BJ&J of Maltby

More than one person has pointed out that I have been quite remiss in new posts recently, as it's been at least six weeks since the last one. Part of the reason is that there hasn't been much to report on the PE&A. There's been very little activity this summer and no track expansion, first due to over protective robins, then invasive ground wasps, and recently most of my time has been diverted to more pressing yard work such as tree trimming in preparation for reroofing of the house and garage.

But there hasn't been a complete lack of train related activities in July and August, and of course I do have lots of pictures. So I think I'll put together two or three posts this week to share a few places I've visited in the past two months, starting with a visit yesterday to the BJ&J of Maltby during the Stuvland's annual open house.

Like many garden trains the BJ&J started quite small on an open space beside the house and has gradually grown over the years. A 2000 gallon koi pond appeared for the train to encircle, a small town grew up in another area of the yard, and more recently a logging camp opened up on a ridge above town. There's at least 700 feet of track connecting it all and providing access to an indoor train yard.

This is clearly Great Northern territory and probably about 90% of the rolling stock is GN.

A GN U25B hauling a short mixed train idles at the town depot before taking off for a run.

A train heads north out of town across the long trestle. I think that's a EMD GP30?

Full train of logs heading up a curved trestle. You know I like log cars!

And I really liked this water tower because of the wire rope detail.

Here the track heads over a log bridge supported by log cribs, something you might see when a temporary track was put in place to access a logging camp.

With all the logging activity going on, I wasn't surprised to see a fire lookout tower. It's been incredibly dry this summer, and the forests need to be protected!

I think my favorite part of the layout was this intersection, with a curved wooden trestle in the foreground, a drop girder bridge behind it, and up above is another drop girder bridge supported by reinforced concrete piers (actually, wood and PVC in this case.)

Alco F-units (A-B-A) head out from under the deck into the bright sun. Beautiful day for an open house.

Here are the same F-units descending the helix. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the top level of the helix is design to look like a snowshed.

A large shed includes a seven-track yard.

A visiting Canadian Pacific RDC passes by town.