Barry's Teardown/Rebuild of His Railroad
I recently received this email from Barry just a few days into the New Year.
Hello Mike, Yes, I would very much like to pass along my very best New Year's
wishes for everyone in our OVGRS family. This will be the first instalment in a
short series detailing what happened after my railroad ceased operations at the
end of October. Fortunately, the awesome weather allowed me to get most of the
demolition work done before the snows came. The weather wasn't the only blessing, however.
Most in our fraternity were not aware that an
article in the Belleville "Intelligencer" was published about 6 weeks after I
requested it to promote my railroad in August and September. I had originally
planned to shut down in mid-September, when leaves and other challenges often
made operating difficult, to say nothing about the normally cool, wet and windy
weather. Well, the paper came through in early September, so there were a
flurry of responses by people wanting not only to see it, but operate some
trains.
With the weather's cooperation, we had several
new people show up, including some operators. One of them was "Steve" who
actually said he was interested in helping. He showed up generally at the time
the pictures below were taken - in other words when I had already started the
demolition phase of my "tear down/rebuild" of the railroad. You will see a pic
or two of Steve in future mailings.
When he arrived and I sat down with him to
introduce myself, and the railroad, I asked him why his email address was from
"Glen." Of course I knew what the answer would be, and quickly assured him that
my version of Christianity stated that God loves everyone and "has no
favourites." I was right in my assumption, and learned that Steve's partner is
the organist and music director of Belleville's largest Anglican church (in
fact, the first church in Belleville, just ahead of the Presbyterians.) Steve
is a very easy person to make friends with, and he came many times and helped
with the demolition and then the restoration of an important trestle (seen
waiting for him in a couple of the pictures below.)
He is a good friend. He is another one who
when they come to help, get to enjoy Bonnie's first-class lunches!
Thanks to Steve's hard work, I had the
opportunity to lay out and "rough in" most of the new layout. I will take a
couple of pictures this afternoon to show you what awaits next spring.
In the meantime, I want to wish my very dear
friends in our group, both near and far, a very Happy and Prosperous 2025. Woo!
Woo! Barry
The planned demolition begins along the fence line.
Tracks are removed.
On the other side of the main aisleway we see track being stored neatly.
The cuts begin!
Wow! What a difference, Barry! Looking forward to the rebuild!
Barry tells us that this picture shows the removal of West Ben Stockyards, Cora's Corners and the
south end of Quinte West.
The trestle and Arch Bridge leading to Orleans have
been removed for restoration, although I am not sure the arch bridge can be
saved.
It was always put indoors after the 2nd winter (2014-2015) did some
severe damage, but it continued to deteriorate every winter since.
Here is a picture with my newfound friend and
hard worker wielding his drill as he completely removed the Belleville town
site.
I followed his progress all the way up to and
including Shaanenville Station with a single track which would be the basis for
the new "roundy-round"/continuous running circuit
for those many folk who just want to watch and take pictures.
I salvaged as much of the old deck boards by
flipping them over as I could.
These have been deemed acceptable and are awaiting being used where Quinte West
used to be, west of the curve over to Orleans.
I followed Steve as he worked along the back
fence and I began roughing in the new layout around the big circle from the back fence (future relocated Quinte West)
towards the Orleans/Cumberland section which will be basically unchanged.
Here is another angle on the curve from the
back fence to the approach to Orleans, part of the continuous-running
circuit. The boards are temporarily supporting the
track.
To the left towards the red pail you will soon see the mainline from
Ottawa to Orleans running parallel to the c-r circuit track.
As you can see here, the leaves are gone, and
the frost has come; however, after the first two pics,taken in November, no less, the weather still
allowed me to keep working.
In this picture above you can see the roughed in
decking leading from Ottawa to where the tracks split to either the
continuous run along the back fence or the lead
to Orleans Station.
...continuing eastward to...
...the roughed in new Belleville Station along
the fence on the north of the walkway.
On the south side is the east end of Cumberland Station, which
will require significant re-working to make the cross-over heading to Mount Kamaryn and heading westward to the
new Belleville and Quinte West site.
Both the main line and c-r-c (continuous
running circuit) head to Mount Kamaryn.
The main line continues into Kamaryn City while the c-r-c circles
back towards Cumberland and the interchange with the main line.
The old Sandra Bypass will be relocated
further west.
I will also have to figure out how to provide a
bypass track for Kamaryn City.
It is pretty obvious that the pedestrian
crossing here at the east end of Cumberland presents some interesting challenges.
Just beyond the
top of this picture is the cross-over of the mainline.
I think I have figured out the two
cross-overs where the main and c-r-c lines have to change places from inside the circle to the
outside.
Not long before the weather turned colder I began to rough in the new Belleville
Station opposite Cumberland Station.
There wasn't much time left, but you can see
the makings of the new Belleville Station, located roughly where Shaanenville Station used to be.
Quinte
West will be further to the left, and a turntable will allow locomotives to turn around for the return trip
to Trista centre or Ottawa via Kamaryn City.
This is what the interchange between the c-r-c
and main line will look like.
Rather than using a rail crossover it allows the two lines to switch sides
The
c-r-c will always have priority since it will be unmanned and perhaps I can have red/green lights to warn
mainline trains of the approach of the the oncoming c-r-c train.
This is where the c-r-c line will turn back
towards Cumberland and its other crossover with the main line like the one opposite.
On the far right of the
picture you can see the location of the relocated Sandra bypass.
This shows where the main line crosses over to
the Belleville-Kamaryn City line from Cumberland.
The c-r-c line and Sandra bypass will be connected to
allow bypassing Kamaryn City from Cumberland when the c-r-c train(s) are not operating.
The bottom right shows the
much more complicated pedestrian crossing east of Cumberland.
Now the scene moves back to the Ottawa -
Orleans line over the trestle to the left, and towards the c-r-c line on the right. The c-r-c line will
parallel the main all the way to the Cumberland crossover to minimize interference between operations and continuous
running trains.
Note that the deck boards don't look too bad
when flipped over. Most of the problems of rotting were
in structural framing.
Many lessons were
learned during this whole exercise. I will not be using stain any more, but rather porch and floor paint, for one
thing.
Finally, I found this shared pic from my camera by
itself.
As you can see, it was taken right after Steve had
finished the demolition along the fence and I
had roughed in the c-r-c line as far as the waterfall.
All that cut up wood was unusable and soon to be
taken away in Robin Hornstra's truck for disposal.
I will stop there for now, but soon I will be
able to send you a map of the restored railroad.
I am just now beginning to design the first set of train
orders with the new alignments and trains.
I do have a complete Bachmann Denver and Rio
Grande # Western passenger train with my "Annie" at its head that might be nice as a c-r-c train, and
if anyone coming down from Ottawa wants to bring another, we could have them run by a couple of people
who would rather not do freight operations.
I am so thankful for both Steve and the good
weather for the progress made already.
I am sure youcan see that there is still a lot of work to be
done before operations restart, hopefully by Victoria Day.
I wish everyone a Happy New Year!!!
Barry
Thanks so much Barry for this amazing clinic on how to dismantle and restore a large scale railroad.
We look forward to following along with your further progress!
All the best, Fred, Mike and the entire OVGRS clan!
