Gandy Dancers have begun

Hi Everybody,

Today I laid the ties for the mill sidings. I first glue the foam board down. Yesterday I glued wooden supports to the backside of the sub-roadbed, which I also used as a gluing spot.

For the color of the ties, my ties will be on the brown side. I picked three different shades of Minwax. One is on the light side with one coating. The second is medium brown which I think I can make a wash out of it using lacquer thinner. I'll try that out doors in the back yard in case it explodes or something.

There is a railroad I have always had a liking to. Today it is operated by the Mass Central. The railroad is the ex-B&A/NYC Ware River Branch. At it's longest it was 49 miles long. It runs northeast out of Palmer MA. Today it only goes as far as So. Barre MA, 25 miles from Palmer. The railroad used to continue north to Baldwinsville MA were it crossed the Boston & Maine's Fitchburg mainlines. From there the railroad continued north to Winchendon MA where it connected with the B&M's Chesire Mainline.

Back in the 80's I worked as a volunteer on a tourist train which was operating on the Ware River and I got to photograph the whole 25 miles from the train as well as on foot. Anyway, the roadbed on the railroad is what I like. Good ballast in places, good ballast with grasses encroaching into the main line, many places where the ties are buried by the ballast. Most of the mainline north of Ware MA is country running. I will have to pick out some of the photos and scan them so I can share them with you.

Tomorrow I get to start detailing the ties and get them ready for coloring.

See ya next time.