By Rick Brown

Author  Bio Take the time to cover the roof. Maybe a lot of time.

Upon our return from Tennessee and chasing trains, the weather had changed. The rain was colder and the wind was blowing. There were pine needles and pinecones everywhere. After about a week of cleaning up with the trusty old leaf blower, I was ready to unwrap the train shed and get back to work.

The large blue tarp was removed. The wife crawled in on two strips of 1/4" plywood and held the box end wrench while I retched the bolts out of the hinges to remove the roof. The bottom was moved up to the pad and covered with a tarp to keep it dry while the top was put on sawhorses in the middle of the carport.

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The top was sanded again and a new coat of primer was applied for a good clean surface to work on. With the weather being a little cold (highs low 30's to mid 50's) I let the primer dry for two days before I worked on it again.

For sometime, I had not made a decision on what to use to finish the roof. I had ordered ten bags (400 pieces per bag) of 1:24 scale shingles, but after they arrived, I figured it would take me about four years to glue them all on. I'm sure I can use them on another project I have in mind.

After a chat with Bob Gentile (a.k.a.. Gatorman) in the chat room on LSOL, I decided to try to find some small-corrugated aluminum strips.

Then I got lucky. While attending the Great American Train Show (GATS), I ran into Scott Lindsay, owner of the Garden Scale Lumber Co. from Sequem, WA.

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He had just what I was looking for; aluminum ribbed roofing (Fig. 48). I picked up ten bags (12 per bag), knowing I was going to need a LOT more!

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Back to the bottom of the shed. With a break in the weather, I dug out the front of the shed (about 4 to 6 inches deep) and put down 14 bags of chicken grit for the track and switch's to float on. And I suppose you are wondering what that "L" shaped thing is, running down the center of the shed. I nailed together two 2" x 6's the length of the shed to give it a temporary peak so the rain would run off. All the white buckets are filled with rocks to anchor down the edges of the tarp so it won't blow away. We sometimes do strange things in Washington to combat the weather.

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I also had to put a few cars in the shed of course, just to see what they would look like. A base plate (2" x 6") was cut to fit the front of the shed where the six tracks would connect to the tracks in the shed. Hillman clamps were used to attach the tracks. I used 2" x 6's, cut to fit under the switches to keep the chicken grit out of the switches. Once the chicken grit settles in, the switches will be screwed to the "floaters." At this time, I ran out of chicken grit. After checking with the three local feed stores, no one had any for at least a week. Murphy's Law? Maybe some one else is building a garden railroad or feeding a lot of chickens?

Guess its back to the roof!

END NOTE:
This on going saga will continue when the weather improves!

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