The Burr Ridge Railroad in Burr Ridge, IL was started the Monday following Thanksgiving 2007. Since winters in the Chicagoland area have been relatively mild the last several years, with not much snow early on, and we only had about 5 weeks work there – we thought we’d have plenty of time to finish it before the REAL weather hit. Unfortunately that didn't happen and we ended up getting snowed out about Christmas time.

This railroad originally was meant to be on the ground with about 18 feet of trestles and bridges, however after we got there and started laying it out with PVC pipe, as we normally do. The client decided it would be advantageous to have it mostly up on trestles. Consequently there are more than 280 feet of trestles/bridges (all hand made by Rick and Lori out of ¼" cypress). We were able to do all of the survey work prior to the first snow, however after the first weekend we were there, we got the first snow. It didn’t last long, but from there on out it was awfully doggoned cold for us desert rats.

Rick set Lori up with a shop in the spare room of his mom's house where she built all of the trestle bents, then he set up a stain bath in the basement where we were able to pre-stain the bents and assembly pieces to allow them to dry prior to taking them out to the job site. Additionally Rick set up an assembly jig on the site in the client's garage, so we were able to at least get the trestles assembled and temporarily set before we left the middle of January.

We returned the first part of May to pour concrete, set the trestles, lay track and glue ballast. The weather was still not too conducive to getting the railroad finished, but we worked through it and got it done in time to get back to Phoenix in time for The Big Train Show in Ontario, CA. This railroad was originally going to be about 150', and ended up being roughly 400'. But it’s a beauty.