Another Garden Railway visit

This layout has over 5,000 ft of track

More like a back yard layout than garden you really get the feel of scale trains moving through the countryside.

The rocks were brought in and placed so there would be tunnels and mountains.

This was a popular train watching sight with a horseshoe curve.

Lots of S curves

This tunnel was really something

Here is Mike Hamer at the throttle

Emerging from the tunnel these miniature trees are really effective.

Now that is a great mountain for the backyard.

Mike at the roundhouse

Big steam can make you smile.

Garden Railway Operations

Fred Mill's has a wonderful G scale railway that runs on standard gauge one weekend and steam narrow gauge the next. He uses Rail Ops and we pre-position all the rolling stock before operations. It runs with drop off pickups and local moves. The railway is point to point and allows for switching at towns and yards along the way. From a garden railway approach you will see many of the popular techniques and innovations to roadbed and trackwork...Enjoy.

Here is the passenger terminal at one end of the layout

A road engineer enjoying a pop during the operation. That is a CP safety vest he is sporting.

Switching at Spruce. Most towns have facing and trailing switches to the industries and run around from the main on a passing track.

The rock work and paving stone approach provides for a nice venue for the trains and provides distinctive walkways for the trainman to walk with their trains.

A derailment in the yard demands attention from the engineer as he had the switch thrown against him.
A overview of the action from the shade. This is Maple.

A small way freight rounds the curve as it approaches Maple.

Nice scratch built bridges add to this great scene.

I really like the blockhouse fort which was a common fort in Ontario.

Tiptoe through the tulips with me ee.

Action around Maple. See the dispatcher's shack where the trains are controlled by radio communications in a prototypical fashion.

Yes that crossing signal does operate though it only operates with the permission of the neighbours on special visit days.

Note the over sized switch stand.

Classification is a fun job on this road.

Nice to see this young lad providing the proof there is hope for the next generation of model railroaders.

The dispatcher hard at work.

My wife Lela operated as the trainman directing the engineer on tasks along the route. Her job was to ensure the manifest was correct and the proper cars were dropped, picked up or moved as well as aligning the switches.

More action with dispatch

Setting the turnout for the meet.

Radio control was a very effective method and is the way to go for garden railroad engines

Waiting for clearance. Our train arrives for the meet.

This road has a very interesting crossover so to ease the curve in this tight space.

Sometimes things get blocked up in the yards and you just have to wait for clearance to the next town or there is an oncoming train..

Sometimes you need to take shortcuts to the turnout and it looks like he is in a hurry to get ahead of his train before it reaches a turnout which is thrown against him.

We have rail fans too

You can see the 2x6's used as sub roadbed.

Switching action. We used screwdrivers to separate the couplers. A radio call in from the engineer on the left.

A happy brakeman holding his train orders. Getting ready to switch out the town sidings.

The other end of the line and the final preparations for train 301.

When all is done we remove the trains by location so the next computer print out will continue the operations from where we left off.

Yard work while the engineer calls the dispatch for a radio check.

This is the newest area and was a rebuild of an older yard. The raised construction was very impressive. like building decks.

Sometimes you have to get right in the garden to uncouple.

Now I know what they mean when they say a hidden siding.

It sure was a fun time.

As you can see by these last two shots the boys sat back and socialized over a few hot dogs and pops:)

Hope you enjoyed this tour of another great aspect of the hobby.

Photos from the Woodstock Turn

NMRA Photo Awards

In the print category were these results from my entries

Second Place Colour Prototype Print

First Place colour prototype print

First place Black and White Prototype Print

First Place Colour Model print

Here are the three slides and their placings

Third Place

Second Place

First Place.

The convention was help in Woodstock by the Niagara Frontier Division and many thanks for their efforts to make it a great weekend.

Interlocking Tower

Built this Interlocking Tower from a craftsman Structure kit. I named it after my daughter and it also really exists as a siding in west central Alberta. Add some weathering and doodads and it will be ready for placement at the throat of my classification yard

On30 Flat for Ron

Ron was kind enough to give me this kit to build for him. Made in England it is Resin.

I cleaned the parts with dish soap and water and removed flash (very little on thhis kit). ..Made sure the parts were square. They were and then I glued the frame to the deck.

Then I used white primer as the colours were goint to be bright rather than toned down if you used black primer.

Then I used Tamya and Velerro paint to put a base coat on the parts. I also added some warhammer chestnut ink over the brown to rust the wheels. The roof had grey bragdons rubbed into a krylon aluminum application

I painted the truck side frames black then dry brushed them with chainmail to give it a metalic look and draw out the details.

I took dark brown bragdons and applied it to the wood areas. Then I used mineral spirits to move it into the grain of the wood to create contrast.

A good shot of the metal finish

Here is the place where I apply the bragdon powders. I peanut butter lid.

After the mineral spirits dry you can see it becomes light in colour. The middle bit is still wet and you can tell by the dark finish.

Then I added micro-mark grey age-it over all the parts and let dry. It makes it become older and warn.

Now for assembly

The seating and ends are glued on. I found the frames to be too black so I added mahogany ink over them to rust it a bit.

Then on went the roof. I used the bragdons to tone down the aluminium so there was more harmony across the model.

The couplers were added and painted as well

It looks just great in the scenery on the LVN.

Enjoy Ron.

Cattle Barn

You may remember in previous posts I built the cattle barn and house. My friend Ron built the Silo. Now it was time to build the holding pen and paint the cattle and make hay.

I started with a maisonite base. I painted it dark brown with Krylon so that it would have some roughness for the scenic material to adhere to.

The fence work of the holding pen was from the Walthers plastic kit for the meat processing plant. I used my technique of hand painting, bragdon powders to create the old wood effect. I recommend this kit fior this work as it would take too much time to build it from wood.

I dry placed everything and took a few shots at the work bench. The cattle were painted using the hand painting, warhammer brown ink and bragdon powders technique.

Then I took it out under the layout light to make sure the colours would be OK in that environment.

I mades some hay by cutting small HO scale 2x3ft bits. Then I dipped the sides in white glue and added burnt grass static grass from woodland scenics.

Slow work but worth the effort.

I added real earth into the cattle pen and made sure there were some larger black chunks to indicate cow pies.

I glued in the hay and cattle. I also added a small water trough.

Then I placed it into the eventual scene and took photos to examine the effects.

I used photoshop to see what it will look like when glued in place and there is ground over the base joint.

Little 4 Wheelers

Here is my latest project. A 1/48th scale flat car (On30) for my friend Ron. I used 1/35 scale parts from my military models such as barrels, water tap, crow and amo boxes. The dynomite was made from electrical wire with red insolation. The Hose was made from sodder. The car was made from an english On30 Kit. Hand painted it had several applications and techniques to make the parts look like wood and metal. The king post and frame are real wood and the rope is made from hemp.

It looks great in front of my beacver pond. Have fun with it Ron.

BACKDROP PAINTING; HOW TO PART 7

Please follow the step by step from part 1 through 7 from top to bottom for each post. There are 20 clips in all. The demonstrations are done on 8.5x11 for convenience. Any questions...just comment or email me.

Here are some thoughts about the process. Anyone can do it. Takes a little practice.

Thanks to Lynn who inspired me to do this video sequence. Any additional techniques that need more shots I will do my best to accommodate. When you put your scenery in front of these backdrops it extends the layout room but does not draw your eyes away from your models.

BACKDROP PAINTING; HOW TO PART 6

BACKDROP PAINTING; HOW TO PART 5

BACKDROP PAINTING: HOW TO PART 4

BACKDROP PAINTING: HOW TO PART 3

BACKDROP PAINTING: HOW TO PART 2

BACKDROP PAINTING: HOW TO PART 1

There was a great deal of interest in seeing how I did my backdrops. So for my buddies on the forum I have created a short series of How to do it. Email me if you have questions.