Garden Railroading: October 2023

Railroad Shut-Down For Another Season

With the cooler weather now upon us and with city-wide rail activities going on for the next couple of Saturday's the determination was made to close up shop at the railroad for the 2023 season.

Workday Wednesday would have been the day we gathered to tuck the railroad to bed, but the weather forecast did not co-operate.

We gathered on the Friday with a nice contingent of OVGRS members who were able to lend a hand.

Thanks to those who also wished to have made it out but had other commitments.

Thanks to Seanna for sending along these first three images.

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Many of the structures were gathered up and placed on the benchwork in Craig Leigh. Bernie looks over to Seanna as Doug screws the boards into place while Bill, Marcel & Moe look on.

The lads are in the process of boarding up the entire area.

Before we continue with the closing up of the railroad, let's take a brief look back at two of our sessions. Starting with Session #1, all of our odd numbered train sessions were of the Narrow Gauge variety where steam ruled supreme.

Video footage from Session #1.

To engage the video click on the white arrow once and then again a second time.

Beginning with Session #2, all of our even numbered sessions were of the standard gauge variety where diesels ruled the roost!

Video footage from Session #2.

In a future blog entry, I will showcase a brief image and video from each of our 16 sessions!

For new visitors to the blog, you can check the blog archive in the right hand column near the top of the blog entry where you can scroll down through the past months to see entries from each session.

You can even scroll through the years to see sessions from way back in time!

Back to our packing up day last Friday. Moments before the plywood went up, the many structures were brought to the east end of the railroad.

These puppies will be stacked carefully in a few moments.

Other structures have been gathered momentarily on the work table and near the engine shed.

They will be placed along the terminal area in Craig Leigh to be covered up with plywood.

This is but a fraction of all the buildings.

Moe lugs one of the buildings across the landscape. Lots of lads & lasses pitched in!

They have been stacked carefully. Doug follows the action as Marcel lifts another board in place.

Looking good lads! Sid joins in to lend a hand.

Getting there!

The structures begin to hide for their winter hibernation.

Doug & Marcel have worked hard to bring the canopy down off its infrastructure to be stored in a dry area for the winter.

Marcel's smile brightens our overcast morning!

It's an "open ceiling".

The bar fridge and cabinet go in to the dispatch hut.

Our friend who resides in Wellington Lake at the little depot looks forward to his long winter's nap!

Here's Steve...

...and his lovely wife, Seanna!

We are so blessed to have this dynamic duo in our midst!

Here they are hooking up the pedestrian level crossing signals.

Video of a train traveling through the crossing.

Felicity is dressed for the cooler temps. She diligently removed the creeping vines from along the fence line off in the distance.

That's a full bucket of vines, Felicity!

Hmmm...any way we can make a salad from them for the crew!

Ralph is all smiles as Bill tells one of his many humorous stories!

Here's Bill's Narrow Gauge shirt.

Moe & Doug look on.

Bernie lines up an end board.

Sid is enjoying the action.

Coming along fellas!

I won't tell you what we were all chuckling about! Heh heh!

Ralph and Bill lend the lads a hand with the tarp over the plywood.

Marcel takes charge at this end.

We are winter ready!

We're in Fred's shop in the office/garage.

Lots happens here!

Some of the Jigstones buildings have found a home in here.

Cool!

More delicate structures end up in the front of the office.

Sid and Doug discuss their winter plans.

Bernie gives a final clean-up before the snows come.

Marcel and Doug are but some of our early birds who made it out in the wee hours of the morning to get things started along with Bernie and our other Doug.

Fred is happy that the railroad is now safely tucked to bed before the snow flies.

Early birds Doug and Bernie pose for a picture.

I brought out the O-scale model of the Dolbeer Donkey which I have recently built for Doug to show him the model "in person".

I snapped this photograph of a Dolbeer Donkey while out on Vancouver Island.

These donkey engines revolutionized both the logging industry and the steamship industry. Lumbermen used them to haul heavy logs out from the forest. The engine would pull the log on a cable. Then it would attach itself to a tree and use the tree to winch the engine along and the process would start over again. At shipyards, the donkey engine was used to load the ships.

Seanna & Steve sent me the link below to Great Big Sea's version of the song "Donkey Riding"

Copy and paste the link into your computer's browser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&app=desktop&v=zFxjhK_UKwk

Here are the lyrics to the tune: