We’re adding a smaller model railroad beside our ride-on railroad, called a Garden Scale Railroad. (25:1; 45mm track). Some background is located here. Some recent activity:
On-track connected storage shed July 15 – Rob and Dave tested narrow-radius switches, found they work, and presented an idea for on-track storage.
Knuckle Coupler Height We have many heights on various rolling stock. 1 1/8″ is the NMRA standard.
July 5 – Our biggest operating day yet. Dan brought his steam-driven Shay. It runs great on the track, providing live steam and live sound.
June 21. Two trains on the track with the RC operations adjacent are attracting more visitors.
Rob and Russ completed the boxcar modification to hold the battery for the Climax. Well done, guys!
Assembling the Shay to its tender is a real time-consumer. Rob will investigate the construction of a better/safer storage box
Andre is building a stake car so we can demonstrate loading a logging train using RC loading vehicles.
7- second video here:
– https://photos.app.goo.gl/w75F85zZgYcWqer5A
We ran the first train, our Shay, on May 3
Tunnel was added May 12
We confirmed the battery conversion of the Climax locomotive on June 7
We are completing the upgrade of this boxcar to become the battery-holder car for the Climax.
Tests to be done soon
– Set up a sloped test track and see if the Climax and Shay can climb ok
– – – necessary to know because if we want a figure 8, the grade will likely have to be more than 3 degrees
– Test one of our many sharper- curve switches we have to see if they will permit the Shay and Climax to go through
– – – we need to know, because the proposed layouts all contain many switches
Some background on our Garden Scale Railroad is located here
Platform: On April 2, Select Sand and Gravel delivered the final layer: 5/8 minus gravel. Photos here. Next: a simple loop around the piles to test track laying and loco operation.
Rob and Russ added the 2×6 wood underlay for what will be our first loop
The sign donated by Designer Signs on Franklin looks nicely to scale with the rolling stock.
Display Case: Russ and Rob built and installed the display case for the rolling stock early in March.
Building the platform: On March 9, rocks from T&R arrived. On Mar 10, Ron, with his mini-excavator and Karl helping to fit the rocks, installed them to make 3/4 of the rock wall. On March 11, Ron went and loaded the remaining needed rocks himself at T&R, installed them (with Karl’s ongoing fitting assistance), and we got a compactor from Relay rentals. Ron arranged another load of sand on Mar 12, from Select Sand & Gravel with a slinger this time, and we compacted it. On Saturday, March 14, Rob, Andre and Dave installed landscape cloth against the rock wall to prevent the 90 mm of rain forecast for the next week from washing the sand through the wall. The slinger-delivery of 5/8 minus for the top layer came from Select Sand and Gravel on April 2.
Photos of building the platform
