Wellsville Addison & Galeton in 1:29: Shortline Road Switching Layout Outdoors

[TiogaTracks]

90% of the time, Wellsboro Junction will be a reverse loop on a long single-track dogbone.  But I will be leaving the switches in place for a couple reasons:

- It’s a convenient initial test loop while I build the rest of the line.
- It’s in the front yard, so it’ll make for a nice place to run a Christmas train.
- This entire dogbone is functionally staging for the rest of the railroad, so keeping the switches gives me a place to set out a couple cars on this end.  The other reverse loop will have storage sidings.
- The real Wellsboro Junction was on a wye, so this adapts the real thing to my planned operations.

The loop is at the bottom-left of this early track plan.



-Steven

[eja]

90% of the time, Wellsboro Junction will be a reverse loop on a long single-track dogbone.  But I will be leaving the switches in place for a couple reasons:


- It’s in the front yard, so it’ll make for a nice place to run a Christmas train.

-Steven

Now that makes perfect sense !  Good idea.

[nkalanaga]

Will you put a Christmas tree in it?  Artificial, or real cut, I don't know that planting one would be a good idea, long-term, for the railroad.

If you plant to, you might consider putting a length of pipe in the center, before the track is finished, so that all you have to do is put the trunk in the pipe each year.

[TiogaTracks]

One of the core ideas of this railroad is that it’ll evolve and improve over time.  I plan to be in this house for a very long time, so I’m fine with adding a tree to the loop later.  Or pulling up track to pour concrete subroadbed if I get sick of frost heave.  But as far as plants go, the apple trees overhead will somewhat dictate what will grow well here.

Speaking of the apple trees, here are my two decaled coal hoppers hauling in tonight’s harvest of usable deadfall apples.  I had just finished screwing together the Wellsboro Junction loop as darkness fell.

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Next step, harvest more excess gravel from the bus parking pad, and connect up the straight track leading to the rest of the Penn Central mainline.

-Steven

[nkalanaga]

Trees, and their roots, would seem to be a bad mix with track.  That's why I was wondering about putting in a piece of pipe, and sticking an artificial or cut Christmas tree in it each year.  You could run your Christmas train for the season, then remove the tree the rest of the year.

[TiogaTracks]

I have the base gravel layer and track for Wellsboro Junction installed.  Lining & leveling with fine gravel is up next.  I think I will put off the cosmetic layer of chicken grit and cement until next year.  I’d like to see how level the track stays before I start sticking anything down permanently.

Here’s how it looked last night, when the supervisor stopped by to inspect:

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-Steven

[nkalanaga]

Those apples look like the postcards popular a century ago, showing local "giant fruit" (vegetables, fish, etc) on a flatcar!

[TiogaTracks]

As mentioned in the Weekend Update, I’ve leveled and ballasted Wellsboro Junction.



I was having enough fun just running a train, I posed some photos around the Aristocraft freight station.  Enjoy!

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-Steven

[Ed Kapuscinski]

A friend of mine just shared this.
Made me think of @TiogaTracks

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[TiogaTracks]

Thanks @Ed Kapuscinski both for rescuing my thread from the depths of the forum, and for the neat and rare photo.  Those 7000-series wood boxcars weren’t nearly as common as their slightly smaller “The Sole Leather Line” cousins, so seeing one pretty far from home is cool!

Naturally, winter meant to stop of work on the outdoor railroad, but I’ve gotten back to work on rolling stock.  Today marked a very important moment, as I brought recently-upgraded U25b 2504 out to test-run it outside.  This track sat out all winter, and with a KA-4 keep-alive added, 2504 barely noticed.  It’s still merrily towing the track cleaning car around, not caring at all about oxidation or the light rain.

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This proves the core concept of this railroad: that keep-alives and DCC have progressed far enough to run outside without spending days on track cleaning.  As the weather improves, I plan to lay more track, extending the existing short straight section over 100 feet to another turnback loop in my backyard. 

Until then, I have an RS-3 in with a bad gearbox, an SD45 in for paint, and a couple freight cars that need lettering.  I love how this resembles working on a full-size railroad just enough to have these immersive moments, but not too much that you get TOO much of the big picture (ahem, biggest US bankruptcy until Enron and all that…) 😝

-Steven

[davefoxx]

Except that your U25B runs too well, as compared to the prototype of that GE model . . . especially on the Penn Central! 

DFF

[TiogaTracks]

Haha, that’s true!  But it used to run pretty bad, so I guess that counts.  The U-boat needed pickup brushes and a keep-alive, the ALCO has bad gear growl, and paintwork aside, both SD45 trucks don’t run due to cold-soldered capacitors.  I think I have a shop backlog worthy of the Penn Central!

-Steven

[davefoxx]

I think I have a shop backlog worthy of the Penn Central!

Haha!  Seriously, making your motive power run better will only make you enjoy the hobby and the fruits of your garden layout more.

Kudos!
DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Seriously, just rename your basement go Juniata.

[motofavorite]

Live steam makes track power unneccessary. Maybe wipe adventitious steam oil from the track to prevent slipping. And clear out leaves and critters and you're set.

Wood cars can be weathered outdoors, though it's easy to overdo it and end up with a wreck. Resin or styrene cars can be weathered as in the smaller scales. I painted these ore skips with Tamiya rattle cans, chipped them with hairspray, and rubbed graphite lock lubricant where paint and rust would be scoured away by tumbling ore.

Scale can be pretty flexible too. This locomotive shown here is about 1:13.7. It started out at 1:19.