Windy Point
Garden Railroads
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Changing Scales - Moving to the Garden
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The Cypress Canyon is being built just like the prototype in that the railroad and the scenery come first,
then the people, buildings, and details will follow.
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The track is sitting atop 6-inch deep trenches filled with crushed limestone for ballast.
The crushed limestone was hand screened for rocks that are 1/4-inch or less.
(1/4-inch rock is approximately 6-inches in scale and makes photographs look more realistic.)
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The larger sized limestone is placed in the bottom of the trench with the smaller rocks added
on the top inch and over the ties.
the crushed limestone has a "bite" on its edges that perfectly lock the track into place
without nails or screws… just like a real railroad!
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Photo by Jay Harvey |
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Passing Above and Below
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| Brandon McKee's K-27 #463 crosses the viaduct bridge on the mainline
while CCRR #178 passes above on the branch line. |
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Photo by Jay Harvey |
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Llano
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| The most northern point on the line at Llano, looking back down the mainline. |
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To run up to Johnson City on the branch line, Steve knew he needed a retaining wall to achieve the grade.
But he did not have the physical space to build a normal wall with full-sized rocks.
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So he built a scale retaining wall, 420-ft. long (21 actual feet), using stone-faced and
white-horizontal bathroom tiles that were cemented to a mesh-reinforced concrete backing.
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Photo by Steve Blackson |
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Scale Retaining Wall Under Construction
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Since the plants were put in, climbing fig now covers the wall while Lion's Tails hide the wall and
the second level where Johnson City is located.
By late summer and early fall, the Lion's Tails will grow to clearly reveal Johnson City
behind their "tree trunks".
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During annual winter maintenance, the Lion's Tails get cut back to the ground and the climbing fig
gets a major trim.
The wall and its details are again revealed until the spring growing cycle starts
the whole process all over.
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Photo by Steve Blackson |
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Shay #2 Climbing the Scale Retaining Wall
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That's part of the beauty of garden railroading: the scenery is always changing!
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Photo by Jay Harvey |
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Lion' Tails Hide the Wall and Johnson City
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| Look closely through the foliage and
you can see the local frieght train passing through Johnson City. |
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