Saturday night at the Evergreen Railroad

Wanting more social interaction with members and family the Evergreen Club thought that having run nights on random Saturday evening with pizza being served would be a benefit for club activities. Here we have Alco C-424's from the SP&S running over the Beaver Canyon Bridge.

 Steve Welton's high horsepower units waits for a train to pass before entering the main.

The new Titanic Ice Company had a grade crossing installed over the tracks and it is so new it had not received the weathered look yet.  I'll get my best crew on it right away!

 The SP&S Alcos pass that very spot near the Ice Company as it passes our one and only farm.

Speaking of Alcos, John Smith had his SP PA's in for a spin as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Detailing the Evergreen RR

Instead of the plain Jane corner on the second section of our layout, conversations were talking about what could we do to these corners. We elevated the hillside about 2 inches with our Oatmeal scenery stuff, added ground colors and finally trees. Not bad for a bunch of kids.

Allan came up with an idea to add a touch of a road at the edge of the layout, but I was aprensive. When I finally saw how it was going to look I changed my mind. The edge of the earth implies there is more scenery beyond the layout edge.

Jim Bowden has been working on the lighting of the structures in the mill area. Just because we have lights don't mean that anyone is home!

Traffic Jam

I was minding my own business, not trespassing or anything when I noticed a few trains roaming around the west end of Yardley, Washington. My original intent was to shoot the train further away but it backed down to its current location. The yard that the train is on to the upper left was the original line the Northern Pacific used back in 1880s. The main line is now the one at the lower right where the containers are.

 With my telephoto we see the new Havana Street overpass going in. It has been almost 2 years and it is not opened yet.One of our members at Evergreen RR was told that the delay is from the bridge sinking almost 6 inches! Yikes! I wonder if it  was a shovel ready job?

Back in business!

My computer was in the shop for almost 2 weeks and I am back at the keyboard!

Allan took my camera the other day and played with the telephoto to get this long view of my little 4-4-0 Northern Pacific crossing Kyle Canyon. Roy Wyatts's son built this bridge for us and it seems right that we name it after him. I could be talked out of it!

Lloyd showed up on Thursday and ran his Union Pacific Gas Turbine pulling one of 4 coal trains he now has. Allan's work on  the ice house looks good from any angle.

We're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy ( not with those mountains )as UP power passes a Kansas City Southern caboose owned by Steve Welton.

Just to prove we are not narrow focused with just northwest railroads, Steve has 3 EMD's making the rounds. Must be the first time on the rails as there is no indication that they ever turned a wheel. Too clean!

Another view of Lloyds' UP Gas Turbine making its way up a stiff grade to get to the tunnel in the front of the layout. I have a Gas Turbine as well but mine has sound that all the members love to hear it run!

Rick keeps chipping away at the lumber mill and Allan added the signs that I made for it through my Signal Signs process.

We are now officially international now that a Canadian industry has been identified on our layout.

There's that pesky little steam engine we saw on the first e-mail and I thought this angle is a bit different than other we have used.

The smoke in Photo shopped in to give it a bit of life.

This shot was taken on Sunday when we had our visitor from England and he was a Milwaukee Road and Northern Pacific modeler! Ah, the good old days! Maybe that's why we do model railroading to keep the memories alive?

 

 

Visitor form England gets a real show!

We had a terrific turnout for our impromptu run date for our friend from England named Neil Horton. He is a veterinarian over in the mother land but loves Northwest Railroads after seeing a copy of a Trains magazine many years ago. His favorites are Northern Pacific and Milwaukee Road and we did not fail him!

I brought one of my Little Joe electrics and photographed it in the front part of the layout.

If we are going to let in England visitors we may as well let Allan run his Canadian National passenger train to run with the US stuff. Hey, we are almost neighbors!

 Jim had his brand new SD45 NP units pulling a freight and they ran beautiful.

This could be Montana as the NP & Milwaukee ran about 100 miles next to each other near Missoula, Drummond, Clinton, St Regis, Deer Lodge, and Butte.

 

Ready to get a roll on is Jim's new NP FT 4 unit set. This model was EMD's answer to end the era of the steam engine.

The new ice station make a good backdrop for a passing train.

Old and new Northern Pacific power is captured in this shot as with real life branch lines and industries got the cast offs from the parent road. I still think my little 4-4-0 steamer is cuter than Jimmy's new diesels!

Playing favorites? You bet! Little Joe gets a helping hand with a GE U-boat in transit, probably going to get fixed or scrapped. I should have put up the pantagraphs for the photos.