My G-guage Empire...6' at a time!

Good luck!
By the time you get back I'll hopefully have a P2 or P4 to run up the mountain div along with a trio of B&M diesels

And at it again!
I rbalasted about half my mainline and upgraded my ml curves to r=5' min (10' diamiter.)
I have also begun reducing the gradefrom "Sawyers" to "Avalanche Brook," which means the bridge will need pier & abutment work (which it needs anyway. )
OH! And, I found a good "Tarnax-type" detarnisher to use on all the old LGB and other brass track I have lying around. In combination with GOO-GONE I am getting MUCH better results electricly these days.
Pics of my work are posted on the MECRR Yahoo Group.

Looks nice! But gawsh, you need MEC equipment... I mean, a narrow gauge 4-6-0, and equipment?!
Oi... Well, you can always paint an Aristo 2-8-0...

Well,...
The bridge work is DONE! Photos to be posted soon! Now I need to get off my butt and start working on the "Frankenstein Monster," .. er, I mean TRESTLE!
And I know, I need MEC stuff!
I'm working on that, thanks!

Ok,..
well, I'v been busy.
So what, you say? Where's the pictures?
HERE!
BARTLETTS:
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/204770 ... ost=travel
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/284635 ... ost=travel

SAWYERS:

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/218495 ... ost=travel
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/276810 ... ost=travel
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/228467 ... ost=travel
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/280732 ... ost=travel

And,...
the hill headed to FRANKENSTEIN:
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/260931 ... ost=travel
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/245340 ... ost=travel
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/243929 ... ost=travel


And last but not least,...
a night shot!

That's the caboose, so I guess that's it for now!

At it again this month...
completed base for newest bridge, put annother 6' mainline "in service," and got out the measuring tape....
***DRUMROLLLLL***

...a WHOPPING 88' 4"!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok,....
here's the more recent pics from out back:
Beecher Falls Mixed
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/23 ... good-times
Crossing NEW Sawyer River bridge
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/21 ... good-times

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/21 ... good-times

The bricks under the middle of the new span will eventuqlly be used to rebuild/replace the bridge above/behind the one in the foreground.
Someday, eventually, these will both be thru-trusses.

Well. here's how my day went:
1000: REVILIE! Cofee, email, feed cats, other boring stuff.... (Legs still recovering from Springfield/Big-E and having "Duty" the night before.)
1030-11ish: Worked up nerve to o outside, grab a shovel and do some serious clearing. After moving my car about 6' I shoveld about 3-4' of walkway and spent the rest of the next hour-or-so clearing off my mainline. Unfortunately, there was an ice-layer below the more recently fallen snow that prevented me from utilizing more realistic means of snowfighting (ie: wedge or rotary-snowplows, of which I have NIETHER at this time anyway,) so it was all shovel work.
1115: discovered remains of a "Downed Power-Pole" and an electrical switch that were taken out by my shovel. Hey, lessons learned, right? (Pictures of that maybe later.) Also: fought with an ice-locked brick to find the ends of the power-leads to connect track power, (assuming I'll be brave enough to go back out...
aaaahhhh! Who am I kidding? )
1130: Decided to come inside and warm up. Need coffee and some SOLID food!
1320: still havent made it back out... (too busy screwing around on the inter-OH! [AHEM] I mean, WARMING UP!)
I should get out for my first SNOW SPECIAL in about another hour or so.
More, including (I hope) PICTURES to follow,
STAY TUNED!

Update!
1420: As advertized, I made it outside exactly 1 hour (give or take a few minutes,) from my previous post! Spent the next 20 minutes setting up.
1440: tried the Bachmann 4-6-0 on the line...
1455: Gave up on the Bacmann loco and got out the "Heavy-Hitter," the ARISTO Pacific!
1530: after about 45 minutes of pushing, tweaking, shoving and some rack cleaning, I got the 4-6-2 to run all the way up the line!
1600: tried the passenger coaches
1620: Got the entire train to go all the way over the line once,... (had to do some minor surgery on a KADEE coupler.)
1630: ready to try taking first video shots!
1645: managed to get some footage... took break.
1715: Tried again, got a couple more decent runs going up the mountain, decided to turn the engine and try the opposite way.
1730: got a few more decent shots
1745: Shooting concluded for evening on account of darkness, cold and me being frustrated!
All in all, not a bad afternoon/evening. Now, to post my video on YOUTUBE!
Links to follow!

Here's the first one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le80avChyeo

And the rest!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JTYUQe8H88
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8zPCNISHgw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_GecORfg2U


It was a busy, cold, and sometimes frustrating day, but the end result was worth it!

Aaaaannnnd..... one more!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R04ivxI5p7g

Enjoy!

BREAKING NEWS!!
TWO 4' steel thru-truss bridges arived this weekend via Ebay!!
I have one temporarily in place, and once the ground softens up a bit I can work on placing the seccond.
Pictures to follow, STAY TUNED!

Hi Cosmo,

I see you're a G-scaling man! I use to have a battery powered bachman set I ran outdoors. I used aluminum rail spiked to oversized wooden ties to give it the narrow gauge look. Then one day a vandal took a rock from the stone wall and kept dropping it on the tracks so I threw in the towel. Have you ever thought about Live steam? I just ordered an X3 mill I'm still waiting for so playing with the idea of that. I figure if someone does the same thing to the tracks at the steam club I won't have to fix it.

I'm trying in vein to save up my pennies for the Aristo live-steam 2-8-2 *sigh*
It's funny you should post today, I was just out working on the trestle that will someday (hopefully) resemble the Frankenstein Trestle.
I have one of the support "towers" built. Now I have an idea how I'm going to do them I can go whole-hog on that... till I run out of cutting discs!