THE ALMOND BLOSSOM RAILWAY

Un Pequeño Ferrocarrile de Vía Estrecha - A Tiny Estate Railway Of A Very Narrow Gauge
El Ferrocarril De la Flor De la Almendra (The Almond Blossom Railway)
Spain
 
My wife and I now live part of the year in Spain.
 
The idea of building a small, private, 7¼in. gauge railway was conceived circa 2002 and I spent well over a year searching for a suitable plot of land on which to build it.
 
About 20 different feasabilty drawings were made of different locations until in 2004 we eventually settled on one. The chosen site was about 4000 sqm (about 1 acre) and faced south with 31 almond trees, one lemon tree, one carob tree and most importantly a 35 sq.m industrial workshop with electricity & water.
 
The only drawback being that the workshop is situated at a higher level than the rest of the plot, with an incline of 1in7 approx. Would I need to build a rack railway?
 
In the picture above you can see the workshop at the top of the incline. To the immediate right the original toilet/shower and dog kennel with the bread oven beyond.
 
 
As the previous owner had died some 2 years earlier, the plot was somewhat unkempt when we first saw it. 
 
It was only a few days before taking ownership that we actually
managed to see inside the workshop!
 
 
 
I am in the process of getting the almond trees in order. Due to prior neglect it means serious pollarding which will take me several years to complete. I will do two or three a year, which will give us an ample wood supply for the fire back home, but unfortunately no almond kernels on those trees for a few years.
 
Here we are with some friends late in 2004, harvesting the almonds before I started the pollarding. Idealy this shoulds be done late August before the autumn rain discolours the shells.
 
 
Here are the almonds drying on our terrace, my wife kindly shells, blanches and deep fries them ...delicious!  
This takes a lot of work, now we understand why they are so expensive to buy.