Cliff drives the Woodland Railway

[altterrain]

My club, the WVMGRS (http://www.WVMGRS.org), holds a monthly operating session at Jim Strong's Woodland Railway. This was my first time participating in an ops session though I did view one there last summer. It was a beautiful day (80's low humidity) that started at 10 and we began with 45 mins of track clean up and maintenance and set up of rolling stock in all the appropriate places.

There were 7 operators breaking up into 3 teams of 2 and a fourth solo operator running yard switching and helper service. the three teams ran two freights and one passenger service. Cliff and the crew of the Dunkirk ran a freight. I did not get pics while operating but took a bunch last year.

We (me and my navigator Dave) started out up at Tall Oaks, servicing the Dunkirk and picking up our train of box cars and log cars.








We meandered over to New Castle to pick up more freight and then down to Woodland Junction.






Woodland Junction is home of Kevin's famous (or is that infamous) hand built combination 3 way and dual double slip switches.





 
It makes for some very tricky switching, especially when your train gets split in half to let the passenger service run through because you got held up for 30 mins due to the other freight having troubles at Woodland Junction earlier. We managed to make our way through the Junction down to Gumtree Falls(?), though we managed to leave the wrong box at the sawmill at the Junction. From there onto Willow Flats.






The day 2 run (after lunch) took us back up to Tall Oaks and went much smoother.

I did manage did get a pic of the Dunkirk on the big trestle (seen in many Bachmann videos) at the end of the day -

 

For a slideshow view of all the pics (sorry not in order) click here and hit the RESUME button

http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n214/altterrain/woodland%20railway/?action=view&current=dunkirkWRy.jpg&slideshow=paused&interval=3

 

-Brian

 

note to K - your Dad really liked my B&D cordless battery powered blower! 

[two tone]

Well I think when you invite people to your layout you should say wecome to the ranch What size is your garden or what ever you call it. How long did it take to set all of that up? From the pics it looks great, enjoy the hobby thats what its all about YOU should take a for that.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

A veritable nightmare of switching in one picture!   Must be better than sex for the operator types; but a PITA for the sit back with a mint julep and watch her run folk!   I got dizzy trying to see where they went, but then I've been accused of being dizzy without provocation!

Sounds like a bunch of folks had a fun day and that's what it is about!

[gbbari]

Thanks for the photos Brian. Jim's layout looks impressive and fun on which to run trains.

What kind of power does Jim use on this pike for trains and how are the switch motors powered? 

The kneepads that are visible on one gentleman's trousers in the Woodland Junction photo allude to the main reason I have to build a raised bed layout....  

-GB

[altterrain]

Thanks for the photos Brian. Jim's layout looks impressive and fun on which to run trains.

What kind of power does Jim use on this pike for trains and how are the switch motors powered? 

The kneepads that are visible on one gentleman's trousers in the Woodland Junction photo allude to the main reason I have to build a raised bed layout....  

-GB

Hey GB,

The Woodland Railway is going on 25 years old, I believe, though it was not done all at once. It is mostly hand laid aluminum rail and has been battery powered since its beginning. Some of the switches have hand throws of various types but many are just stick thrown (the long bladed sticks we carry around for uncoupling cars and spotting cars on an incline). There is no tension on those throws, so splitting a switch is an occassional annoyance.The knee pads are primarily for the initial clean up and maintenance (checking ballast levels, cleaning switches, etc.). Raised trackage is easier to work on but it does not look as real to me as ground level railroads  and its not a good idea to change the grade level too much around trees. Wooded railroads look great and provide shade in the summer but can limit what you can do and you have to deal with leaves and other debris . When I get to an older age a raised railroad will be in my future.

-Brian 

[hoofe116]

Alterrain:

Thanks for the awesome pixes. Would it be possible to get a true overhead shot of that mass of switches? Holy cow. I can't figure out how a train makes it through there.

Les

[S&G Rute of the Silver River]

May a realistic derail never happon at that interchange, no one would be able to figger out how to fix it but seriously it looks like you had an enjoyable experence, did you learn anything your willing to share?

[kstrong]

Brian, thanks for posting the photos. It's been a while since I've been back east, so it's good to see the railroad again. Glad you had fun running on it. The Dunkirk looks quite at home on the trestle.

My apologies for the diabolical switchwork at Woodland Junction, though it's not all my doing. Dad and I laid out the plans together, and dad wanted to include a double-slip switch because his dad (my grandfather) had built a similarly intricate double-slip-laden crossover in O gauge back in the 40s. Don't worry if you can't figure it out. I helped build the darn thing and I still get confused.

Anyway, a brief history to answer some of the questions...

The railroad was started in 1980, with a simple double-reverse-loop design with a passing siding in the middle. We expanded the railroad into the side yard in 1985, and by the late 80s, most all of the track (save the odd spur) had been laid. The rail is aluminum. The original track has redwood ties (which are still holding up after 27 years), while the extension was built with plastic tie strips from LGB and Kalamazoo (now available from Hartland).

The line has been R/C since 1984, and now uses a mixture of RCS and Airwire throttles. Dad used to design his own R/C throttles, and there may still be a few of those still in use.

The lot is not large; only a half acre. (Okay, to me who now lives in mass suburbia, that's huge, but...) The railroad occupies a triangular space roughly 100' at the base and 200' along the edge. It's got around 1000' of track.

Dad did a kind of retrospective look back over the history of the railroad in the December 2005 issue of GR, so you can find more photos and a track plan in that issue.

Thanks again for the photos. I've gotta get back east again...

Later,

K

[kstrong]

A quick follow up...

The December 2005 article is on line here at Garden Railways...
http://www.trains.com/grw/objects/pdf/woodland_ry.pdf

Later,

K

[vsmith]

U R a truely sick and twisted group of people

[altterrain]

<quote user=S&G Rute of the Silver River

May a realistic derail never happon at that interchange, no one would be able to figger out how to fix it, but seriously it looks like you had an enjoyable experence, did you learn anything your willing to share?>

Patrick,

I had a lot of fun and will do it again.

Things I learned -

-Having two man teams was a great idea with one man handling the itinernary and the other guy driving the loco. This was especially helpful for a newbie like me.

-If you are bringing you own loco check to see what couplers are being used ahead of time so you can equip your loco appropriately. I use Aristo couplers and the Woodland rolling stock is all No.1 gauge Kadees. They coupled up fine up did uncouple themselves a couple of times on uneven trackwork. Next time I'll stick some Kadees on mine.

-Having a loco and RC set up that allows for good slow speed operation is a big plus for all that tricky switching. The Dunkirk with the Shay trucks and RCS worked great.

-It can't hurt to check clearances on the layout you will be running on. There were two tunnels and one rocky ravene turn around that were too tight with Cliff and Norm hanging out the cab. Luckily the cab on the Dunkirk slips off easily. Larger 1:20.3 locos would have a big problems. some brought over their new Bachmann 1:20.3 hopper and we hooked it up to our train. It was too wide to make it through the above mentioned turn around.

-Don't sweat the small stuff like when you leave the wrong box car at a siding!

-Brian