Mario McCarthy said:
Shawn,Wow! You have done a great job. What are you using for ballast? Keep up the good work. Really nicely done!
Im just using crusher fines from our local quarry. I think it is from a limestone quarry.
Im just using crusher fines from our local quarry. I think it is from a limestone quarry.
I see you have a few trees to plant.
Looking forward to phase 3 
Ralph
Really looking good Shawn.
I spent the last few days working on my cribbing colums. I was going to make trestles until I saw a picture in one of my logging books that used this system. I liked it alot because it was something different. I wanted to get away from the more common trestles etc… I used wood from a P u s s y Willow tree that has spent a year drying out. I cut them to length and then shaved off the top and bottom of each end to make them flat and a small groove. This helps the logs fit better. Then I nailed the cribbibg together as well as used glue. At first I was going to keep the bark on but after carving one I really liked the no bark look. All I need to do is soak it good in some thompson water seal. Here are a few shots set up in my kitchen. They will actually be placed on a curve with some wood supports under the track connecting each colum.
Shawn,
I know the type of pictures you are looking at. I’ve got a place in the basement that I’ve wanted to use the same style of cribbing. It seems while I think about doing it for years and years, you get it done. Very impressive.
Neat look. Now you need some longer pieces to go across the tops. 
That trestle looks great Shawn. The expansion looks good too. I love the look of freshly ballasted track, but then it contradicts with my struggling railroad museum theme when my roadbed looks like a class 1 :o One year I solved that by weathering the ballast, but it was too much work and only lasted a month or less.
Bruce Chandler said:Thanks guys. Bruce: I have some nice long pieces already cut. Just need to notch out the bottoms and flaten the tops some. I was hopping to get some of it put in today but the weather is cold and windy. Might have to wait until next monday.
Neat look. Now you need some longer pieces to go across the tops. ;)
Instead of going to the train show I was able to get my cribbing colums done. It worked out pretty well although somehow I screwed up the spacing. Hey nothing was perfect on logging railroads so I figured I leave it alone especially since the train runs great over it.
(http://i42.tinypic.com/2woyao6.jpg)
(http://i39.tinypic.com/2yxmdfl.jpg)
Looks like a little bit of a rise in the middle might have to fix although the train runs fine over it.
Shawn,
Lucky you. It has been raining here since Tueday. I didn’t get to go to York or work on my RR =(
The cribbing looks neat.
Ralph
Very nice !!!
Sorry to miss ya’ at the show. Perhaps you can attend next year!
Shawn it’s looking good. Rail traffic must be booming on the ‘Kitty’ to be able to expand after a year
Dave
I took a short break from my expansion and decided to redo my creak. I was not crazy about it for a few reasons: one it was to much maint. The dirt would always wash into the creak. Second whenever the power went out the pump would stop causing the reservoir to overflow, when the pump came back on it would use up all the water in the reservoir just to fill the stream up. The third reason I wanted something with a waterfall. This is what I ended up doing. It came out great and no leaks. I did plant trailing ground cover all around the waterfall. Once they take over a lot of the rock will be broken up with ground cover. It should look real nice.
(http://i43.tinypic.com/fc5v88.jpg)
Shawn,
You’ve made an unbelievable amount of progress on your outdoor railroad since you registered, and given us great photos to boot.
Awesome work.
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
Shawn,
Very nice work!!! Keep it up!
I agree with Joe…excellent work!
That swimmin’ hole looks tempting
Ralph
Nice job! You should be able to get lots of neat pictures there.
Thanks everyone for the kind comments. I have not done alot in the last week. Mainly because of the weather. Its been rainy one day, snow showers the next and cold. But I have been keeping busy with a few inside projects. I have been kitbashing my 4 HLW mini flats into new rolling stock. One I made a tender for my porter, the other Im making into a small box car, the other is a wooden gondola/ore car and the other is staying as a flat. No pictures until they are complete and painted. Today I did manage to do some rock work in the trestle area. Its been on and off snow showers all day. 
Here is what I did so far. I built up behind the cribbing colums and on top I planted my spruce. I also added some rock work inside the layout. Still have more to do. Ground cover is slowly turning green.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/spzmgg.jpg)
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2di0d8i.jpg)
Back side of the rock mountain
(http://i40.tinypic.com/wwf4tt.jpg)
some of the rock work I started inside the layout
The weather has not showm much of an improvement but I did manage to get a little more work done. I made a bumper for my siding. Used left over branches from my cribbing colums
(http://i41.tinypic.com/m9answ.jpg)
I built up the mt one more layer high. This will make a great photo spot once the plants get established. (notice the dead guy LOL)
(http://i42.tinypic.com/2vvq0jq.jpg)
A further picture of the recent addition. I dug a trench and added stone for a dry stream bed
(http://i39.tinypic.com/21vo61.jpg)
Bonus pictures
(http://i42.tinypic.com/34yusyx.jpg)
