Evergreen invaded by the Maine Central Railroad!

In a grand conspiracy with Greg Mercier and myself we planned to have an eastern USA appearance of railroads that we love from the East Coast. I forgot to bring my Susquehanna Railroad stuff so that left Greg to do his part in showing off his Maine Central trains on Thursday.

 

Will Greg ever trust me again? Wait till next week! His connection with the Maine Central has something to do with family stuff.  The Geep above handles the freight and the E7 below handles a mixed freight on the Blue Main. Thanks Greg.

 

Thankfully other members showed up with our western heritage in the form of SP&S FAs roaming

the line with Steve Wesolowski  running this long train.

 

There's the lead unit passing its own caboose so prove how long it was. I think it was 904 cars but I could be wrong?

 

Janis showed up after dinner with a pair of Great Northern U boats. I good example could be made to have the trucks weathered to show detail as the clean black plaster does not show detail in a photo. That might be a hard sell as I don't know how Janis feels about such things?

 

Another prize in Janis's train collection is this 3 truck Shay direct form the factory and ready to move logs and ore cars on the Green branch.

North to Alaska via Evergreen Route

Sometimes I spend a little bit more time on a photo when it is special like this Alaskan beauty of a passenger train that Jim Bowden was running on a Wednesday night that I was there to shoot.

 

Next a coal train shows up with 4 units and 31 coal cars which is the mainstay in income for the Alaska RR.

 

Tuning up ready to depart the Blue yard is Marvin's beautiful Northern Pacific North Coast Limited which I was fortunate to ride the real one  three times before Amtrak took over. Riding the dome cars was the height of luxury to see America.

Greg Mercier had his second favorite railroad running on Thursday in the form of NP F units.

 

Big time Spike Gorley goes modern with 3 BNSF paint schemes on his freight.

 

Marvin's freight on Thursday had the 2 big SD70s in the middle of his consist just like the real ones coming out of Helena. Montana.

Thursday night turns out to be a good steam night!

We start out showing off Jim Bowden's new Canadian National 4-6-2 Pacific running the red line past the Titanic Ice plant. Must be right out of the factory?

 

Making its debut last night was Marvin's miniature version of the MRL executive passenger train that visited Spokane 2 months ago. I painted the blue stripes for him and they await the decals plus a observation car yet to be completed.

 

The power is a brand new SD70 right out of the wash rack to pull the president of the line around his empire in Montana.

 

New member Janis showed up with an eastern railroad model in the form of a Norfolk and Western 4-8-4 pulling a passenger car fleet.

 

Steve Wessolowski had another special train on the rails as this one is a BN big shot train surveying

the property to see what they can remove from the tax rolls. A big building in Fort Worth is where I would start.

 

Jimmy Bowden likes Santa Fe as well as Alaska RR and these yellow F units were in vogue for a time on the railroad. You never know what is going to show up on any given night! Does anyone know why they used yellow when they had a winner with red?

 

 

Remember 3206?

This is a rare photo of the 3206 under steam that one of the NRHS members decided to test it out. The historical society in Spokane moved it to the Spokane Fairgrounds around 1979 so I would guess this is 1982. I will eventually letter the engine to its proper number and details.

 

Well here's my memory of it as my life was intertwined with this engine for many years when I was with the NRHS in Spokane. I helped raise the money to move it from High Bridge park where vandals were taking a toll on it. Got it located in the Fairgrounds for protection and many other things. Woops, there's the edge of the earth!

 

The tender is not right as it was an oil burner, not coal.

 

The 4 passenger cars I got in New Jersey 2 months ago and now represent the type of cars the 3206 would

have pulled from Spokane to Wallace, Idaho and other places back in the day.  The engine came from

the Calvin Tucker estate sale. Smoke would be nice?

 

Marvin's 4 car North Coast Limited crosses Beaver Canyon in the front part of the layout.

 

Greg's 5 unit freight set is making time and money for the man as it traverses the middle section of the layout. The cattle business is still going strong on the railroad.