The Little FWRR

CONSTRUCTION



Gateway Depot

The Gateway Depot for the FWRR was scratch modeled using hardwood dowels. (The original Gateway Depot at the Fort Wildness Outpost no longer exists, as it was replaced with a similarly designed depot for buses.) Dimensions were estimated from photographs, as no plans were available. However, the model was made three FWRR coaches long, instead of being five coaches long like the original Depot for the Fort Wilderness Railroad. The roof was constructed of individually placed small cedar singles, which took 20 hours for one side of the structure.
Besides the construction of the Depot, there are many small wooden parts needed for fences, etc.

Layout Table


Here is the 6' x 8' portable layout table, showing part of the frame, and some of the 2' x 2' and 2' x 4' plywood top panels.
FWRR Water Tower

The FWRR water tower, which originally stood across the track from the west end of the Gateway Depot, was modeled from photographs, and a few dimensions kindly provided by David Leaphart. A drawing was first created in SketchUp. Since no proper sized blocks were found, I created two from scratch.

Candy Elevator

 

For Halloween 2011, I built a candy loader building, to load the hopper cars. Below is the candy elevator that lifted the candy and dumped it. It is made of VEX robotics parts, with a hopper from one of the HLW hopper cars to lift the candy: