I’ve been wanting to build one the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina’s unique hoppers. I decided to have it completed to enter in  the 2018  Narrow Gauge Convention Model Contest.

The hopper is built board for board with the visible brake detail. Each bolt is represent with a HO track nail representing the bolt head and an Ozark Miniatures 1/2″ nut-bolt casting. Other materials included brass wire, brass sheet and styrene. Other details from Ozark Miniatures- nut-bolt castings, brake cylinder and air tank, clevises, turnbuckles, brake wheels, rachets, etc.

The frame was assembled on glass over plans drawn in Illustrator. Braces and brake detail were added before the sides could be glued on. Because hoppers have open frames under the slope sheets, the entire truss rods and brake piping is visible and is modeled.

The sides were assembled from sideboards and stakes made of basswood. The basswood was distressed with a razor saw to impart grain on the boards.

The frame and sides under the slope sheets, as well as the bottom of the slope sheets,  had to be primed and painted before assembly since they could not be painted after the sides and slope sheets are glued to the frame.

 

Ladders were assembled using grab irons made from flattening the ends of brass rod, shaping and drilling a hole in the flattened end. Grab irons were fashioned in the same manner.

 

The slope sheets have been cut, HO track nails used for rivets, and the walk way cut and glued in place. The slope sheets are brass glued to the wood planks with E6000 adhesive.

All-in-all a fun project, but a difficult one. I was pleased the model won First Place at the Narrow Gauge Convention in Augusta, Maine.

Often model railroaders name businesses and places on their railroads for friends and family.

Why do the businesses and locations have the names they have on the Cranberry and Linville River Railroad?

The Cranberry and Linville Railroad is based on the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad. While we make no attempt to model any specific areas or landmarks, we do attempt to tell our story using the same time period and scenery you would find in the area. Cranberry was the eastern terminus of the ET&WNC until they purchased the Linville River Railroad and then again after the abandoned the Linville River. The railroad was built to carry iron and iron ore to Johnson City. I chose to add Linville River to honor the memory of the LR. And it just sounded good!

From left to right…

Lilly’s Candies represents my wife Pam’s family candy and ice cream store located in Covington, Kentucky. Lilly was her grandmother and her grandfather started the company. The billboard on the roof of Lilly’s advertises, Papas Candies, the company her grandfather started. It was passed on to her father, her two brothers and now her nephew. She and my son, Zach, work there as well.

Pam’s General Store is for named for my wife, Pam, a talented seamstress and crafter.

Amanda’ Place is name for my daughter Amanda, an email marketing specialist, not a bar maid.

Swanson Meats is reference to one of my favorite characters, Ron Swanson, from Parks and Recreation.

Penny Blossoms is a reference to a side-business Penny started and Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj helped with on The Big Bang Theory, my all-time favorite sitcom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF-0qn_-TAo

The town bank is the P.G.E. (piggie) Bank; a little tongue-in-cheek name.

Deaton’s Garage is named for our mechanic and good friend, Tim Deaton, who does all our automotive work.

Our garden railway, the Cranberry and Linville River Railroad was started in 2000. For almost 20 years I have been planning or at least planning on building the Cranberry depot. The photo above is the depot before the freight section was extended. We are modelling the longer version, albeit with the freight section compressed.

We are using expanded PVC board with .250×250″ styrene interior bracing and battens for the walls. The roof is also PVC with styrene representing the ribs on the roof. The windows were drawn in Sketch Up by my son, Zach and printed by Shapeways. The trim, office door and freight doors are styrene. The loading platforms are PVC sheet with styrene bracing and clad in redwood strips cut on my table saw. Zach also drew the chimney and my daughter printed it using her new 3D printer. Zach did the painting on the chimney. The styrene is glued to the PVC using Weld-On 1802.

The numbers…
129 Battens
59 Roof ribs
248 Wood planks for platforms
114 Rafter tails

We need a plan…

After several failed attempts at planning, I decided to bring in the expert. Paul Busse, a reknowned and very talented landscape architect, agreed to design the new railway, The Cranberry and Linville River. Paul was invited to dinner to look over the area. When he saw the hill I was worried would be a problem with planning, his eyes lit up with excitement. What I saw as a negative Paul turned into a positive.

I had my druthers- multiple loops, trains passing each other on opposite tracks, tunnels, a trestle and lots of bridges. Paul was able to incorporate most of them. He was able to incorporate my ideas in a way that interpreted what I wanted…not the hills of Kentucky but the mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.

What happened to the K&N?

A gentleman on a forum I was member of sent me a picture of Linville Gap in North Carolina that changed my whole plan and introduced me to the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad. Something in the picture below spoke to me and I wanted to learn more about the ET&WNC.

The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad

Founded in 1881, the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad was built to haul iron ore from Cranberry, North Carolina to Johnson City, Tennessee, it’s western terminus. In 1913 the ET&WNC purchased the Linville River Railroad, a logging railroad. Eventually extending to Boone, N.C. the ET&WNC served communities along the line for 60+ miles.

I joined the ET&WNC Railroad Historical Society and started attending conventions. I was hooked, and abandoned the idea of a free lance railroad for a garden railway inspired by the ET&WNC (ET). While the railway doesn’t model any specifics it does attempt to portray the mountainous region the ET served.

Part of the appeal of modeling the ET, was the availability of G-Scale (22.5:1) thanks to Bachmann. In 1988, Bachmann introduced their Big Hauler sets containing a ten-wheeler. They also offered a boxcar, flat car, and caboose based on ET prototypes.

I had a plan. I had my inspiration. Now time to start building!

These are photos from the 25th National Garden Railway Convention hosted by the Greater Cincinnati Garden Railway Society in 2013. The Cranberry and Linville River Railway was open as part of the garden railway tours.

Many a Good Plan Goes Astray

With plan in hand I began to make the roadbed. Having a GCGRS rail-raising at the home of the Griffin’s I was familiar with making roadbed with the 2X6 pressure treated lumber. While attending the Columbus Garden Railway Association’s annual layout tour I discovered an alternative to using the 2X6 method using a two splines joined by wooden spacers ever foot or so to create roadbed. Using this method the spline was bent to the appropriate radius and then screwed together to lock the radius in place. The roadbed is then mounted to stakes to level the track or create grades and then filled with ballast and dirt before laying the track. I completed one loop of the two using this method, but while I liked the appearance more than the 2X6 it was very difficult to get the desired radius and was not as durable so the second loop was the tried and true 2X6 method. The 2X6 method consists of pressure treated lumber joined by a 10” gusset plate. Curves are created by cutting the 2X6 at the appropriate length and angle for each radius. The templates are available for download at http://gcgrs.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2X6RoadbedConstruction.pdf. This method creates a strong and durable roadbed. Railroads using this method have been in place since the 1990s are still in good shape. Some warping does occur. However, the track can be shimmed to compensate. In our area, the roadbed can “pop” out of the ground during freeze and thaw, but the roadbed rises as one piece and settles back nicely in the spring.

With track laid on both loops the trains were running…well sort of. I used the Aristocraft rail joiners but did not use any conductive paste. After the first winter quite a few of the rail joiners failed and I had numerous conductivity issues. Our current railroad has LGB joiners with conductive paste and 14 gauge solid wire jumpers.

 

Don’t Let the Rain Come Down…

The first garden railway was built in the backyard of our yard behind our bi-level house. Since our house was a bi-level, our garage was in the basement and our driveway had about a four – five foot rise to the street from the garage floor. We began to notice that during heavy rains, the drain in the driveway would back up. After the city repaved the street eliminating most of the curb in front of our house more and more rain would come down our driveway to the point where the drain could not handle the rain and it began to backup into our garage and then into our house. After a couple of wet basements we called RotoRooter to determine why our drain wasn’t up to snuff. The “gator-cam” revealed two areas in the drain tile had collapsed requiring replacement of the drain tile back to the storm drain. The builder used the corrugated plastic drain tile instead of spending a couple more bucks for the PVC. $2600 later we had a patch in our driveway, a new pipe and a ditch going back to the back yard. While the Rotorooter guys were there I asked them to dig my pond. Even with the new pipe every time it rained we worried. The city wouldn’t do anything about the drainage issue. We decided to move to higher and drier ground. So up came the track, and the wood went into the trash. I rented a tiller and leveled everything out and planted new grass.

Each year the GCGRS participates in the Miami Valley Rail Festival at Carillon Park in Dayton, Ohio. I have documented in my other post Live Steam Climax about my trials and tribulations with the new Accucraft Climax. Everything is aligned and straight, and the climax is running quite well.

I uploaded a video to youtube of the loco running at the MVRF.

 

Photos of the Cranberry and Linville River from the 2015 GCGRS Summer Tour.

Ten-wheeler #11 leads a freight train up the hill.

A passenger train on the low line.

A meet in Cranberry yard.

Heading off the long trestle.

A freight heading up the hill is passed by a passenger train.

#11 heads across the trestle pulling a short freight.

Consolidation #4 Unaka heads across the dual girder bridges.

More Photos…

Many a Good Plan Goes Astray

With plan in hand I began to make the roadbed. Having a GCGRS rail-raising at the home of the Griffin’s I was familiar with making roadbed with the 2X6 pressure treated lumber. While attending the Columbus Garden Railway Association’s annual layout tour I discovered an alternative to using the 2X6 method using a two splines joined by wooden spacers ever foot or so to create roadbed. Using this method the spline was bent to the appropriate radius and then screwed together to lock the radius in place. The roadbed is then mounted to stakes to level the track or create grades and then filled with ballast and dirt before laying the track. I completed one loop of the two using this method, but while I liked the appearance more than the 2X6 it was very difficult to get the desired radius and was not as durable so the second loop was the tried and true 2X6 method. The 2X6 method consists of pressure treated lumber joined by a 10” gusset plate. Curves are created by cutting the 2X6 at the appropriate length and angle for each radius. The templates are available for download at http://gcgrs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Garden-Railway-Roadbed-Dimensions.pdf This method creates a strong and durable roadbed. Railroads using this method have been in place since the 1990s are still in good shape. Some warping does occur. However, the track can be shimmed to compensate. In our area, the roadbed can “pop” out of the ground during freeze and thaw, but the roadbed rises as one piece and settles back nicely in the spring. With track laid on both loops the trains were running…well sort of. I used the Aristocraft rail joiners but did not use any conductive paste. After the first winter quite a few of the rail joiners failed and I had numerous conductivity issues. Our current railroad was build with LGB joiners with conductive paste and 14 gauge solid wire jumpers. (Since then we have switched to battery power but maintain track power for visitors using rail clamps where needed.)

Don’t Let the Rain Come Down… 

The first garden railway was built in the backyard of our yard behind our bi-level house. Since our house was a bi-level, our garage was in the basement and our driveway had about a four – five foot rise to the street from the garage floor. We began to notice that during heavy rains, the drain in the driveway would back up. After the city repaved the street eliminating most of the curb in front of our house more and more rain would come down our driveway to the point where the drain could not handle the rain and it began to backup into our garage and then into our house. After a couple of wet basements we called RotoRooter to determine why our drain wasn’t up to snuff. The “gator-cam” revealed two areas in the drain tile had collapsed requiring replacement of the drain tile back to the storm drain. The builder used the corrugated plastic drain tile instead of spending a couple more bucks for the PVC. $2600 later we had a patch in our driveway, a new pipe and a ditch going back to the back yard. While the Rotorooter guys were there I asked them to dig my pond. Even with the new pipe every time it rained we worried. The city wouldn’t do anything about the drainage issue. We decided to move to higher and drier ground. So up came the track, and the wood went into the trash. I rented a tiller and leveled everything out and planted new grass.

Moving On Up!

 After looking at one house, we decided we wanted to build instead of buying an existing house. After looking around Walton and other areas, we settled on a lot in the Richwood area in Heritage Trails. Heritage Trails was started in the late 70s and actually was one of the first Homefest sites. There were several what we call Brady Bunch houses. In the 80s, the subdivision extended and then again in the 90s. We built our house and moved in 1999. Meanwhile, the Greater Cincinnati Garden Railway Society bid and was awarded the 2005 National Garden Railway Convention. That would give me two years to make plans and get the yard ready to begin construction in 2001 giving me 4 years to get the railroad ready for the convention.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

It seems that the Long Island Garden Railway Club was planning to host the 2002 garden railway convention until they found out the accommodations could not be provided at a reasonable cost (rumor has it that organized crime was involved, but I’m not saying so). They approached the GCGRS to see if we could step in and host the 2002 convention instead of in 2005. Uh-oh, now instead of two years to get ready and 4 years to build my new railroad I had one year to get ready and only two years to build. YIKES! Time to get busy.