patrick

Finally a pure Rio Grande Western consist! 20250812_165526.mp4

https://youtu.be/rH-Lx8iFqvw?si=QrjRDT4p2VYpFUpO 468 in action in and around Gunnison in the early fifties.

The railroad finally has an identity, the Tincup branch of the Denver and Rio Grande out of Gunnison Colorado about 1950. The decision was pragmatic, I already had a great running Aristocraft C16 locomotive which just needed to be relettered and a number of Rio Grande freight cars. Bachmann Big Haulers boxcars, gondola and stock cars in Rio Grande livery were available at very reasonable cost. I removed the factory lettering from the C16 with brake fluid and relettered it for Rio Grande 278. A second Aristocraft C16 268 in the D&RGD bumble color scheme was found on Ebay at a very reasonable cost, The previous owner adapted the locomotive to run on battery power and removed itspickups, It has two wires running from the motor to the tender. I plan to return it to battery power by installing a Piko r/c unit and rechargeable battery. Both 268 and 278 worked lightly laid branch lines out of Gunnison Colorado in the early fifties. 268 was painted in the then new diesel color scheme in 1959 for the Chicago World Fair in 1949 and retained this scheme until retirement when it was donated to the city of Gunnison where it is on display. 278 is also preserved. I imagine the railroad to be an imaginary branch out of Gunnison to the real town of Tincup, a town Malcolm Furlow used on his San Juan Central project layout in the Model Railroader in the 1980's and has inspired the railroad.

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A few pictures from today's running session.

Today brought us a break from the heat and humidity of the last week. Time to run a train. 20250801_151147.mp4

I have been constructing few buildings for the railway. The windows are cut from plastic screen for fluorescent light fixtures.l, a tio I found on YouTube.

This afternoons running session.

Here's a few more from the same evening. 20250708_235550.mp4 20250708_235513.mp4

Since the weather has been very hot and humid lately most running is done at night. Here's a video from last week. 20250708_235733.mp4

Recent engineering work on the railroad.

A few photos taken at night. I don't know if I posted these before because I can't see some of them here either!

Caught last night during a running session.

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I'm having issues posting photos. They are not showing on the post, can anyone help?

A few shots from last night showing the new LGB passenger cars. IMG_20250706_213102.heic IMG_20250706_213055.heic IMG_20250706_212700.heic IMG_20250706_210232.heic

Maureen took this photo this afternoon while the new LGB Rio Grande passenger cars were on their inaugural run. IMG_20250706_213102.heic

High noon at the depot.

The latest addition to the railroad is the trestle over the pond built from oak stripwood I found on sale at a local hardware store. The tunnel has also been daylighted. The hill was just not big enough to make it convincing.

I recall seeing a palvan being turned on the turntable in Tralee once as the door on one side was inoperable.

Timber was indeed shipped by rail from Fenit until the early seventies for Mc Cowens, who had a number of private sidings in Tralee. I recall the timber being unload by the steam cranes and Bulleid opens and flats being shunted by a G class from the pier to the station. To the best of my knowledge the startch shipment Mayner mentioned was the last rail traffic on the pier. I was a teenager at the time and having got wind of the shipment cycled with a friend from Tralee to observe the action. Tralee no longer had a G class so a CIE lorry with a sleeper tied to the front was used to shunt wagons on and off of the pier. An A class hauled the train, all Bulleid opens except for one H van loaded with tarps to protect the shipment which was in sacks. Oh to have had a camera that day.

Given that i imagine the railroad as a rundown line on its last legs about 1950 a little overgrowth is desired. When it starts to get out of hand it the roadbed gets a dose of weed and grass killer. Although the garden is generally flat there are a few low spots which require regular reballasting due to settling and washouts after heavy rainfall, just like the prototype.

After running trains for a while i decided to make some trackwork changes in order to improve accessibility and operation. The short siding near the tunnel was removed as it proved to be awkward to switch and made the area look too congested. The switch was then used to add an additional siding to the yard. The main line was also relocated in order to replace the planned curve bridge over the pond with a straight one. I'm planning through truss bridge here which will be more appropriate and easier to build.

Since my new garden railroad is American outline i feel it's better start a new thread here than continue on the Irish Layouts one. The line has been out of service for over two months while the pond and waterfall were put in. With this job almost completed a temporary bridge has now been installed allowing service to be restored. Apart from ongoing landscaping the next project is to build the bridge and tunnel portals.

Progress.