Remember this train photo?

While we were visiting the Fife Museum we heard a train horn and went over to the tracks to, find Union Pacific #4714 leading the pack. Not thinking much about the lead loco ...until Thurday!

 

Steve W. showed up at the club with 3 UP locos with the $4714 leading the pack with the second unit having the flag graphic just like the photo shot. I thought it was kind of neat to get so close to the real thing. But what is that red thing sticking out of the ground?

Plastic is your friend!

We got a mini clinic from Scotty on Thursday when he brought in his new toy called a 3D printer. Here he is showing us the details of the printer as I could not envision a 3D printer before yesterday.

 

Here it is doing its thing by oozing out a tiny line of melted plastic with a heated cup with a sensor telling it what to do. Scotty is making a panel that will hold a DCC chip and the associated wires that go into a locomotive. Quite amazing!

 

Another rare sight was Marvin running his passenger train with NP U33 locomotives. He is waiting for delivery of accurate NP passenger F units ....but until then.

 

New member Bob Gadsby has the colors right but they are also in a time warp. The BNSF orange was in the heritage of the GN so there is that. Still looks good!

 

Canadian Pacific also showed up with a grain train run by Spike Gorley. Love those Province cars.

 

Burt started his log reload project on the other side of the short wall by putting in the bigger trees and the reload platform. Stay tuned.

Moving freight along the Evergreen Right of Way!

We had an open house on Saturday - the night before the train show here in Spokane-  and as usual I sent out the e-mail notice to the media and as usual they ignored it! Flyers at the hobby shop and my e-mails got us about 40 people to show up for our event. No crowds but friendly people none the less.

 

Burt's Shay ( above ) was a a pleasant change from the regular stuff and this Canadian National FM unit is another rare model on our railroad.

Terry Frank usually spends his time in North Dakota running a front end loader moving gravel but when the ground is frozen Terry spends his time with jobs closer to home. Here we have him doing his own video or picture taking of his BN train.

 

Terry also brought in his roughed up SD7s running out their final years on the UP. They are in sharp contrast with the clean helicopter on the flat car.

One recent addition to the lumber mill was this chip loader by Marv Sheppard.

 

My little 4-4-0 passes another iron brother on the Green Branch. The Green line handles all the older and smaller stuff as the radius is not much more than 24 inches and bigger equipment works better on the other bigger railroad lines.

Heading west to Monroe, Washington

Last Friday I got in my car, all by myself, and headed for a train show on the west side of Washington State. Being I took the northerly way through Wenatchee towards Stevens Pass I was able to get in one action shot under cloudy skies. This empty coal train was heading east and passing the Rock Island dam it has some of the most dramatic Basalt outcroppings near a road so it makes for a dramatic backdrop.

This close up reveals that someone is planning a do some plastering to improve the look of this mountain. Or maybe it is to keep rocks from chipping off and landing on someone's car?

 

On the top of Steven's Pass it was noted that there is no snow to speak of as it should be about 10 feet deep along the road but not this year! I guess Boston got our share and they are not giving it back! That's a ski resort in the background and they had barely enough to keep the place open.

 

Two miles further down U.S. #2  I took this photo of the old GN snowsheds where 100 people died about 105 years ago just to the right of this photo at a place called Wellington where snowslides came down the hillsides and wiped 2 passenger trains and lots of equipment into the canyon. The greatest rail disaster in American history. Trains bypass this area now with the 8 mile Cascade Tunnel a few miles away.

 

Getting ready for the customers is the caption for this shot as I am whittling down my HO collection of models. I did pretty good at this show.

 

I also had my photo CDs from my 50 year collection plus a few railroad heralds that I make through

Signal Signs. The Monroe show is about as big as the Spokane shows.