Big Maple & Little Oak RR

[dudeface]

[ This week the weather's been pretty decent for working outside, 60-70F (~15-20C) in the afternoons, but a lot of students have midterms right around now and the next few months are typically pretty heavy for schoolwork.

Hope you're doing well, dudeface! We'll see you when we see you.

I'm homeschooled at the moment, so that's not really a problem. Actually the reason I haven't been on the forum lately is my dad disconnected my old Windows phone from the internet so I can only use the internet on the iPad an hour or so a day (because my sister uses it the rest of the time for watching PBS Kids.)

Graeme.. unfortunately I haven't made any progress yet. I'm just gonna have to start digging... there has been a bit of a change of plans which I'll post about one of these days.

[drewzero1]

Good to see you back! Sorry the show was a bust. I figured you might be focusing on other interests for a while since I keep seeing your Lego engines on youtube, interesting stuff even if I don't fully understand the mechanics of it all.

If I could watch PBS Kids all day I probably would. Arthur was my favorite along with Cyberchase, still can't believe they got Christopher Lloyd for that one.

[dudeface]

Graeme, I'll tell you what happens to the snow when it melts. It seeps into our basement where the sump pumps both pump it back out and scare the hell out of our cat, and now there's a litter box in the mudroom. Neither I nor the other cat have ever noticed them.

[dudeface]

I'm making progress! See, it's the first ever BM&LO-branded rolling stock!

B58A26C6-A438-4678-9FB4-498ED7C74516.jpeg (1.37 MiB) Viewed 33276 times

[drewzero1]

Nice! Is that HO or Gn15?

Thought of you this weekend as I was driving up 151. Saw a lot of maples and oaks but the only railroad I saw was the 1:1 scale crossing on the highway.

[dudeface]

Nice! Is that HO or Gn15?

Thought of you this weekend as I was driving up 151. Saw a lot of maples and oaks but the only railroad I saw was the 1:1 scale crossing on the highway.

It's 9" gauge in 7/8 scale...

[dudeface]

So... I kinda had to get myself sufficiently re-interested in building this railway.... why??

Well, I'll just tell you the whole thing.

In I think September 2023, after my second very long trip to Marshfield, Wis., I was diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) after 13 years and 9 months of not being diagnosed with it. This "opened the door" to services provided by this thingamajiggy called CLTS, and I have no idea what that stands for.

Well, a while ago my mom found out from my CLTS case worker person (I think) that they would order anything "therapeutic" from Amazon for me on a budget of $1,000. I didn't want a beanbag chair or a trampoline or a swing or any of that, I wanted a garden railway, and I said so.

My mom talked to somebody and told me that wasn't considered therapeutic enough.

Well, last week my therapist brought up the subject of CLTS buying something for me. She told me that, despite what logic would suggest, they actually want/have to spend a bunch of money on me, so I brought up the railway again. She asked me if it would get me outside (yes), give me problems to solve (yes), and provide community (is that a thing people say? That's not what she said, but I'm an autistic weirdo and that's the phrase I can think of right now. Anyway, yes, this forum.) I said that model trains always get me extremely frustrated, and she said if I get practice getting frustrated doing something I like, that'll help me handle being frustrated when I'm doing something I don't. So after I confirmed all this, she said it was indeed therapeutic, and if she tells CLTS something is therapeutic, it is. And by the way, forget about that budget, it's not really definite.

So, CLTS will pay for the things I need to get started, like track, but not the whole thing. That's fine, as long as I get myself sufficiently re-interested.

I would tell you about the major change of plans which has happened, but I'd rather just imbed a video here. I should explain the reason for putting the railway where I'm putting it in more depth though in case you don't understand. There's a low spot in the middle, where water flows to, circled by a higher spot. As you will see in the video however, I'm not planning on actually following the high area as much as I was going to.

6ED03256-FD42-47E1-BF99-9B805520E223.jpeg (1.1 MiB) Viewed 32783 times

D1D8B62A-2C32-4397-8DB9-5E7FF6BF6E3E.jpeg (1.6 MiB) Viewed 32783 times

[ge_rik]

You're in good company. I think quite a few of us railway modellers are somewhere on the autistic spectrum. One of my former colleagues is an autism specialist at the university and identified me as being mildly autistic. She reckons it goes with the territory of being a railway modeller.

Anyhow. Good on you for arguing your case and best of luck with bringing your plans to fruition.

Rik

[gilfachphil]

Of course railway modelling is therapeutic, so glad your therapist has seen the light.

Just thinking back to the picture of your garden covered in snow, if you built a layout raised on posts, as some of us have, it could be above the snow line in the depths of winter,

Phil

[drewzero1]

I think there are a lot of us on here whether we know it or not. I knew my parents had thought I might be on the spectrum, but I was skeptical... Only recently I learned I had a diagnosis my parents didn't really talk about (from 20 years ago when it was still called Asperger's). It makes me really happy to hear you're getting assistance for it where we (apparently) just tried to sweep it under the rug and power through.

For me, railway modeling is therapeutic in a couple of ways. First, assembling and painting the models is very calming; I can just kind of zone out and let most of my brain lose focus while I paint. Gradually the models start to look more like I had imagined them in my head. Second, it allows me to practice problem solving within a limited scope and with low stakes (sort of like what you're saying about being frustrated). That serves essentially the same purpose that video games do for me, with the added benefits that it gets me outside and gets me talking to people- not only the fine people of this forum, but also non-modelers for whom I now have some show-and-tell conversation pieces that normal people might find more interesting than my adventures in Skyrim.

Dunno if any of that's helpful or if it's just me spouting off, so hard to tell sometimes. Feel free to borrow any of that if it's applicable to your situation in re: justifying any railway-related purchases.

[Phil.P]

Sounds like an excellent result, all round?
Confirmation of the condition. - You need to know about it, to deal with it.
Someone else helping to pay for your railway. - Excellent! Need I say more?
And something positive for you to focus on.

Good luck with the problem solving, to build your railway. - You know where we are, if you want advice.

Phil.P

[dudeface]

Just thinking back to the picture of your garden covered in snow, if you built a layout raised on posts, as some of us have, it could be above the snow line in the depths of winter,

As I've already mentioned here, I like both the realism that comes with a ground level railroad and the added fun and operational possibilities (and more realism) of plowing snow. (My favorite videos in the whole world are Eric Schade's live steam snow plowing videos, my dream is to be able to replicate that someday.)
If the snow gets too deep, I'll pretend it's a real railroad and build a rotary plow to do something about that.

[dudeface]

I think there are a lot of us on here whether we know it or not.

You learn something new every day... I figured I was the first since Artfull Dodger...

[Phil.P]

Why do you think so many count rivets?


Phil.P

[GAP]

Just a thought.
Instead of making a loop think about a point to point line with shunting puzzles (Inglenooks) at either end.
Much more interesting that just watching trains runs around.
I am expanding my railway to do exactly that as I found watching trains chasing their tails just plain boring and which is why I wasn't running them.
A point to point will allow you to expand beyond the Aspen trees and you can just more shunting at the new end.
Google "shunting puzzles" to get some ideas.
Rik has a program the sets out wagons for shunting that he may let you use.

[dudeface]

Just a thought.
Instead of making a loop think about a point to point line with shunting puzzles (Inglenooks) at either end.
Much more interesting that just watching trains runs around.
I am expanding my railway to do exactly that as I found watching trains chasing their tails just plain boring and which is why I wasn't running them.
A point to point will allow you to expand beyond the Aspen trees and you can just more shunting at the new end.
Google "shunting puzzles" to get some ideas.
Rik has a program the sets out wagons for shunting that he may let you use.

I figure a loop is a good thing to start with, I'll just have a single track going through the aspens and maybe some of that kind of stuff on the other side. And possibly eventually a track going along the fence, around the corner and up the "hill" to a loop behind the barn where I was originally planning on starting. You might have to stretch your definition of trains chasing their tails a little to apply to that...

[dudeface]

I finally stopped thinking about it and went out and spray painted where the track will go (well, where it will go now).

FFAED5C9-99A5-47C3-AE98-879C76DF760F.jpeg (2.13 MiB) Viewed 31743 times

Then laid out string over it using various stakes, chairs and sticks.

7F9A91C2-C8AC-434C-B511-E5D8C2F5F6AD.jpeg (4.21 MiB) Viewed 31743 times

And then laid out the string on the driveway. It's 80 feet long...

9305A727-D69F-4C9D-B085-A570CC7CC46F.jpeg (2.56 MiB) Viewed 31743 times

[dudeface]

I'm just gonna have to start digging...

I wanted to actually do something, so that's what I did. This is at about the highest point on the line and the track here will be at ground level. As you can see I only dug about 3 feet, but hey, I did something. Does this look good? If anybody has any ideas or thinks this won't work so well, let me know. I figure this way I don't need to use any garden edging or stuff like that along the sides of the trench, but maybe I'll line it with garden fabric.

72235D45-6070-47F1-98AD-CD6D73C75DB6.jpeg (4.46 MiB) Viewed 31674 times

F92DEDAE-9B70-48D8-90D1-44EE8837CA4B.jpeg (3.62 MiB) Viewed 31674 times

[GAP]

A garden edging would be advisable to keep the grass away from the line.
What are you going to use as a track base?
You could use concrete and make it twice as wide as the track which will give an edge that can them be weed whacked.
Alternatively wide concrete pavers will do the same thing just concrete between any gaps to keep weeds out.
Garden fabric under the pavers or concrete will also help suppress weeds, to keep weeds out of my orchid house floor I laid garden fabric and then laid cheap artificial turf over it to walk on.

441405201_6759890100780329_1064695365131519310_n.jpg (67.68 KiB) Viewed 31668 times

[drewzero1]

A garden center or hardware store is a good place to look for both edging and garden fabric (aka weed barrier). At a lot of smaller/local hardware stores you can still get the fabric by the foot from a big roll.

Granted, I decided not to use either, and I may yet live to regret that decision. So far the limestone crusher screenings seem to be doing an acceptable job of discouraging, if not preventing, weeds on the track.