The Abandonment of Doug's Northland RR
Recently Doug sent me a very sad message with regard to his wonderful Northland Railway.
Doug, we are all thinking of you, my friend!
The remaining text and images in this blog entry come from Doug himself.
The Canada Day storm was the final blow from Mother Nature that has led to the abandonment of the Northland RR.
The Northland was begun in 2003 and tracklaying on the main line was completed by 2006.
Operations began almost immediately and continued uninterrupted until 2018.
Here is the entryway to the Northland and Rosseau station as it was in 2008.
Main line was operational and gardens planted.
Live steam was frequently run.
In this 2009 photo, the late Ralph Dipple operates his live steam shay.
(Ralph Yard in Firgrove is named after this fine gentleman who is no longer with us.)
The Northland featured two car sheds for storing cars in an easily accessible way.
These sheds were serviced by LGB 5 way sector plates as shown in this scene from 2011.
That same year 2011, the Northland suffered its first blow from the weather.
Fortunately, it was minor and the railroad continued with only a short break for clearing the tree.
Meanwhile the gardens grew and began to take on their final form.
The Northland normally hosted one day of the event known as the "American Invasion".
What follows are a few pics from Invasions over the years.
Bruce Chandler and I each scratchbuilt a model of the Tweetsie parlour car The Azelia.
Here Bruce shows off his nicely built car.
Gaetan Charette poses with a train at the return loop.
The Invaders relax on the patio in front of Rosseau Station.
In the forefront, Jan Golding chats with Ken Brunt.
In 2017, the Northland hosted a layout visit from the St Lawrence Division of the NMRA.
Pete Conroy was in town from Wolfville Nova Scotia.
Pete and Mike Hamer helped me run trains and chat with visitors.
In the photo, Pete lifts a string of cars from a car shed with a CN SD70.
That same car shed did not survive another year!
But Mother Nature was lurking in the background.
In 2018, a large tree started to lean against one of the car sheds.
The stored cars were removed and a couple of weeks later, the tree fell...crushing the shed.
That event brought on the abandonment of the return loop and the removal of the car shed.
Operating a garden railroad in the shade of trees is very pleasant but it does have its hazards.
Every year since 2018 brought additional problems.
Between winter ice storms and summer t-storms, downed trees became a regular occurrence.
Here is an example of damage after a summer thunderstorm.
Removal of the broken tree is essential for safety but is challenging to do without damaging the track.
This year, the Canada Day storm affected several trees in the interior of the railroad.
Their removal is very difficult if the track is not to be damaged.
This is another example of one of several problems from the Canada Day storm.
That broken branch is caught on branches of a pine tree up fairly high.
Rosseau Station, built in 2005 from Jigstones, is now a scale 90 years old (if we use the square root of the scale as a time corrector!).
Last winter it was uncovered for most of the season and the Jigstones suffered some damage.
The Canada Day storm with its high winds and torrential rains finished the job – the station is now condemned and will be demolished.
The task of lifting the track was begun.
Rails across the 16 ft deck girder bridge have been lifted as well as the turnout to the Rosseau station track and the main line track through Rosseau.
The plan at this time is to complete lifting the track by the end of the summer.
Some of the elevated roadbed will also be removed but the gardens will remain.
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