My wife and I met Dennis and his lovely wife for dinner at the Cracker Barrel resturant and did some train swaping. A great diner was had by all, I got to see some nice pics of his garden railway. I have some ideas in my head now how to get my line up off the ground. He has his 3 feet up off the ground, much easier to enjoy and work on. We did some train swapping, I am now the proud owner of the Vonita Jean HLW 4-4-0 and a nice consist of Bachmann freight cars w/bobber caboose. I will get some pics later this week when its warmer out. Maybe the last of the snow will be off my garden line. Cheers Mike
Yes it was a really nice time and trip . Next time at Watts , will also be a good place .
Dennis and Helen Paulson are great folks that were missed at Carlyle this year. 
Thanks , it was the first time we missed the great get together there at Carlyle , sure missed all the really friendly people there .
I knew there was somebody missing!
Where did you get your decals done Dennis. I have a name for our railroad and am trying to come up with artwork and a logo. Trying to come up with something that will fit where the “Denver & Rio Grande” is on the tender, but staying within the nice scroll work and keeping the gold color in the new lettering. Our new line will be called the Kalamazoo LaPorte & Western Railroad. Home of the Golden Flyer mail/passanger train. Cheers Mike and Michele T
Stan Cedarleaf over at MLS , he creates heralds and decals , its where mine came from , but there are others also that do this work .
Mike:
Stan Cedarleaf can also provide assistance in designing your logo. If you give him ideas like the information you presented above, he will create designs to your satisfaction and generate the artwork that is needed to make the decals.
Stan’s prices for doing this custom work are very reasonable. Contact him through his website:
http://gold.mylargescale.com/StanCedarleaf/WebPageDecals/CustomDecalsx.html
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Thanks guys, I am working with Stan now on decals and hearlds for the line. Dennis, how deep did you sink your support posts that hold up your retaining walls? I am trying to price out what it would cost in wood to do this. Our area to raise is about 66" deep and 19 feet long. It would be nice to not have to walk thru the garden to get to things. My plan is to elevate it and leave a walkway between it and the house so I can get to derailments and do gardening work. Mike
My neighbor borrowed a powered hole maker , and we went about 24" deep . 30 something holes , with 30 something 8 foot long landscape timbers sticking up , with 1x2 lumber braceing them all up in their holes , on the bubble straight up , made for quite a sight ! Neighbors really wondered what I was doing . Bottom on the dirt , and then sackcrete , that way any water running down the timber can go out the bottom , and not fill with water and stand in it . Your really going to love the trains elevated ! You and the wifes knees will thank you for years .
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/dennispaulson/Dennis/The%20layouts%20begining.jpg)
operating trains while seated is great , especially the couplers operation .
Dennis, that really looks great!!
How far appart are each upright support? I am basicly coping your design, just a bit smaller. Roughly 66" deep by 19 feet long. Not sure how soon we will do that. Depends on when the two of us get jobs. Mikie