Patrick's Garden Railroad.

[patrick]

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.

 

 

 

[patrick]

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. 

 

Edited October 9, 2024 by patrick

[derek]

Looking good Patrick. Just wondering how you are going to deal with the grass growing up through the track (and eventually everything else)?

[patrick]

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. 

[patrick]

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. 

Edited June 30 by patrick

[derek]

Love the bridge @patrick. That water looks almost real

[patrick]

High noon at the depot. 

[patrick]

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

 

IMG_20250706_213102.heic

Edited July 7 by patrick

[patrick]

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

[jhb171achill]

With the wide open spaces, and nice balance of weeds and ballast, there's almost a South American look to this too - very nice indeed!

[patrick]

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

[Flying Snail]

9 hours ago, patrick said:

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

I would guess that the issue is that the filetype is not supported by the software running this forum. The filetype that your camera saves images as by default is called HEIF/HEIC - that's the bit at the end of your file's name after the dot: '.heic'. Try exporting your photos into another common file format such as JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg) or PNG (.png) before you upload them.

[patrick]

 

IMG_20250706_213102.heic

[patrick]

Caught last night during a running session. 

[Mol_PMB]

8 minutes ago, patrick said:

Caught last night during a running session. 

That's better - I can see this pic. Looks superb!

[derek]

1 hour ago, Mol_PMB said:

That's better - I can see this pic. Looks superb!

Yes, I can finally see a pic now. Couldn't see any of the downloadable ones above. Probably the windows I'm running (8) is the problem, more than anything on Patrick's @patrick side.

[Mol_PMB]

Just now, derek said:

Yes, I can finally see a pic now. Couldn't see any of the downloadable ones above. Probably the windows I'm running (8) is the problem, more than anything on Patrick's @patrick side.

I'd tried Windows 11 and Safari on the phone with no luck. Glad Patrick has it sorted now, some great photos.

[patrick]

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!

 

Edited July 13 by patrick

[DJ Dangerous]

Apple devices tend to save images as HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) files by default.

HEIC files are not widely used nor accessible on non-Apple devices.

You can change this in your ‘phone settings, and use the more common JPEG standard.

There’s nothing that those viewing can do, as the forum software will recognise it as a file upload rather than an image upload.

The last few shots are fabulous!!!

[patrick]

Recent engineering work on the railroad. 

[patrick]

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

[patrick]

Here's a few more from the same evening.

[derek]

Can't view them, but frustratingly, I can hear them

[patrick]

This afternoons running session.

[patrick]

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. 

[patrick]

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

[patrick]

A few pictures from today's running session. 

[patrick]

[patrick]

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. 

Edited Tuesday at 19:58 by patrick

[DJ Dangerous]

The night videos are fab, even though they make me want to pee.

[patrick]

https://youtu.be/rH-Lx8iFqvw?si=QrjRDT4p2VYpFUpO

468 in action in and around Gunnison in the early fifties. 

[patrick]

Finally a pure Rio Grande Western consist!

[Mayner]

I hadn't realised that #268 was on display in a park in Gunnison and missed it when we visited the area in 2016. 

#278 & its caboose had been removed from its usual display place on the bridge in the Black Canyon near Cimerron to a National Park compound for some cosmetic restoration work

 

Edited Thursday at 03:34 by Mayner