Evergreen goes Canadian!

3 members showed up yesterday at the club running Canadian railroad equipment. The boder is located 100 plus miles north of here but last night it seemed we were in downtown Calgary.  I wonder what the currency exchange is now, Eh?

One of our Canadian wannabes was our new member Steve Welton who was another of the ex-River City members that joined our club. Steve is horsing around so I could shoot this picture of him!

Alberta Al worked up the tunnel portals and track to allow Burt to give the castings a primer and include the famous "oatmeal" to seal the ground cover to make ready for the finsh coat. By the way we will be selling prepared oatmeal at the February Train Show here in Spokane (February 19th, 2012 Spokane Community College, Lair Building, 930am - 330pm). 

 

The next photo should be a finished entrance so you modelers can use this example to do this kind of thing yourself. 

 

 

Tunneling a mountain

Allan did more tunneling today and he has the wing supports in place ready for coloring and then the famous oatmeal treatment for the hillside.  Hey, that's my job!

Every railroad tunnel should have an exit as well and this is the north end of the Bakersville Mountain. Allan ran an engine part way to prove out clearances and tracking, Nice job Allan!

As a fan of the SI I do some freelanceing as well and this is one of them. It is one of 10,000

Santa Fe gons that Athearn made in the day.

I got in some airbrush work on 6 cars I had in kits so it was time to build them and do my weathering trick on them.

There's Don still reading the Evergreen Photo Book. This version was made for Brock with his locos on the cover. The sign to the right will go into the White Elephant with some flyers for our club. I alreadhy dropped off a bigger one for Sunset Junction Hobbty Shop. We will have an open house on Saturday February 18th, the night before the Spokane Train Show. Remember we have a table for Evergreen on the 19th at the show and members are welcome to use some of the 8 foot space. Jim Bowden has one and I will have 3 for Signal Signs.

 

The Dark Side of Modelling

The rail yard got better since it got dirtier. Mike Baker is responsible! He is a good boy!

Wait a minute! Who cleaned up the turntable bowl?  This will certainly ruin my reputation if this gets out! 

Perhaps we need an emergency meeting to resolve this indignation!

The yard looks pretty though. The engines look nice.  I'm confused!

Rise of the Diesels! The teakettles must be vanquished!

This model used to be a Milwaukee Road E7, now under the ownership of Union Pacific pulling a string of AHM passenger cars. The B unit was a shell that got the colors to match the passenger cars for Tommy Frank.  Jerry painted them and gave them a touch of realism in the form of weathering.

Guess what our new member Steve Weldon likes?  High tech would be my guess and its another foreign railroad! Just look it the clean equipment! Someone needs to bring him up on Clean charges! They did run well and look terrific but I can fix that! 

Now were talking railroading in the good old days! SP&S with a smoky Alco diesel run by Burt with Jerry's equipment. Nothing shiny on these units.

Just like the good old days!

 

The Rise of the Teakettles!

The President of the Tea Kettle Commission has bribed the photographer to feature his prize in this e-mail to the folks who care about such things.

 Sure its just a Tea Kettle but its a model of one of our steamers making its way around the layout on Tuesday. Say is that fake smoke?

This is not a Tea Kettle and to call it one might cause an international cross border clash with a large person.  It is a beautiful 4-8-4 Northern of Canadian Pacific heritage pulling a equally beautiful passenger train. Say is that smoke fake?

 

The mighty Mon-Road Railroad‏

The subject of this locomotive came up last week when Jim Bowden mentioned this engine has gone back to its original owner, the Alaska Railroad. It was in Moses lake, Washington for almost 50 years. I took this photo of this GI 2-8-0 back in 1971 when everything was new to a recent arrival from New Jersey. It was built for the Army during World War 2, remember the one we won? We didn't have Jane Fonda back then.

Last April of 2011 I went back there with the Great Heimerdinger to visit a home layout. We searched for this engine and found it hiding

behind a chain link fence. Monty Holmes,a junk dealer who owned it has passed away and that is where the name came from.

He did not have a railroad but a collection including a retired SP&S observation that he called Ruth, which I assume it was his wife's name.

Some of us collect models others collect models in full size.

On the rails in Spokane Valley.‏

Herzog track maintenance train was seen on the secondary main heading east earlier this week. It had 5 gondola cars and a crane in the rear.

Note the tracks and wheels under the crane to allow it to travel the length of the train set to pick up or deliver materials to track side. This is the ex-NP main that is now the BNSF main coming into Spokane from the east. I may have stepped on the BNSF property but I'm not sure to take this photo for you. What...me worry? If you don't get caught there is no foul!

 

Another day on the Evergreen Railroad‏

Looking for the locos to run this passenger train? They are in the works for Tom Frank and the cars are almost done as well. 

Another long train was run by Jim on Wednesday morning when I showed up and this is the same train as the engineer says hello to his conductor in the caboose as it enters the tunnel going around Mount Whitney and the City of Cobbleton.

The same train passes the Blue main yard. Looks like the ballast crew is still on vacation.

The Odd Couple! Brock's track maintance vehicle has a hefty load to pull by being the one to pull our club track cleaning car around the layout.

The era of the teakettles.‏

The the winner for the next photo album cover is......

John Smith's new toy is this highly detailed 3 truck Shay crossing Kyle Canyon.  Say,.... that engine must be brand new, no rust?

 Another favorite was this little Climax loco by Don Brereton pulling a steam powered crane and 3 log cars on the Green Branch.  2 jewels in one session!

Pete Heppler brought in a dozen fantastic cookies from the Rocket Bakery and his reward by me was the ageing of 2 auto racks for his layout.

Not to be outdone Jim Bowden brought out his 2 SD70s in Alaska RR colors and reportedly pulled 50 cars!

 

4 brains are better than one so Don, Jim,Al and Burt gathered to fix an issue with an errant switch that was giving us problems. Note the light behind showing that the layout power is on!

 

The subject is the S&IE map of railroad

A visitor stopped by the club today and wanted to have a copy of this map we had on the wall. Some of you might like to know where this early electric railroad ran back in the day when it was the way to travel in the Northwest. This line ran near by son-in-law's home on the back side of the South Hill here in Spokane. We visited the Sharon electric substation last year.

 

Old rail facility restored