I was privileged to visit Bruce Chandler’s G-scale garden layout in Burke, Virginia on Saturday afternoon. He’s gonna tear it down soon to make way for a newer and more operationally oriented garden layout.
Here are some of the final scenes from a soon-to-be abandoned route that has carried freight and passengers a goodly number of years.
The tracks are already becoming overgrown with vegetation…
The fireman’s view from the tender look like we are traveling thru the jungle of a banana republic.
Here we pass by a real working mill and waterwheel which derives its energy from water pumped from a pond into a spillway leading to the waterfalls. The mill is scratchbuilt with rocks and concrete and styrene windows (when the work styrene is used, you know the modeler is a reformed HO guy). The waterwheel generates so much power that it provides 100% of the energy for the pump and is perpetual motion (just kidding).
The folks in town don’t move around too much. They seem to be frozen in a twilight zone episode. The figures are made from clay by Bruce. I meant to get the recipe but forgot.
The fall foliage must be very lush judging from the large scale of the leaves. The engineer has had too much whiskey and has thrown safety to the wind. He will plow right thru the leaves…
Always bitter sweet, starting over. So many memories to tear down, yet an opportunity to start with fresh ideas. I would imagine I will be at that point about 5 years from now.
I have to look to dismantling my indoor layout, not looking forward to that but I’m also looking forward to getting rid of the cobweb ridden dingy garage I’m currently sentanced to.
If you get his permission I have these and other photos in hi-resolution I could contribute (but not do justice to the nice layout).
Bruce and I share a love of beagles (they own the backyards). His beagle is named Peanuts and looks like a puppy but is 11 years old. Mine is BB, age 2.5.
