Nonaim Tramway

[LNR]

Looks good, will there be a place for that cute little turntable you built for the last layout?
Grant.

[philipy]

Looking good Dwayne.
I do envy you with ground that stays put, not like my clay that goes up, down and sideways with the weather(literally!)

[Dwayne]

Looks good, will there be a place for that cute little turntable you built for the last layout?
Grant.

There is space but I'm not going to use it. Winter and months of neglect left it in rough shape. Maybe in the future I'll build another.

[Dwayne]

Looking good Dwayne.
I do envy you with ground that stays put, not like my clay that goes up, down and sideways with the weather(literally!)

Thanks. I am fortunate that I live in a temperate climate. Only big concern are tornadoes.

[MDLR]

Thanks. I am fortunate that I live in a temperate climate. Only big concern are tornadoes.

Well, THAT's different.............................

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Dwayne,

You've rocketed on with this line haven't you? It's looking very good. I love your neatly trimmed embankments. Does the dirt stand up on it own at those angles without getting knocked down by the weather?

I managed to get about a dozen bricks laid today on top of my retaining wall and thought I'd made really good progress, I'm not even in the same league as you though! For the first time ever I had to resort to wearing my glasses to see what I was doing with the mortar - that's my excuse for the slow progress anyway!

Andrew

[Dwayne]

Thanks. I am fortunate that I live in a temperate climate. Only big concern are tornadoes.

Well, THAT's different.............................

Life here in the heart of tornado country can certainly get exciting in the spring. Tornado season tends to begin around the end of March and run until August.

Hi Dwayne,

You've rocketed on with this line haven't you? It's looking very good. I love your neatly trimmed embankments. Does the dirt stand up on it own at those angles without getting knocked down by the weather?

I managed to get about a dozen bricks laid today on top of my retaining wall and thought I'd made really good progress, I'm not even in the same league as you though! For the first time ever I had to resort to wearing my glasses to see what I was doing with the mortar - that's my excuse for the slow progress anyway!

Andrew

Andrew, the amount of prep work you've had to do to get to where you are now would have prompted me to find another hobby. Your determination is much more impressive than my piling dirt and throwing some track on it. And of course, there is the whole situation of being single again where all of my time is now mine to do with as I want. No more having to think of someone else or her honey-do list.

As for the embankments, there hasn't been much rain this spring and none since I started this layout. I'm watering the layout a little each day to get the periwinkle roots I've planted to take hold and start spreading before the real rain hits us. The dirt for the most part will stay in place unless we get a real toad strangler. And if some gets washed away, I just replace it with new. The joys of playing with trains in the great outdoors.

[Soar Valley Light]

Good points Dwayne and thanks for the compliment - I'm still impressed though! A fair amount of my work had to be done anyway as the garden was far from satisfactory.

'a real toad strangler' is a new expression on me - I love it!

Andrew

[Dwayne]

Hi folks. Been a couple of weeks since the last update. Other projects around the house are sucking up my time but today I managed a little work on the layout. Added some repurposed treated landscape timbers to the town sites of Figment and Imagination. The timbers came from a small, old greenhouse that sat in the middle of where the layout is now located.

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[tom_tom_go]

That 7/8ths dog looks great!

[Dwayne]

That 7/8ths dog looks great!

That would be Hope. There is also Maggie... and five monster chickens I have to keep an eye on as they love to scratch at the base of the dirt in search of food when I let them out of their coop.

[Soar Valley Light]

Looking good Dwanye, the line is already settling into the landscape. Let's hope the chickens leave it there!

Why do dogs always look uncomfortable when they have their photos taken?

Andrew

[Dwayne]

Looking good Dwanye, the line is already settling into the landscape. Let's hope the chickens leave it there!

Why do dogs always look uncomfortable when they have their photos taken?

Andrew

Not sure about dogs. Hope and Maggie were both rescue dogs who survived the 2013 tornadoes in our area. Maggie came out seemingly fine but Hope is a very skittish little girl even though I've had her a few years now. Anything out of the ordinary causes her to be weary and though I've taken photos of her before there are times when she still isn't completely at ease with me pointing a camera at her.

[ge_rik]

Looking good, Dwayne. Have you had a chance to run any locos or trains? Be interested to see a video of something winding its way around the hilly bit.

Rik

[Dwayne]

Looking good, Dwayne. Have you had a chance to run any locos or trains? Be interested to see a video of something winding its way around the hilly bit.

Rik

I've run my Davenport around it for about thirty minutes over the weekend. I have one switch that needs to be adjusted as the gauge is a bit tight at the points. But aside from that issue everything else worked flawlessly. The periwinkle and creeping charlie are beginning to sprout out so hopefully all the bare dirt will be covered soon. I also dig up seedling red cedars (indigenous to Oklahoma) that I find in my yard and transplant them to the layout to be trees (to be harvested by lumber crews in due time as they outgrow the layout). Not as much time is being spent on the layout as I'd like as I have some other yard projects going I need to accomplish before summer heat arrives.

[Dwayne]

This afternoon I spent about a hour building the Figment Mine portal. Very simple affair... square cut timbers with thick planks attached to hold back the tunnel walls. Applied some flat black spray paint to the interior to darken everything. Still to be added will be a loading platform and chute with some mine tracks added to represent ore cars pushed by miners.

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[tom_tom_go]

Your trackwork is weathering perfectly there Dwayne

[LNR]

Nice work Dwayne. As an aside, love the dog in your avatar, looks so forlorn.
Grant.

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Dwayne,

That's some good progress you've made there. I can visualise where you're going with the mine. It's nice to see a train out on the railway, the line is 'soaking' into the landscape very nicely. You've made such good progress with this re-build. I'm looking forward to seeing more soon.

Andrew

[Dwayne]

Thanks gents. It's coming along bit by bit.