Blog & Photos By Mr. Bob We have the top leg of track that runs to the garage window where the rail cars are stored. The upper loop will circle the pond after it is dug out and the independent lower loop is for running longer trains that do not like climbing the grade. I re-sloped the top and upper track to be less than 2%, while the lower loop will be less than 1%. The double cross-over can have the two loops independent or open things up to have a giant loop. I am 3/4 of the way done that bottom loop with a small berm and patio stones to lay left to do. I still need to fine-tune the track slopes to fix spots where the posts have settled. The last picture is of our new purchase "Steamy Ray Vaughan". We were able to track down a live steam locomotive for the layout. No bells, lights, whistles nor remote control on this one. Once you build up steam and throw the lever forward it takes off. Mary and I are more excited than ever to finish the first loop so we can let it run free.
Interested in purchasing your own Live Steam Engine? See www.wgrr.ca :)
These are pictures of the rebuilding and expansion of the layout. I picked up some lumber to start erecting the second loop. We purchased a load of 24x24 inch patio stones from one of Mary's co-workers for the ground work and started digging out the pond to get dirt to make berms. It is a race against time to get the lower loop complete as the summer heat will soon be here, making working outside difficult.
So, backing up the bus (or reversing the train) for a moment, at the back of our yard is this tree on the corner of the CN land and vacant lot. Over the past year we noticed it slowly tilting towards our yard. Fall 2016 I noticed this one particular branch was hanging over our newly planted bushes at the back of the property. I had a bad feeling about it. "No, no, no, it won't fall" Mr. Bob explained. After much persuation we did some chopping and trimming so that it was way above the bush line. I told him this way we could see if it was continuing to fall. Fast forward to a couple of weekends ago on Victoria Day. As a birthday gift for my father-in-law (Mr. Bob's dad) the family took a trip up to St. Jacobs, Ontario to take a ride on a live steam train. (Waterloo Central Railway) What an amazing time! I had been on a train before, but that was on a VIA from Toronto, Ontario to Ottawa, Ontario on a Grade 8 Class Trip. We were told that the train car we were sitting in was from the 1920's (and was featured on the CBC hit TV show MURDOCH MYSTERIES - LOVED how it creeked and bounced around. LOL!! We got to walk around and move from car to car. On the return trip, the train stopped and a bunch of us got off the train. They threw it in reverse and then all steam ahead it roared past us, twice. They did this so we could take photographs and videos. This made me even more excited about purchasing/owning our very own Live Steam G-Scale Engine.
Amazing thing happened, once we got back I went on YouTube and looked around at videos for Waterloo Central Railway and someone who was watching our train go by when we went over the trestle, actually recorded the train we were on and you can see Mr. Bob and I at the extreme far-left of the observation car - Mr. Bob has his camera out the window and I'm the short one looking out. LMAO!!!! Too funny!!!!
Found some more videos from that day. Someone had their camera placed on the tracks as the train went over it. Someone else took video from outside the train. So neat!
About a week later, I get up during a work day like any other work day, was pouring the coffees that we take to work and peered out the window, low and behold that tree at the back of the yard decided it had enough being up in the air and boom it was on the ground. We rushed out as I knew I had to take photos for the blog. It crashed over a section of Mr. Bob's track. Freaky thing, the night before, Mr. Bob decided to go out and do some work on the track and had removed the track from that section. How crazy is that? So instead of working on our train set, we had the task of removing this portion of tree without it crushing the existing bush line. I am so impressed with Mr. Bob as he was able to do it with an electric chain saw. lol!!! The only injuries sustained (besides sore muscles) was a broken ladder rung when one of the big branches came down and hit the ladder (lucky for Mr. Bob it didn't tip the ladder) but did destroy the bottom of it and he hopped off.
In between all that, one evening when Mr. Bob was off to the movies I received an email from John at Winona Garden Trains. He had a lead for a live steam engine - the crazy thing was, it was the EXACT one I had been dreaming of: an Accucraft Canadian National (which I am told is hard to find) and here is the kicker, the price, was the EXACT amount Mr. Bob had saved up. We were thinking we had to save over $4000.00 - $5000.00 to own but the price came in well below that amount. The Universe was on our side!! WooWoo!! :) Now we are back to our regular scheduled program of working on the train track. The plan is to make a second loop. Mr. Bob had to disconnect our original loop and shift things over in order to add the second track. This is time consuming and we have to work on it in between the rain storms. Mr. Bob is more determined to get this job complete as he is eager to run our Steam Engine. We joked last night after dinner looking over the yard and the loop, I said we should name the engine "STEAMY" Ray Vaughan or maybe "Mr. McSTEAMY". LOL!!! Anyways, that is all for now. Enjoy the photos. :)
