Schimmel's Bar and Grill 2nd Edition

As the title implies the bar and grill will evolve over time.  At this time most of the large scene's that have come to my thoughts are done with the exception of the more detailed work.  So my next post might be while before coming or at least thinning out.  

Anyway started work on Schimmel's Bar and Grill.  First had to decide where the road should come from and to start work.

John did open the bar for lunch time. 

Today's work is over so now time to have a cold one.

Since this is all rural country and as of now, no police or fire department gun play at bars is still legal and not a big deal as we have no crime, especially in Glidsietz Ville.

The new sign..

Took sod from Schimmels and added it to right (north) side of Nicholas hill. 

Now some aerial shots of the entire train yard. 

Now time for a shower and nap time...    :)

More work on lower 40 using Polymeric sand

Well with today being Saturday I thought I would get more done that shows but nope.  First a couple of fun shots, these next two are of Aunt Josie watching the passenger train run today.  Her house is right between two tracks. 

Spent the morning puttsing, cleaning and grooming around track, and worst of all putting down some river pebble under the track for the new road.  Spent a bunch of time picking out flat pieces and getting them placed.  But as for the next few shots, I fired up the grill, went in to eat my steak and came out and found this.  We must have had one heck of a gust of wind.  This is a sight that struck fear in my heart. 

Barb & John Schimmel are such close friends that we (most of my family near and extended (cousins, etc)) consider them part of the family.  Anyway, when I named the three different tracks Barb asked what about them, as all three tracks have family names within them.  Well I got to thinking about that, we now have a church which all towns should have, but what is the most used building in any town besides on Sunday's, ---  a bar.  So I decided to bestow one of the most popular items of all three tracks in honor of them.  Hence Schimmel's Bar and Grill.  I actually plan to build the first several versions myself.  So it will start off down right unacceptable to at least Barb and move up the scale over time.  Started construction on the land today.  Hopefully will have road installed tomorrow and first very rustic building done sometime before Memorial day. 

 

The box car full of beer showed up before John was ready but heck it can be sold anyway in this part of the woods.

He spent little time getting things set up.   Looks like a fish tale is taking place. 

Barb was not impressed with her living quarters I am guessing she could be bunking up at the depot while John roughs it a bit.  We have a spare room as well.   

With all of the folks showing up at Schimmel's Bar and Grill John asked me to round up some food.  There has been a family of deer hanging around the cemetery so I figured time to get some Bambi.  Nothing like Deer Chili, we can feed a bunch with the buck.

Now for my G Gauge friends down to business on what I think of the Polymeric Sand idea I talked about in yesterday's update.  First it set up very good no doubt.  But I will not use it for track stabilization for the following reasons.

1.  With decomposed granite I can lay (including ground prep) about 4-6 feet of road in one hour after work.  These 2 feet of just road took me about 4 hours, mostly carefully selecting rock that I wanted to show and ground prep.   

2.  For railroading the rocks do not really show or are of little use for track stabilization from what I can tell from this exercise.  I used two different sizes of rock, 1 foot of road under the bridge was river pebble which is about 1 inch and diameter of various shapes so I picked flat ones which was very time consuming (I know you would not use those for track anyway - in fact would remove them).  The next foot of road I used pea pebble which is too smooth for track but about the right size just does not do what would be needed for track (IMHO).  Heck concrete is a bunch cheaper then Polymeric Sand. 

3. RJD a member of a G Gauge forum website I use said that once set up with the track the track cannot easily be moved etc.   Which is a very good reason, at least for now that I do not want to use something that puts my back against the wall.  Oh, and I try very hard not to mention any web sites by link/name on this blog so I do not appear to be advertising for other sites.  In today's world, websites with forums and such are careful for its fellowship to not allow links when they look to advertise so for those who allow links I honor that request which sometimes works reverse.  I think I have unfortunately mentioned other sites in the past but I try to not do that.    

Work on the lower 40 of the train yard

I did not get much time in today but what I got done I am happy with.  I recieved a new farm house early this week so I did get that placed and I finished the parking lot for the train depot that I was working on last week.  Started placing the barrier rocks. 

The band stuck a cord. 

Aerial shots. 

A representation of my cousin Duane.   Wondering how did I get in to this mess and how am I going to get out of it.  Or is he doing what we called a prop check. 

As I mentioned above I got a new farm house and since my Aunt Josie was the only one who said she liked BuckWills Ville this one is for her.  She also got elected as Mayor, now she needs to clean up the hobo's living in town, but that might come later.  Anyway here is a few shots of the new farm house.  Oh and everyone lives close to the tracks so ya just got to deal with it.  LOL  (For you G Gauge'ers she and hers will see the link via FB).   Oh and I know it does not match the color of your house but the blue one is sold out everywhere. 

Had to do some minor road work so aunt Josie could get in, as I did not get much time on the rail yard today.

Tomorrow, Saturday I should get some time in, so I brought the crew over to start on the major road work I need to do for Aunt Josie.  As you see her Tahoe barely fits under the track.  I want to either lay down some granite which I need to get or try a mixture of pebble stone and Polysand a polymeric Jointing Sand.  For my G Gauge friends what do you think?  It is an expensive solution to track stabilization but I thought I would try it on this application and if it does what I expect and maybe use it when I start track permanence program next year.  It starts off as a sand and when you add a fine mist of water it turns to a hard rubber compound.  I used for the joints between my flagstone walk area around the water fountain.  So far I am impressed with it, just not sure if it will work for rail and if the ROI is worth the $$$$.  I should have some pics tomorrow unless one of you steps up and says heck no don't do it.  But I will try it on the small part of road I need to add here and upload pics in tomorrows update. 

Anyway started getting the heavy equipment in and the folks working on the road while I sleep tonight.  :)

They got the Depot parking lot done and layed out the rocks. 

Since this road also leads right up the Susan and David's front door they put up a gate of sorts.

Aerial shot time and the train depot is back to normal productivity.

And now, not to leave anyone out this is for the Whovians. 

Getting Church installed & Road work

Got the new church last weekend and started working it into the scheme.  Had to build a road to get to it. 

Had a bit of a challenge.  The digger was brought into the layout from digging a road under the track.  Before putting down the granite the underpass was deep enough to get through.  Once the granite was put down it could no longer get out of the layout.   So a road had to be built to get the thing out of the layout.  Hence this work.

After the work building the parking lot and road to the church it was time to pull out.  It was a tricky challenge. 

Now another challenge, how to get back into the other half of the layout, the under pass on this side is not deep enough either for this big rig. 

This being a degree of urgency, the road was not built for normal traffic, in fact the truck could not make the grade so only the digger could go over the challenge right now and that was challenging enough. 

The rest of the vehicles had to go to the under pass and come in that way.

Since the road cuts right through the Farrar's property and very near their house, they wasted no time blocking the road so it does not turn into a thoroughfare. 

Here is a couple of arial shots to show just how close the road is to their house.

Here is the whole reason for needing equipment this big in the rail yard in the first place.  To build a road and a parking area near the depot. 

Got more work done on my hill over the last several days.  Still more to do.