As the title says, repairs to my railroad were needed after getting a new puppy this last November. She is a Golden Retriever that is just 10 months old and 80lbs of cuteness and very lovable. However she has also done a lot of damage to my railroad because she loves to eat redwood, which of course is what some of my bridges are made of. So the first area of repair is the curved trestle that has been on my railroad for over 8 years. Of course she didn’t do all the damage because I also discovered a lot of water damage also. The final decision was to remove the trestle, build up the retaining wall, and relay the track. I’m really into low or no maintenance at this point. The first picture shows the old trestle and the second picture shows the completed retaining wall filled and ready for track.
Hopefully if the weather isn’t to hot tomorrow I’ll get the track re-laid in this are so I can continue with other repairs and of course re-ballasting which is a yearly job. I also decided to add another staging yard to the back side of the layout for loading and storage of my trains and any visitors trains. The original staging yard was removed because it was in the way of the double crossover I installed last year. I really want to spend more time playing with my trains this year, so the easier it is to run without always having to carry everything from the shop to the layout will make it better.
So the first thing was to add a siding with a lead switch that will go into this new yard. This siding will also create a “WYE” between the inner and outer loop when completed. The first picture shows the new siding installed and ballasted. Hopefully you can see the #6 switch somewhere in the middle that will be the yard lead switch. The second picture shows the area on the outside of the layout with the start of the frame work for the yard. And progress will continue on a regular basis as I’m hosting our club’s August train club meeting on the 20th of next month, so “NO” butt modeling here. LOL. So enjoy.