Rose City Garden Railway Society – Annual Railway Tour (Pt 1)

The Rose City Garden Railway Society hosts an annual tour, where members open their home garden railways to the public. This year there were 13 railways on the tour. We didn’t have time to see them all, but visited seven. All-in-all it was a very enjoyable day.

My goal for this trip was to look at structures and scenery to get some ideas for my own railway. (See The RGSO Page) I was not disappointed, as there were numerous, great examples of buildings, bridges and plants.

Buildings

IMGP0765A nice Town Lattice Covered Bridge on the Whisky Creek & Bear Mountain by Ron & Merlene Bacon.

 

 

 

IMGP0796There were a lot of these square water towers in the various railways (explanation to follow). I have similar plans from Large Scale Online which I plan to build at some point.

 

 

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This is a nice engine shed and service facility area on the Lone Pine & Western of Tom & Betty Gaps.

 

 

 

IMGP0808Also from that railway is a small cattle pen and loading ramp. (This would make a fun weekend scratch-building project!)

 

 

 

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I think this is a coal loading facility, although it could be for ore. This is on the Bearspaw Southern created by Warner & Brooke Swarner.

 

 

 

IMGP0810I like this whimsical winery, also on that railway.

 

 

 

 

IMGP0815This is a nice station building from the Baker & Grande Ronde.

This railway is the creation of Gary & Jonette Lee. Gary runs clinics during the winter months for club members. He preps kits of materials, and the participants build the structure at the clinic. Thus, many of the railways have (some) similar or identical buildings.

The next post RCGRS – Part 2 will describe various plants and scenes that I particularly liked.

How beautiful is thy Parm!

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Ten months of aging has brought about this little beauty!  Weighing just about two and a half pounds, my first ever parma style cheese is a great success.  Since this cheese was made last fall, I was able to age it mostly in the mud room.  The temp was a pretty consistent 55-60 degrees.  This spring I moved it into the new Grotto – constantly 55 degrees.  The rind is the brownish tint you would expect and is thin enough to ignore (eat!).  The cheese has the granular texture of a Grana/parma style cheese (you can see from the way it breaks in the middle).  It grates wonderfully and it tastes like HEAVEN!  Well, no, it tastes like a really good quality cheese should!

I’ve got three more of these beauties aging up and then…I also have the “Stoopidest Parm Ever”.  I made a parm with spring milk and it is poorly consolidated, crumbly and being really badly behaved in the Grotto.  It’s attracting undesirable mold, and needs far more attention that it should.  I’ve decided that, if it continues to misbehave, were going to EAT IT!  It won’t be aged, but it will be cheese.

What’s new in the Grotto? Cheese, of course.

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My newest aging space…my new age space.20150531_151642

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Russ built a “cool” controller for the Grotto.  It cycles the power, on and off, to keep the fridge at 55 degrees.  There’s the inventory hanging on the side – 29 wonderful – slow-food cheeses!

15 Traditional Cheddar, 4 parmesans, 4 Crottin de Chavignol, 4 Camembert,  1 farmhouse cheddar and 1 Ibores

 

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Sweet dreams are made of cheese.

 

Cheddar cheese….the staple of all cheese life.  Sure, mozzarella is nice, but nothing beats the tangy bite, smooth paste and lusciousness of a well aged cheddar.

This baby was 8 months old when we cracked the shell.  What a pure delight Open-mouthed smile

There are 14 friends in the Grotto, refining their character.