Stuctures on the Move

 Saturday's Work Session June 12th

A careful handful of lads descended on the railroad to bring out the structures and clean up various areas around the pike.

Marcel's CN switch engine is ready and raring to go! 

(Remember, you can enlarge images by clicking on them and return to the default page by clicking outside the image.)

But, alas...the "little engine that can" must await clearance as work must be carried out before fun can be had!

That's Valley Fuels and that's the old location for Valley Fuels...

...but this is the proper location for this Valley Fuels industry.

No...it's not James the Butler...why, it's Bernie the gardener!

Looking good there Marcel!

"Did you see that rarest of North American birds, Paul?" Lawrence enquires.  "I believe it's the ivory-billed woodpecker!"

Craig Leigh is getting cleaned up as structures depart for their summer homes.

While we may not get them in their proper town, at least they are "out and about" on this morning!

Love the patina on the roof at Craig Leigh.

Indeed, green is the appropriate colour of the day!

These shrubs have weathered the winter nicely.

Love the triple trestles bridging Brennan Gap.

The industry between Glen Hammond and Bellamy.

The depot at Bellamy.

Lovely models, Marcel.

A unique locomotive.

Paul must be around somewhere...

...as the 8202 makes an appearance.

Lovely unit, Paul.

Love the pickup trucks.

Indeed!

Andrew's smile tells it all.

Good old Ironwood.

The west end of Ironwood.

The structures at Spruce.

To the east of Ironwood.

Up in Cedar Rock.

The new trackwork from last year at Spruce.

Lovely!

Speaking of structures, the general store to the right on the table was my most recent project in O-scale.

It will fill a diorama with the horse team in O-scale.

Lots of fun details will help to create the scene.

This model is a Blair Line kit.  While many signs came with the kit, I had to create many of my own as the era for the diorama scene is set between 1910 and 1920.

Photographing a group of models in natural sunlight allow for the greatest form of "Quality Control" as any errors will not go unnoticed in these daylight conditions.

Yes, I will weather the structure "oh so slightly" but Doug and I wish to keep its appearance in good condition seeing as it is the general store for the community after all.

The checker players are from Woodland Scenics.  I will weather them a tad before officially planting them in the scene.

So, if there are any supplies you require, you may just find all of your needs here in the general store!

While there was no time to run the trains...

...we eagerly anticipate the time when we will be able to do so!

The tail end markers tell us that it's time to head out for now.

We head back in time 17 years to the year 2004, where we find uncle Fred in the crew lounge.  Without Fred, we couldn't share our passion for large scale operations.  Indeed, he is just as handsome a lad today as he was back then!

Keep checking in on the blog throughout the summer as we continue to develop the railroad and, perhaps, run a train or two with operations still well off in the distant future.

All the best, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Further Developments on Grant's Railroad

Further Developments on Grant's Railroad

Grant has sent us some more images and details of his most recent developments on his railroad.  Below is the story in his own words.

2021 Garden Railroad Rebuild

The resurrection of my garden railroad required one further repair of the original trackage before we can move onto building the new section.

While repairing the section of the south loop that was adjacent to the vegetable garden we discovered the section by the patio also required some TLC. It appears the deteriorating sub road bed had resulted in some uneven trackage which was causing the cars to derail. Since the track alignment was good, the task was a little simpler here focusing on replacing the wooden sub road bed.

To re-visit Grant's first posting on these developments, copy and paste the link below into your browser.

https://gardenrailroadottawa.blogspot.com/2021/05/developments-on-grants-railroad.html

The track to be repaired ran counter clockwise from the patio steps to the trestle. In fact the size/shape of the lower patio was driven by the railroad – talk about having your priorities in the right place.

A test train (loco) was run across the problem trackage to verify the nature of the problem thus identifying the required repair work. The track itself (Micro Engineering aluminum) was fine, but the road bed underneath had developed some undulations which were telegraphed up into the track.

Since the track alignment was just fine, I used it as a template as I cut the new roadbed sections. These sections were laid on top as I made my way around the curve.

The roadbed sections were joined together with additional wood splices that were screwed in place. Once again all of this assembly was done on top of the existing road bed thus ensuring perfect alignment. Due to the escalating price of lumber this year, I chose to go with 1 x6 PT deck boards instead of 2 by material. So far it has been working out OK.

At this point we were ready to remove the track and extract the old road bed. All of this went to the end of the driveway on garbage day.

The old stone dust was now removed and a nice clean trench was cleared out for the new road bed.

The new road bed was then dropped in place and the stone dust carefully packed around as the road bed was checked for level.

Just to make sure the stone dust was firmly in place, I hit it with the garden hose.

The rail road track was then re-installed. For some strange reason, it ended up being two inches longer so the excess was cut off. I guess it was better to be too long than too short!

Here the rebuilt road bed is in place. Track screwed down and trains are able to return to service.

Next update will be regarding  the new northern loop which is a whole new piece to the railroad. (Grant)

Thanks, Grant, for sharing more great pics of your recent developments.  We look forward to your next installment!

All the best, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada