Our Model Railroad

If you haven't already read our progress from 2017, it is worth reading, prior to reviewing this page.

We attempted to get the garden cleaned up and possibly have an open house this year. We had issues with some sort of varmint digging inside our tunnels which caused a significant amount of damage, and once again stopping the railroad from operating.

I spent most of the summer making repairs to the tunnels, but was never able to get everything repaired to a point that I could reliably run trains.

So at the end of the season, I decided to dig up my tunnels and replace them with, clay chimeny piping. Little animals won't be able to damage the interior when these clay pipes are installed.

Click on each thumbnail image below to see an larger image.

This is the damage left by some animal. The sidewall (concrete block) got undermined and actually caved in. In this image, I have already removed the tracks. The wiring is for power to the tracks.

I had to cut open the stream above, dig down and cut open the top of the tunnel (plywood) to make the repair. This repair lasted only a week, and we sustained damage again, thus stopping us from operating. Time for dynamite on a motion sensor!

Other garden railroaders had told me about using clay chimney liner piping. I was able to find the size I needed (for double track) at a local building supplies company. With the help of an older friend, we dug up the first of our 3 tunnels.

After leveling the base material, we cut and installed the new piping and track and placed EPDM rubber over each joint, in an attempt to keep the tunnel interior dry. We backfilled it and I will let it settle and compact over the winter and finish it off in the spring. Just two more tunnels to complete after this one. I have one tunnel under a stream and a 16' long, curved tunnel that should be real fun.

As mentioned before, I started constructing new buildings for our "Grand Canyon" themed garden. I started the station and the mule barn. The station is framed with precison board, with wood doweling, and will have hand cut wood shingles applied to the exterior. I am actually building 2 stations. The first one is for Ron, and the second one will be for my garden.

The mule barn is being built using patterned precison board for the siding and roof.

© Copyright 2019, John Rockey