Mar 24, 2012

Running wild on the Evergreen railroad - PART 2

This was a photo op that the guys wanted me to shoot so there are 3 of the runners together. What's that giant eraser doing in the photo? Heads will roll!
Another favorite railroad of mine is the Spokane, Portland & Seattle sitting here on a siding waiting for orders...or waiting for a pizza delivery from Bakersville Pizza. Looks like an upstart business has moved into town like Kelly Tires. It probably won't make it past summer. Where are those ballast crews? Probably having pizza as well.
Union Pacific hauled a lot of passengers and ice reefers back in the day. The apples needed a lot less attention than did the people.
Mike Baker brings back some fond memories when he runs this set of GN GE locos. The only thing missing is the smoke that these units had as their trademarks.
Speaking of  B units I finally caught one of them doing some switching on the east end of Yardley, Washington. Some months ago I was wondering what happened to all the cabless units the BN and BNSF were running a few years back. Now it turns out that we have 6 or more cabless models running their final years on locals such as the Colville run. Keith Weiles, member and BNSF engineer says they run sometimes as A-B-B-B-A  lashups just like the good old days with F units. It's a GP50 if I remember right, Santa Fe is the original owner.

Running wild on the Evergreen RR PART 1

Tommy Frank's UP passenger train passes a Mike Baker GN freight near Blue main yard. It looks like the ballast crew is still on vacation.
Steve Welton's fabulous UP Heritage units pull an intermodal up the grade over Beaver Canyon.  Modern stuff looks in place just as the older stuff does over the wood trestles in the background.
Rick Martin was working over this area all day with some help from Al Cunningham. They installed a new control system for the trolley line and working to get that back in operation. That little yellow/ blue diesel is Pete Heppler's pride and joy! Mine is the Susy Q RS-1. Nice coupler Pete!
 
Some members gather just to chew the fat as other guys run their trains on our layout. Hey, it's 6 o'clock and there is still light outside! And no snow!
Before I knew much about prototype railroads I did a number of freelanced models in the name of Timberline & Western Railroad. This brass caboose is a remnant of that vast empire that has seen better days now that I know something about the real railroads.
 
 

Mar 16, 2012

The Derailment Mystery Exposed

I saw these 3 guys working over by Bakersville and as I approached them I overheard what was the big joke about!  It was me! Dave Anderson will sure be glad to get this message now that the reason for all my derailments has been discovered!  I need Ralph to find out if they start their own car in the morning!
Allan did not spend all his time on solder spots today as he installed this extended height trestle to accommodate the double stacks the guys want to run on the Red line.  Those guys are still painting that bridge in the background, it must be a union job!
Look at these 2 guys doing God's work, putting in ballast to make my trains look and run better.
Allan got 7 of my Milwaukee Road units on the track by assigning DCC numbers in them and we test ran them later that day.
Don's pride and joy grand daughter stopped by with her grandmother and boy did they hit it off.
I am getting caught up on some GP7s I sold to Brock a ways back and I promised to paint them in Great Northern colors. I did 2 in the simple scheme and 1 in the more complicated scheme. You can see my technical way that I float the decals off the paper to apply them to the model. Soon they will be putting on miles and the layout.

Mar 3, 2012

Club night...steam engines, first generation Alco's and big time diesels.

Brock ran the wheels off his newly acquired GN steamer as it made its way around the Red main.
 
Jerry's 2 Alco RS-1s wait for its next assignment at Blue Main yard. The Alco's were making more smoke than the Big Boy in the background.
 
New member Steve Welton brought in his new Sd70s in the Union Pacific colors and a foreigner named Kansas City Southern, a long way from home where ever that is.
 
Rick had a surprise for the club tonight by scratch building a gazebo for the park up in Cobbleton, next to the trolley line. Time to get those rails rusty!