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With the house now finally complete and only a few (hundred) boxes of stuff to find a place for, attention once again turns to the railroad.
But before it can return to its former glory, there is a fair amount of work to do (besides emptying the rest of the boxes in the garage). First is to import a couple of truckloads of topsoil to build up the yard before the fun can begin. The Whiskey River and Canby (WR&C) will be totally redesigned. The plan is to make a folded loop or something vaguely similar. This will allow more track to be laid in a more compact area. It will also up the activity level. The plan is to raise the whole thing above ground level to make it more viewable and to create greater elevation relief (more dirt). This will allow addition of a tunnel. After all, the local skunks need someplace to hide. And it will make it much more exciting, recovering from the inevitable derailment in the center of the tunnel. |
| The railbus has been converted to Locolinc control, Sierra sound, and an onboard battery pack. Although only tested on an eight foot piece of track at this point, the plan is that this is the beginning of the changeout of sealed lead-acid batteries to NiMH battery packs. All depends on how successful the installation is in the railbus. Lead-acid batteries have proven to be somewhat less than successful after they have a chance to "age". Then again, if the Tesla Roadster can go over 225 miles on a charge, a battery powered Shay should do fairly well. |
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Water feature is planned but, again, will depart significantly from previous design. While well intentioned, the advise of last time put the river above ground level through most of its course. While this may be typical of New Orleans, it doesn't look much like a river in the west. So "Gulapata" from the recipe in Garden Railways will be used in the hope that the river will look more realistic with "rock" riverbed instead of black plastic that was impossible to hide.
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| The same sub-roadbed of Trex will be used and, in fact, the pieces already on hand will be used wherever possible. |
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