Garry's Great Railroad Delivery System

Garry's Great Railroad Delivery System

Just got this e-mail from Garry. 

Hi Mike, seeing Henk selling a Christmas locomotive and having been told by someone (who will remain nameless) that I have been very quiet for the past few weeks, I realized that I had not “reported” on my new In-house Christmas Present Delivery System used this past Christmas. 

In summary, it was a great success told in these pictures:

 

We had a small loop around the tree and a larger loop into the Living Room so the adults did not have to get out of their chairs to get their presents. This picture was before adding a very important middle Flat Car for over-sized loads as explained below.

I thought I had devised a single purpose RR (delivering presents), but the Grandkids had other ideas. Since we always have a Ham Ball and crackers before supper while we chat, the Grandkids decided to take orders from the adults and deliver them by a Snack Train.

The first present delivered fit onto one of the brown Flat Cars just fine.

But other presents were larger and that is where the centre black flat car with its elevated deck (an upside down 1 foot track) did the trick with the 2 brown Flat cars as idler cars.

And the little engine sometimes had to pull heavy loads, like a box of 14 tallboy beers that weighed a total of 16 pounds.

And some presents were tall and barely made it under the Christmas Tree’s lower branches;

The final 2 uses of the train were unfortunately not caught on camera:

The first was delivering a beer to my son, reminiscent of what we see sometimes at the OVGRS Saturday morning operating sessions.  I had better get a Gondola for that😊

The second was when our younger Granddaughter was getting one of her presents.  She thought the middle Flat Car with the upside-down track would be a good place for her doll to take a nap while she opened her present. Indeed, the doll “slept” on that Flat Car for a couple of loops around the Christmas tree until the present was opened and it was time to retrieve her.

So, the Christmas train served four distinctive purposes: snack delivery, present delivery, beer delivery and doll sitting. 

But the small track loop around the tree will have to be wider next year to avoid a present on the train bumping into a present still under the tree.

A fun time was held by all.

 Best, Garry

Thanks so much for this wonderful update, Garry!  Indeed railroads serve a multitude of purposes and perhaps this is one of the most unique and rewarding!

All the best, Mike and the OVGRS reindeer group!  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada