Garden Railway Forum

Alrighty then...

As mentioned over on my other thread for the Nonaim Tramway, things are a changing. As the subject title above indicates, a new layout is under construction.

Introducing the Two Dogs Railway... a small 1:20n3 scale garden railway.


The previous Nonaim Tramway has been completely dismantled and erased from the landscape. Part of this because it's location interfered with my growing interest in permaculture gardening and the necessary changes to the backyard to make this gardening technique a viable concern. It was a tough decision as I was really liking where the NT was heading. But what had to be done had to be done so once I began pulling up track there wasn't any going back. Change can be a positive thing which is something I've experienced plenty of during my life.

The Two Dogs Railway (named after my two dogs Maggie & Hope) is a little bit smaller than the NT. It's a dog-bone curving around a pecan tree with two towns... Maggie on the larger west loop... and Hope on the smaller east loop. The existing trestle bridge I built for the NT was salvaged and re-installed at the base of the pecan tree at the head end of Squirrel Valley.

Like the NT, this layout is semi-elevated. Low point above ruling ground level is about 10 inches, high point being about 18 inches. The track itself once again will be level over the entire layout to keep my little live steamer content. Topography/scenery will be more or less flat on this layout whereas the NT was more hilly. Plans are to plant more perennials within the two loops which are wider than those on the NT to provide scenic breaks as a means of limiting how much of the layout can be viewed at once.

So that's it in a nutshell. More to come.

You're right Dwayne change can be positive and once you make the decision it can be a good driving force. The plan looks nice and I hope your progress is faster than the eldest of our two dogs (it was a very slow walk this morning).

Hi Dwayne,

Thought you'd been quiet lately! Ever considered that you may be a serial builder? I often thought that about myself in my OO days. There's a lot of satisfaction in layout building.

It's a shame the NT has gone, it was a great looking railway but if it was in the way of other projects it's demolition was a sensible move. I'm looking forward to watching the new line grow. What shape other than a dog bone was there for a line called the two dogs railroad?

Good luck with the new line - keep us updated please.

ANdrew

Dwayne,
Given the ground you have to work with, and the speed with which you build track, you should have the new one up and running in a week or two
Good Luck with it, waiting for the golden spike ceremony!
Grant.

Andrew... I shirley am not a serial track builder. I do enjoy it, but hadn't anticipated having to do it yet again. But once the weather starts cooperating I should get the task completed in short order.

Grant... one thing I've never done is a Golden Spike ceremony. Might have to look at finding a brass brad in my container of odd screws, nails and what-all to see if I have one somewhere.

Anyways, I did manage to put together the ten HLW flats that came in a few weeks ago. Takes about two minutes to do each one because I'm only using the top and side frames from the kit. As I use link & pin couplers, there was no need to use the supplied couplers. I also used Bachmann 24.5mm small diameter wheelsets in place of the kit wheels as they are metal and give the wagons more weight.

It's been cold lately so not much done to the layout until today when the temps managed to creep to just above freezing. I began installing landscape timbers I had on hand along the edge of Maggie. The dirt that was removed was temporarily piled along the outside to keep the timbers in place until they are all installed. When that is completed then I'll tamp down the soil on the inside before removing the dirt.

Dwayne,
Did you feel the timber was necessary because of the steep embankment you had there before ( if I've got the right place on the track plan ). I wondered how you could keep a bank that steep, and envied the type of soil you must have to work with.
Grant.
PS I enjoy the ground work, what you can do with a bit of hard yakka and some timber.

Grant, the retaining wall is for the ability to be closer to the track and manually flipping the switches and unhooking the link & pin couplers as Maggie is the primary town on the layout and center of railway activity. At Hope where the mine is located I'll do a wall there as well. The embankments elsewhere will be left sloped.

Bit of work completed today.

Dwayne wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2018 8:45 pmBit of work

That would have got the heart rate up a little!
Good to see the loco out testing already
Grant.

Nah... I love being outdoors and working the earth. One of the reasons that I'm in as good a shape as I am at the age of 53.

No track laid yet to test... just positioned the lokie to give a size reference.

Next n the agenda is the other side of the layout by Hope. Since it's more of a wilderness area with the mine located there I'm considering a rock wall. Problem is that rocks are rare in central Oklahoma so I'd have to purchase them from a landscape supplier. Oddly I own five acres of pristine woodland in southeast Oklahoma in a range of mountains known as the Kiamichi... which is nothing but rock. It's a three hour drive one way and hauling rock back would be time and cost prohibitive.

Hi Dwayne,

Nice to see things progressing well. It's a lovely setting.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew. Not coming together as quickly as I'd like since the weather here is not cooperating.

Nice work there Dwayne - nothing like a bit of earth work to keep you fit - who needs a gym!

Been a couple of weeks since the last post. Weather here went to the dogs for most of this time but yesterday warmer weather made an appearance so I began ripping wood for ties.

Interested to know what timber you use Dwayne, and presumably you soak it in something?
Grant.

If I left all that wood like that on the floor my dog would chew each one of them!

Grant, I use treated fence picket lumber. Runs me about $1.85 US per picket.

I'm experimenting on this batch of ties... soaking them in a mix of old, used motor oil from my motorcycles and used diesel I use as parts cleaner.

Thanks Dwayne, as an experiment I put together 6ft. of track for the shunt at Warringine using treated pine soaked in diesel oil. Its been there for 10 years I think and still looks solid.
Grant.

Grant, only time will tell how this works out in the long run.