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dateline Kalamazoo;

today is an exciting day for the citizens of Kalamazoo as numerous folks showed up for the offical groundbreaking for the Kalamazoo & Lansing Railroad. In the words of the Companies President "...with this simple act of turning a spade of sod the 2 great cities of Kalamazoo and Lansing will soon be directly connected by a road of Iron and soon after the Wheels of Commerce and Trade will assist in the growth of the area".

In other words...
today in about 5 minutes im going to the lumber yard and getting the benchwork materials for my N scale K&L...and lumber for a bus shelter....and material to build my wife an above tank turtle enclosure...so AFTER the honeydoo projects construction will commence on the K&L....by next weekend i will have picx of the benchwork.

question on "published track plans"...i dont have any way of putting my trackplan on here...i am using a Model Railroader project railroad (from 1967 ) with some minor changes and additions and am wondering can I scan it and post it here with getting thrown in jail or making Admins angry?...i could try to hand draw the plan....but....well i have problems with straight lines....and curved ones too anyway just curious about that and stay tuned for updates....off to HD

Gov. Crappo wrote:and material to build my wife an above tank turtle enclosure

I'd like to see a picture of this.

question on "published track plans"...i dont have any way of putting my trackplan on here...i am using a Model Railroader project railroad (from 1967 ) with some minor changes and additions and am wondering can I scan it and post it here with getting thrown in jail or making Admins angry?...i could try to hand draw the plan....but....well i have problems with straight lines....and curved ones too anyway just curious about that and stay tuned for updates....off to HD

I didn't get in any trouble when I posted one from Model Railroader

AARR wrote:

Gov. Crappo wrote:and material to build my wife an above tank turtle enclosure

I'd like to see a picture of this.

lol....sure....for the record we have a 8" RedEared Slider in a 90gal tank that im building a "glass enclosed above tank basking area" to give her more swimming space....also have 3 other smaller turts (a redear...a yellowbelly...and a false Map) in a custom made "ganged twin 30gal", 2 Painteds in a 55gal, 1 Painted in a 20gal.....and a 2 inch Box Turtle in a custom made terrarium....yes Virginia we have turtles.... ....

Gov. Crappo wrote:lol....sure....for the record we have a 8" RedEared Slider in a 90gal tank that im building a "glass enclosed above tank basking area" to give her more swimming space....also have 3 other smaller turts (a redear...a yellowbelly...and a false Map) in a custom made "ganged twin 30gal", 2 Painteds in a 55gal, 1 Painted in a 20gal.....and a 2 inch Box Turtle in a custom made terrarium....yes Virginia we have turtles.... ....

Looking forward to pics. We have an indoor and outdoor pen for our box turtle and snapper. In the summer we add a couple painted turtles to the snappers pen but let them go in the fall. The painted's are more agressive than the snapper

wow....lol...other then the the "kooks" at turtleforum.com i thought we were the only turtle people....weve had our RES for 5 years and shes about 10...she wags her tail and loves going for walks with me ...the rest started as fosters but after 1 to 2 years they've found a home with us.

how big is your box and snapper?,,,,

if you find the turtle forum....the wife is "turtle_mom"....plenty o' pics there

Gov. Crappo wrote:how big is your box and snapper?,,,,

Box turtle is about 6" across. Snapper was killed recently by one of the painted turtles and was under 6" and was stunted. Had him for 5+ years. It was an alligator snapper and found him in a puddle at a construction site. My son, the turtle expert, said even if the painted didn't kil him he wouldn't live much longer cause he was outgrowing his shell. I'm on the look for another small snapper.

sorry about the size and detail...computers aint my thing but here it is...

overall main area 3'x5' ...Enfield 1'x4'

yard area top right is Enfield/Kalamazoo..PRR is line off edge middle top and "continues" past K Tower with short strech of shared track

area top of wye will be water for Gull lake with flagstop and SpeedQueen Washing Machine Co.

lower leg of wye is mainline from Enfield to Richland (trackage at Richland TBA) past Gull Lk to Vermontville

most of Vermontville (Co-op and town)will be on backdrop

line off edge lower left is extension to Lansing(someday )

starting benchwork today...

I like this, Gov. It's simple and relatively easy to build yet offers a lot of operational fun. Looking forward to your updates.

dateline Enfield Yard;


"...Pleased to announce that actual construction on the much anticipated Kalamazoo & Lansing Railroad has commenced...clearing of Right-of-Way has been completed and grade has been cut to Vermontville..."

Nice progress, Gov. Your wife is super for letting you build in an occupied room

...no...im super for letting her have a tiny corner of my Trainroom...

Gov. Crappo wrote: ...no...im super for letting her have a tiny corner of my Trainroom...

Tushe

well after 2 days a fanagling the track plan i got this to work....

some of the curve radius' have changed but kept most at 10"(plan had 11" as the smallest) and added the trackage at Richland...working on the yard plan later

I like what you've done to it, Gov! I think you'll have fun building and operating it. Especially with the yard and the potential to extend some of the edge spurs into staging yards.

AARR wrote:Nice progress, Gov. Your wife is super for letting you build in an occupied room

and i should mention the Christmas tree in the pics is just for our "sunroom" picture window moved for the work...we have a nice full-sized (and straight) tree in the livingroom

dateline Enfield:

".....many local citizens gathered to watch the work progress on grading for the Kalamazoo & Lansing around the southern tip of Gull lake. Some wondered if the swampy land will hold locomotives"

heres todays progress...marked for major track centers and town areas...then "cookie cutter" the plywood and added most major risers...some risers left to go and the trackbed for the tunnel

I can hear it now...woot woot

Great work so far Gov. Crappo.

dateline Gull Lake;

"....the Owners of the Gull Lake Fishing Resort on the southern tip of Gull Lake engaged in a heated debate with the Constrution forman of the K&L yesterday over the closeness of the new rails to the Resort. The matter continued to heat up until some cooler heads prevailed upon the Resort Owners that the Railroad will be building a flagstop for Resort goers and as such buisness would improve."

While the kids played with new toys I continued on the K&L..

installed the form for the Gull Lake water area and "resort"



also did base for Gooderham Fuel and the underpass of M-43...



should be adding first layer of hardshell after dinner

That is cool. I like the plan, cant wait to see it progress.