning this past summer! Mike

Here we see Grant on the right holding court with Marcel as his train pulls into Peter's Pond.

His train slows to a stop where the depot would typically stand.

Grant's controller.

His train takes the curve into Glen Hammond on its eastward journey.

Arriving the Glen.

His train was spotted earlier in Wellington Lake.

Heading across Brennan Gap.

Another earlier scene beneath the imposing Fallentree Mine complex at the Blockhouse turnout.

Grant drives his train into Craig Leigh along the south leg of the wye.

Arrival at the engine house.

On another day trackside in mid-August we find another of Grant's locomotives rounding the curve at Lilly.

Grant...with his lovely Connie tackling that broad curve at Lilly.

What a treat it was when Grant brought our his 1937 Chevy sedan back in early November!

BONUS FEATURE

These next number of images were not sent my way by Grant. I had taken them ten years ago when I attended an operating session on his home layout. I'm thrilled to share them with you...to showcase the efforts of this Master Model Railroader. Indeed, our OVGRS member, Grant Knowles, has earned the accreditation of MMR 584 through the Achievement Program of the National Model Railroader's Association (NMRA), a well deserved honour for this fine gentleman.