Yesterday, after spending an hour and a half studying the instructions and diagrams, I finally got around to modifying the chute diagrams to fit my railroad and built the left side. Building the floor of the chute and assembling the whole thing really looks like fun!?!?! (sarcasm). Attached is a lousy cell phone photo of the left side of the chute, still on the diagram I modified. Paul
The loading chute is nearly done. It's just laying in the layout-not actually installed yet-because I still have to add the supports under the floor and build the loading platform. It's hard to believe a handful of sticks could take so long to become a simple stock pen! I probably have well over 40 hours in this silly thing already. It took me a lot of head scratching to figure out how to actually assemble the parts of the chute. The floor is built separately and then assembled with the sides. Once the floor is done, you have to drill holes for the legs to go through. Since it's at an angle, and since the floor extends out past the sides so the cowboys can stand on the side and "encourage" the stock to go up the chute, it took awhile to figure it out. The one Brad built looks great. It sounds like he used a photograph and made his own plans. Paul
Loading platform is nearly done and the gates are all mounted. Still have to do the fence that parallels the track and some details (and find some cows, sheep and cowboys!). Paul
Thanks, Keith. Today I nearly finished it. The gates on the sides of the loading platform need to be made, and it needs sheep and cows. Other than that and a few more shrubs, it's done. Here are a few photos of the nearly-final product. Paul
Paul, your project is fantastic!!! I can hear the cows mooing and the sheep baaing. Now all you need is the smell of the stockyard. lol Joe