|
 
04-23-00
It was a pretty good weekend for the DC&H Railway. Saturday was a
bit cold and cloudy but I did manage to make it to a nice nursery in the area
that not only has a garden railway but carries many of the dwarf plants.
Since I am not the horticultural expert in the house, you will have to ask my
wife what we planted. What really counts is that it really looks
nice. What made it even better was the help that I received from the
whole family.
Most of the planting and work occurred around my mountain and the tunnel
through it. My step-daughters and wife did most of the planting with a
little influence from the Engineer. I handled most of the shovel work
and moved about 500 pounds of rocks and boulders.
| All of the ground cover plants on the mountain are from
flower beds that my wife has throughout the yard. The Chicks and
Hens (Wow, I know the name of one plant!) are also
from current flower beds. You can also see the small hill in the
background that was added and some plants put in place there. We
also added quite a few rocks around the mountain. |
|
|
|
On the back side of the mountain we started on a mine
shaft. With the artistic placement of some slate and other rocks
by my step-daughter Alyssa and I, the entrance came out great. |
| On the other side of the layout my other step-daughter,
Amanda, and wife, Beverly, put together a nice sandy area with the
cactus plants that I bought from Home Depot on clearance for 50 cents
each. |
|
As you can see from some of the pictures I did bring the Depot and the
Water Tower out to the layout to get an idea of where I plan on building the
main part of the town. You might also notice that I removed the dry
river bed that ran down the center of the layout. The other two branches
are still there though. This was because the layout seems to be broken
up into to many small areas by the river. With the middle branch gone I
have a nice area to develop a town.
The next step is to develop the area around the big boulders
you see. Getting that big one into the layout without smashing some
track was a feat in itself. "No, I did not pick it up. It was hard
enough to roll let alone get off the ground." I hope to be getting
4 turnouts in the next few weeks. I want to get a siding into place that
will run through the town so that I can start placing buildings and other
plants.
If the weather holds this week you should see more updates on
the layout. Take care and happy steaming.
Johnny F.
|
