Great Pics Doc. I hae a storage shed on my list this year too.
Jake Smith said:Thanks Jake. It does open up all kinds of possibilities and a destination on the RR.
Great Pics Doc. I hae a storage shed on my list this year too.
Tom
Wild Flowers in the Great Smoky Mountains Dr Theodore, Botanist at The University of Tennessee, makes his annual Spring wildflower pilgrimage in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Each year he finds a unique specimen to take back to the lab in Knoxville.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05656.jpg)
But what is the whole crew of 2147 doing stopping the train and tramping on into the verdant forest? Seems they like pretty flowers too for their girlfriends and wives back in Townsend and are going to pick them too.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05657.jpg)
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05654.jpg)
Happy Easter Doc Tom
Great pics and nice back story.
Bob C.
Loading logs at Tremont Landing. I have always enjoyed the photos from the Little River RR museum and their website http://www.littleriverrailroad.org/ This picture in particular of one of the early Shays, an AHD loader and the early skeleton log cars has always caught my eye. I particularly liked the built up landing on a slope using log cribbing. ]
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/Shayandlogcribbing.jpg)
I have slopes like this on my garden rail road and have been working the last several weeks to recreate this scene. I only have one skeleton log car that I picked up cheap at the NGNC in St.Louis a few years back. The 1920’s LRRR I am modeling used logging flats. I think the prototype picture may be some time circa 1901 to 1905 when they used skeleton logging cars. Anyways here is my attempt to recreate the log landing at Tremont in B&W.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05740.jpg)
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05744.jpg)
Here are some color shots of the scene as well.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05750.jpg)
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05756.jpg)
Let me know what you all think. Thanks. Dr Tom
Tom
I think it looks good. You have the effect of what is in the photo.
What kind of wood is in your cribbing??? Did you treat them so they won’t rot away.
Rodney
Rodney Edington said:
TomI think it looks good. You have the effect of what is in the photo.
What kind of wood is in your cribbing??? Did you treat them so they won’t rot away.Rodney
Hi Rodney,
Thanks for the note. The “logs” of the cribbing came from old cedar dowels I found in an abandoned wooden garden arbor. They had weathered fairly nicely but I did also treat them with Thompson’s Water Seal. The logs are separated and supported by .25"X.25" Poplar strip wood, again treated with Thompson’s WS. The interior is filled with crushed drainage rock from Lowes.
Thanks for looking.
Tom
The B&W photos are great!
Alec
Great photos Tom. RR is looking good.
Thanks Alec, David and Shawn. Your positive feedback is helpful in keeping at it…building this large scale RR and trying to learn everything I can while building it.
Tom
Nice photos and great recreation, Doc. But what happened to the crew?
Dave Marconi said:Taking their Mothers out to eat ;)
But what happened to the crew?
Great photos, Tom.
Ralph
Ralph Berg said:Dave Marconi said:Taking their Mothers out to eat ;)
But what happened to the crew?Great photos, Tom.
Ralph
Hi Ralph and Dave,
Yep they were with their moms in the Restaurants of the village of Townsend Tennessee and it was raining ( too hard to put the little guys in the photo).
I am going to have to do one of those pictures of a logging crew standing on the skeleton log car or suspended of a log being loaded on a flat car. Hmmmmm the creative juices are flowing.
Tom
The Bridge at Hurricane Creek Hurricane Creek, high in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, is usually a fairly dry rivulet crossed by the Little River Rail Road.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05816.jpg)
However, when hurricanes crash in to the Gulf Shores of the United States they lose their punch and dump their torrents of rain in the Appalachians. This is when Hurricane Creek will roar and wash out everything in its path including backwoods logging bridges. Since 1906, when this part of the Little River Rail Road was constructed, this little bridge has washed out three times. Col Townsend was excited to get out to the site and see what the third and hopefully last repair looks like.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05818.jpg)
The surveying team is re-establishing the gradient.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05814.jpg)
The woods and rail crews are fairly confident that this well reinforced sluice will handle the next deluge.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05815.jpg)
One wonders??? Doc Tom
You took a fair bit of trouble to make those pix, Tom, and it shows. Thanks for posting them; on a rainy and windy day up here, they are entertaining!
If you are talking about real washouts at that spot, I might consider building a bridge from a slab of stone - wouldn’t have the same backwoodsey look as your wooden bridge, though.
Or is your report basically fictitious?
I like the speeder, and the characters.
John Le Forestier said:
You took a fair bit of trouble to make those pix, Tom, and it shows. Thanks for posting them; on a rainy and windy day up here, they are entertaining!If you are talking about real washouts at that spot, I might consider building a bridge from a slab of stone - wouldn’t have the same backwoodsey look as your wooden bridge, though.
Or is your report basically fictitious?
I like the speeder, and the characters.
Hi John,
Thanks for the nice note. No, the washout story is “Mountain Lore”. I complete about 3 feet of track every month on this gradually growing Garden RR. This bridge and the track were just put in place over the past couple of weeks. I just made up a story to go with the new track. Although the Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina get hammered with rain whenever a hurricane comes up from the Gulf I have not had a “scale washout” yet.
Thanks, Tom
Anothe r fine update Doc. Glad to hear Col. Townsand gave the boys off for mothers day. I’m sure it helped their spirits when it came time for the washout repair. Which, looks great. A fine job they will be proud of in years to come.
It is a 100 degrees in the shade at the Elkmont Post Office and Commissary.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/ElkmontPostOffice-1.jpg)
After a couple of lukewarm Coca Colas it was time to get on the work train and move some of the 4 tons of limestone rip rap recently delivered to advance the line out of Nelson’s Gap.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05823.jpg)
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05827.jpg)
The sweat was pouring as the ballast was laid and as the sun set the boys said, “Lets forget the Coca Colas …….we need some BEER and very cold.” So they dropped the gons and highballed in reverse to get to the Dew Drop Inn in Townsend (headquarters of the Little River Rail Road ) as night cooled the Smoky Mountains.
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05828.jpg)
(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC05830.jpg)
Doc Tom
Line is getting their. It was hot up in the Kittatinny Mtns as wel although not 100. Hit 94 which is hot for these parts. Then some nasty storms came through and cooled things off to more fall like temps.