Building the Stone Hedge Railway.

[Scot Lawrence]

Update! Spring 2019.
Last year's construction held up well over the winter!
new work begins soon..

thanks,
Scot

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Second update for Spring 2019:

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Update! progress continues.
My wife is in a local Day Lily club, and she is having a garden tour with her club the last Saturday in July, her gardens are on the tour! So she asked if I could have trains running that day! So I have a goal for the next month, to get the lower "mainline" loop in place and running!

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Railroad signal in place! i've been wanting to get this setup for years:

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Hey everyone,
Big update for July!

Most recent video:

And some new photos:

Railroad signal in place!
It is a 1920's era GRS model SA. Originally operated on the New York Central mainline in western NY. Then also served with PC, Conrail and CSX, before being retired after approx. 80 years of service in the early 2000's.



Photo below: The lumber on the far left edge is the outer edge of the platform. The new lumber line in the middle is the support for the track. I was considering using the same PVC ladder roadbed I have used for the 8-foot diameter upper platforms, but I didnt use it in this case because the track here wont be an even 15-foot diameter arc, because there needs to be a turnout in the center of the circle, for the line that will eventually go to the basement window. So instead of using the PVC roadbed, im trying a flat table of 1" thick pink foam insulation here, the same material I used to make the base of the "farm meadow" last summer.




First run on the lower mainline loop!


And! I have updated the webpage, the 2019 page is now up to date, containing all the photos and videos from this year so far:

Stonehedge Railway

A Garden Railroad.

scotlawrence.github.io

thanks,
Scot

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Update! all three tracks are now in place:

thanks,
Scot

 

[ped]

Update! all three tracks are now in place:

thanks,
Scot

That is One Nice Looking Railroad, Looking Forward to seeing more

 

[mike]

Loving it.,. Keep it up..

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Ten year update!
I began working on the railroad in September 2009.
Here are a few "then and now" comparisons to take a look back at what has been done over the past 10 years.
(although probably 80% of the construction has happened in the past 3 years. the railroad got a slow start.)

 

[Sean.]

Hmmm Funny you're standing taller in the 2019 pic ..it's usually the other way around ! Looks great .Are you still having fun ?

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Hmmm Funny you're standing taller in the 2019 pic ..it's usually the other way around ! Looks great .Are you still having fun ?

thanks Sean..yep, still having fun! even more so now than in earlier years, since there is now something to see, and trains can finally be run..

Scot

 

[phils2um]

Hi Scot, 10 years on your cat looks the same but you've got a bit of "snow" on the roof!. The RR's looking good!

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Hi Scot, 10 years on your cat looks the same but you've got a bit of "snow" on the roof!.

I know! clearly I knew I was getting grayer, but I hadnt noticed how pronounced it has become until creating this photo comparision! Its the difference between 40 years old and 50. Oh well, it doesnt bother me, and the wife thinks its fine too, so its all good..

Calvin (the cat) looks the same! he's doing fine, just slowing down a bit. We dont know exactly how old he is, the Humane Society estimated he was about 4 years old when we adopted him in 2008, which makes him about 15 now.

The RR's looking good!

Thanks!


Scot

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Update! The lower mainline is now operational!

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Stonehenge!
(the actual monument in England.) The Stonehedge Railway gets its name from Stonehenge in England.

Back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, before my Dad even started his garden railroad, he was building stone walls and walkways in my parents front yard. It grew quite complex! One day my Mom came out and took a look at my Dad’s rock garden, and jokingly said they could call the garden “stone hedge”, because of all the walls making literal “stone hedges”!

The name stuck! then, when my Dad began his garden railroad in 2002, “Stone Hedge” became part of the railroad name, which led directly to my own “Stonehedge Railway” today.

In September 2019 Deb and I went on vacation to England! The first time there for either of us, and its something we have wanted to do our whole lives. It was a great trip! We were there two weeks, we visited Bath, North Wales, Lake District, Haworth, and London. On our first full day in England, we did a bus tour from Bath to Stonehenge! It was really great to see it in person:

We then rented a car for about half the trip, and also visited Avebury!

My Dad’s stone walls, and his garden railroad rock-work, had a definite “Neolithic, stone-age England” vibe! (We are of English ancestry, our Lawrence ancestors came to America from England in the 1600’s, and we can trace our Lawrence ancestry back to 1066 and the Norman invasion! My Lawrence ancestry is approximately 400 years as Americans, then 600 years as English, then beyond 1,000 years it becomes impossible to trace, but in 1066 we were Normans, who at the time were still Vikings.)

So my Dad built stone features into his garden railroad inspired by Stonehenge and other ancient stone works of England and Scotland. After my Dad passed away in 2009, I brought many of his stones up from Waverly to incorporate into my own garden railroad, and I have kept a set of stones separate with the intention of making my own “stone circle”, and in October I began putting it together:

Video 55
October 5, 2019. the Stone Circle is set up:

In 2012 my Garden Railroad club, Genesee G Gauge, made a large G gauge display for the Monroe County Fair. (click here for photos of the display) I created a small “stone circle” as part of the display! With a knight and a dragon:

Next year, I plan to create a “G scale size” (roughly) “Stonehenge circle” to place on my own railroad, it will be in the space in front of the larger stone circle above.

 

[Scot Lawrence]

First update for 2020!
Sad times, and strange times. but things will get underway on the railroad soon.

 

[curtis]

Sorry to hear about Calvin. I've just come across your videos and he seems to be a central feature during the evolution of your railroad. Don't forget those memories.

Looking forward to seeing the railway grow more!

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Thanks Curtis!

 

[casey jones snr]

Thanks for the video update Scot. Sorry to hear about Calvin, pets become family and their loss always touches the heart.

 

[Scot Lawrence]

Updates to the Garden Railroad!
I was able to find a Pola-LGB enginehouse for sale without its roof, so I scratch-built a new roof for it:

The Engine House is Pola-LGB kit No. 911

The Engine House originally comes with a "European" style roof (probably German inspired, since both LGB and Pola are German), here is a photo I found on ebay of the stock roof configuration:

But, I didn't want that style of roof, I wanted more of an "American style" engine house roof. I was lucky to find a used enginehouse on ebay, without the roof!
perfect! just what I wanted. here is my enginehouse as I received it:

I determined the angle of my new roof, the cut off part of the front and rear walls to match:

Then a new roof was scratch-built using thin foam insulation as the base:

I then scratch-built a new brick panel to fill the gap, and I found a 1/12 scale round dollhouse window, and painted it green.

Thicker 1" pink foam was glued to the underside for rigidity, (not visible in the photos), then I cut and screwed some surplus asphalt shingles that came with the house when we bought it (I assume left over from the last time the house had a new roof). The end result, just as I had envisioned it! I was very pleased with how it turned out:

Thanks,
Scot