The beginning of the end

Submitted by Darren on Mon, 2006-07-03 01:24

Saturday, July 1, was a historic day. Not just because it was Canada Day, but also because it spelled the end of the Oil City Central model railroad. Scott was on hand to witness the final runs of freight and passenger trains. With those over, dismantling (or abandonment) began in earnest. I saved one piece for inclusion (after heavy modification) in a modular railroad. It may be built to freemo (info here) standards. Any thoughts on them? Most of the remaining track has been lifted and salvaged for future use.

For those who are interested, the section being saved is the long narrow part along the west side. Instead of the original plan of flat country plus a lake, it is going to be a mountainous section reminiscent of the Three Valley or Summit Lake areas west of Revelstoke.

There is more work to be done yet (specifically, finish salvaging track, then unscrew and remove the support structure), but I do plan to work at it some more tomorrow. I took a number of photos of the last trains, and a couple shots showing the abandonment progress at the end of the day. They may or may not find their way online in the near future. Until then, Letrain out!

Comments

David

Mon, 2006-07-03 13:55

Model railroad destruction and Ryan wasn't invited?

Darren

Tue, 2006-07-04 07:36

Attempts were made to contact Ryan, but I was unable to do so. However, it's more of a salvage operation than outright destruction, so I'm not sure how interested Ryan would be.

I'm not crazy...oh, wait, nevermind.

Ryan

Tue, 2006-07-04 12:20

I was camping from thursday night until monday. I was out of cell-phone range for the entire time.

Scott

Tue, 2006-07-04 15:07

Indeed, the idea is to reuse as much as possible for the modular layout. I would say that roughly 90% of the spikes and track nails are still good (a few track nails might be bent too much out of shape). Any track that doesn't get reused will probably be due to it being copper instead of nickel. Most of the roadbed is toast, but most of the benchwork is still good for all sorts of wood projects.