Were running trains and taking names!

Burt Whitney takes his Camas Prairie 2-8-0 over Heimerdinger Bridge on what we call the Green Branch that handles mostly mine and lumber at the Evergreen.

 

We had a guest tonight names Jack that had this strange creature pulling good old BN America

containers and trailers. This is the future of yard locos that work in high population areas as three

small diesels are the power that only work when the demand is needed. Fuel? Pollution?

 

Mike Baker brought out another unique engine in the form of an Alco RSC-4/5 with 6 axles to spread the

weight on light rails.

 

The queen of the SP&S fleet was the lone E7 passenger unit that was on the roster. You can see how much

longer it is with the F unit in trail. It had 2 diesels under the hood to make it that long. Thanks Keith.

 

These trains can be found just outside the Seattle Seahawk stadium. They are comuter trains that work

up and down the Pacific coast taking people to and from work and pleasure every day. Janis owns these.

 

Never heard of the Santiam & Western Railroad? Neither have I as this is a railroad that only runs in

the mind of new member Will Windom. It looks real to me! Look at those lights!

 

 

EVERGREEN RAILROAD MODELERS video

 

THE MIGHTY WESO STRIKES AGAIN!  JERRY

 

Hi Jerry,

 

Please share this with our friends.

 

My latest creation is 18 1/2 minutes long with 28 scenes.

 

The trains featured are from 17 members and one guest listed here:

Greg Mercier

Tom Kirk

Steve Hart

Scotty Smith

Rod Huffman

Mike Baker

Marvin Sheppard

Tom Frank

Keith Wiles

John Schwarze

John Smith

Jim Bowden

Janis Ledum

Greg Domme

Donald Carnegie

The Weso

Guest - Steve Ray

 

I have titled this Running with my Friends because I feel this group is truly that - my friends.

 

click on this here link ----->   https://youtu.be/BIJpoqmgz7s

When you need a tow truck, guess who is going to show up?

Ex-member Bob Gadsby, a US border patrol agent for 40 years, came up with this scene but the car over the edge is a new wrinkle!

 

Scotty Smith was field testing his Canadian power on Tuesday with one of the units still sporting the

Expo '86 graphics that was held in Vancouver, BC that year. The site was the old CP yard that I found

the Royal Hudson in a roundhouse back some 10 years earlier.

 

Marvin now has plenty of NP units to pick a decade by running first generation locomotives that reflect

the 1950s.  Bigger locos mean later times and bigger cars as well.

 

Ne member Will Windom seems pleased to be fixing ballast and rail

on his new found home at the Evergreen Railroad. Will was a BNSF

engineer, now a fireman over in North Idaho.

 

Tom Kirk had his two newest steamers in Rio Grande markings pulling his long passenger train.

 

Keen eyes are trying to spot an issue where something is not working properly. Scotty is on the floor,

Marvin has the red shirt and Steve Weso, yes that Steve, has the pop can, smiling as usual.

Merry Christmas from ERM

 

 

Hi Jerry,

 

Here's a little video goodie to pass along to the masses.

 

The Weso

 

click on this here link ----->    https://youtu.be/S3SAfiJ_lJg

Our annual Christmas/New Year's open house has been decided!

Hello everyone,

With Christmas landing on a Sunday this year as well as New year's

I pondered what day would be usable as a good day for our annual

open house at the Evergreen train club.

Though the wisdom of a group of members it was decided to make

our normal Thursday club gathering as open house for visitors.

So lets do it next week on Thursday, December 29th from 1 pm to 9 pm

with a dinner break from 5 to 6 pm.

Bring the kids,  bring bring the wife to show her that all that time to play

with your trains is no big deal compared to us members of the Evergreen.

Take exit 293 Barker Road on I-90 and go south to Appleway, take a right and go

3 blocks to 18213 East Appleway. We are at the east end of the green canopy.

Or call Jerry at 509-939-5845 if you get lost!

 

Fw: There's a new sheriff at the Evergreen!

 

 

From: Jerry Quinn

Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 1:14 AM

Subject: There's a new sheriff at the Evergreen!

 

There has been plenty of photos done over the years on the Northern Pacific in freight black and yellow and passenger Lowey scheme 2 tone green but rarely have we

seen the pre-Lowey green/black/yellow butter knife paint scheme. Well now we have with the intoduction by Jim Bowden to bring a new look to the Evergreen. It's well

detailed and the sound was fantastic.

 

Keith Wiles had a few SP&S locos with a freight ready to take it to the Columbia River. I learned that

the big C-636s were unreliable so the older Alco FAs were added for insurance to keep the train

moving to the next siding and out of the way of other trains

 

These two trains never met in real life as the time zone would have been some 35 years between

them operating on the NP tracks through places like Paradise, Montana.

 

Mike Baker showed up with a clean set of Burlington Route F units passing Cobbleton station.

 

Montana Rail lInk was a late upstart around 1985 when they took over the main line from Laurel

(Billings) Montana to Sandpoint, Idaho from the BN (ex-NP). It's a mistake that BN made in giving up

one of their main lines through Montana. Now the BNSF pays MRL to travel over that track.

 

Another nice shot of Jim's F units (F for fifteen hundred horsepower par engine)

The Evergreen family wishes all of you out there a Very Happy Christmas and the Joyous New Year!

 

That's me on the left, Janice in the middle and Rod on the right, he's the one with the beard! I'm taking a selfie just like you see on TV!

 

We have 3 new members in the past three weeks and here they are together. The first guy is Ernest, middle guy is Will and the big guy in Mike.

We now have in our club 1 Ernest, 1 Will and 7 Mikes! Pretty soon were are going to have nameplates for the 7 Mikes to keep them identified. Or not!

 

This is what happens when you leave your phone on the selfie stick and go to dinner without it.

I think we can eliminate Don, Tom and Janis as the guilty party?

 

Last week we had a Christmas/New year's/Birthday party for the club members and what a time it was

to have pizza and dessert available to all who showed up. Then again its always party time just showing up

and playing with trains!

Last steam train to Mount Whitney

 

 

 

Management has finally made the effort to dieselize their operations at their 2 mines on the Green Branch and general Manager Burt Burtley announced that

engine #400 was to make the final trip up the mountain to deliver some supplies to one of their valuable customers on Mount Whitney. The shop crew polished up

old #400 for the run before retirement. Maybe it will be retired to a park nearby?

 

To get to the mine old #400 has to navigate numerous tunnels and wooden bridges that are about

as old as #400 but still has a few years left as long as the gold/silver/tin/lead/money holds out.

 

New member Will Windom had this brand new Portland & Western diesel working the lumber mill

as he got familiar with the industries along the line.

 

Rod Huffman has been collecting cabooses, 76 to be exact and he set them up to have the longest

run with cabooses on the layout. The excitement was felt by all who were there that this was a

momentous occasion. The audience was looking forward to the grand event.

 

Here it comes around the layout passing upstart P&W with a log load for the mill but we are climbing

the grade to set the world record for a caboose move of this magnitude! I can still hear the crowd

cheering for the engineer to make it happen!

 

Woops! Rod had to eat a little crow as something went wrong and pulled a few cabooses off the

track. Rod finally set a record caboose hop but not for 76 of them. The final count is being kept

secret for the time being, maybe next week? Maybe during our open house next Thursday?

I wonder if therapy would help?

Better is better!

 

 

It don't get much better than this! Steve Weso's first steam engine is the top of the line SP&S Challenger recently introduced to us modelers. I tried

to add Photoshop to it but I can't get the right effect so I didn't do it.

 

Tom Kirk continues to add to his collection by buying more quality models and it shows.

 

Greg Mercier had this Maine Central E-7 running earlier this week showing our diversity in railroads

we appreciate in our hobby.

 

New member Ernest Grabbe got to run my Spokane international RS-1s around for the first time.

Ernest is figuring out which direction he wants to go in his modeling interests.

 

The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroad and the Spokane International Railroad touched each other

in one place on their systems and that was in downtown Spokane at the GN station and the Union Station

some 100 yards from each other. It happens easily at the Evergreen.

 

I was taken by Steve's little SP&S caboose that he built from a kit. The only thing it's missing is a

little weathering?

Evergreen action

New member Robert Case was inspired by what he saw on a train trip recently and acquired these 2 BN switch engines to replicate what he saw. I was impressed!

 

Greg Mercier has his Boston & Maine steamer doing the good work pulling a long freight. To get this shot

I had to trespass but it was worth it!

 

Modern stuff was not ignored by Marvin with 4 big diesels moving grain to the coast.

 

Sentimental favorite of John Schwarze is the Western Pacific with the venerable F units in charge.

 

Speaking of the devil... there's John now! I see he's acquired an additional F unit to his roster so now

he has 3 F units for his needs. But why is he putting his trailers back on the rails?

GERMAN WONDERLAND

This has been around before but it is worth seeing again.

It shows how amazing our hobby has grown over these years. Jerry

 

 GERMAN WONDERLAND
Thought you may be interested!
Remember the two brothers, in Germany, who had a
wonderful model railway that was something to see?

There have been little clips about this place for the past few years, it is still
not finished but is growing to that conclusion as they will soon run out of space.

Soon they were joined by other 'Model Railroad Clubs' and other craftsmen.
Some were electricians, model makers, Carpenters, computer programmers.
Their wives would stop by to see what they were doing and usually bring them a lunch.

One thing led to another. Three of the ladies had worked at a bakery, several visitors
would ask if they had a snack bar. The Idea was planted; some of the
carpenters came and built a nice restaurant area for the bakery and a kitchen too. If
the fresh Coffee smell didn't get you then the bakery definitely would.
This was about 5 years ago.

Their latest finished area is the airport. Planes look like they are flying and landing.

    https://www.youtube.com/embed/ACkmg3Y64_s?rel=0

 

 

Gathering of the mighty Challengers

By chance a number of members brought in their 4-6-6-4 Challenger locomotives for 4 different railroads to the club last night. One of these locos is impressive enough but

four of them was special. The top one is a 2 tome grey Union Pacific loco in passenger colors. Coming out of the tunnel is a NP loco,  Rio Grande and SP&S going the other way.

 

Steve Weso got 50 cars behind his SP&S Challenger and it climbed at least 2 percent grade with it.

 

Marvin's Challenger had a NP freight with F units in competition from Greg Mercier. I don't remember who won.

 

The club's UP Challenger had a mix of UP and Evergreen passenger cars in tow loaded with

railfans that are welcomed on their railroad.

 

Keith decided to test run his group of new boxcars so he acquired this beautiful SP&S C-636 Alco

loco from.........me!

 

43 years of locomotive improvements

Member Greg Mercier showed up today at the club with his new Northern Pacific Challenger Z-8 as well as his #29 2-8-0 and I was impressed with the difference in size that

the little turn of the century was the mainstay of freight operations for the NP in that time period. In 1943 the first 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangements started showing up and were

not only bigger but more powerful to meet the needs of fighting wars on 2 continents. I think they called it World War 2?

 

In trail of that big engine were a fleet of 40 foot ice reefers to keep meats, fruits and veggies chilled

for the journey to the rest of the nation. New York City did not grow much of this stuff.

 

Marvin had his BN SD40-2s running with a fuel tender to get them through Montana without stopping

to fuel up. They don't use them any more with the Hauser Fuel Depot doing the honors today.

Tom Kirk has a Union Pacific wide nose EMD unit leading a group of Rio Grande locos.

 

Another cute NP caboose showed up on Greg's train today and is it a cutie as caboose go.

 

Keith Wiles had this SP&S caboose hop running the mains. That spot of red really stands out in the photo.