Third time's the charm they say! And hopefully it is true with my garden railroad too. over the winter I will be planning the construction of my newest railroad, and by spring, the ground-breaking ceremony can begin! So keep dropping in, there will be plenty of changes.
I have a new site available for anyone to display their garden railroads without the hassle of creating their own website. The website is www.onlinetrainshow.com and has the purpose of allowing people to display their model railroads, garden railroads, and models on the web, free. Think of this like a train show or an open house, but on the Internet. You don't even have to leave your computer or home to host an open house now!
You can contact me by commenting below, leaving me an email at jjw2795@gmail.com, or by going to the site and submitting an inquiry at the bottom of the home page. Thank you for listening everyone!
Yesterday, this project has finally become reality with the first train on the first operational section of track. Prior to this, the train was running, but only to test the track. Yesterday the first logs rolled into the now under construction saw mill, which is great. Here are some photos commemorating the achievement:
Of course, what's a railroad without towns and industries to support it? Well, it ain't much of a railroad then is it? One thing I wanted to do really badly is gain structures. In my mind, structures are everything that is man made, except for those created by the railroad. Those railroad owned structures, are most times classified as "track-side structures" which is a different topic. Anyways, let me go over what structures I want on the railroad:
Town buildings including: General Store, station, freight depot, saloon
Bridge
Log loading facility (TBD)
For the General store, and Saloon, I am using old birdhouses, which have been redone. So far, I have the general store finished, and is seen in the photo below:
The general store is on the left. The station building (right) will be a lean-to structure and will be next to the store.
These buildings are featured in the video at the bottom of the page.
The station, and lumber building, are made from an old box that was broken. The Station is a half open shelter for passengers to sit in. The General Store will sell tickets for the trains, and the overall scene is supposed to look very back-woodsy. Here are several photos of the station and the lumber storage building being constructed:
Here is the first look at the lumber storage building. As you can see, it is pretty rough shape.
And here is the station. the board in front was added so that the building would look more enclosed.
The buildings were cleaned up with a sanding sponge. the coarse texture of the sponge softens the wood, and gets rid of all the dirt build-up.
Here is the back of the structure, before sanding.
The lumber building needed scaffolding to be put in place to give the lumber building two stories for lumber storage. To install the scaffolding, the roof had to be ripped up.
And here is the structure at the end of the day.
Below is a short video which goes over structures. Please excuse my voice, as I have a sore throat.
