Cool coal trains and other hot items.

In Montana and Washington State the Milwaukee Road and the Northern Pacific ran parallel to each

other for hundreds of miles so this scene could have taken place. I know of one part in Montana where they

have tunnels next to each other. The place name escapes me for the moment.

 

 

I asked Don how many cars he has and 36 seems to have been the answer. They are all with loads and Don has 30 others without loads. Yiks!

 

John Schwarze had this BN GP50? pulling the clubs' logs bunks around the Blue main.

 

The Milwaukee Road train had 3 SD40-2 locos on the point and this is how I remember what the

main line trains looked like at the end of their existence in 1980.

 

It looks like the BN Green is still around as these 2 units worked the yard at Erie Street which is between

Yardley and Downtown Spokane. The green looks like its days are numbered after 21 years since merger.

 

Last week Spike ran his Canadian Pacific units and it gives us a little international flavor.

 

 

Everything you ever wanted to know about Spokane International cabooses

One of our members wanted to purchase some S.I. decals for the caboose today and I needed to provide additional info on the lettering scheme that

varied from one caboose to another so I am making up this e-mail for him.

The little guy comes with v stripes on the ends.

 

This eastern version came from some back end railroad and has no stripes.

 

The coupola is tall on this one and with no end stripes.

 

This long version has 4 windows and radio controlled added.  What ever the shop crew wanted to do seemed

OK to the boss.

 

Caboose C-3 has the black V stripes. The railroad is gone and so are cabooses but that should not

stop a modeler who wants to remember a simpler and happier life.

 

 

Planes, trains and sometimes cabooses!

Marvin took his airplane train out for a stroll and the lead unit is a one of a kind paint scheme with red

pin stripes of all things.  It is apparent why this paint scheme didn't make it.

 

Pulling back and showing the train in all its glory as it passes the front end of the club layout.

 

Our club's UP Challenger finds a comfortable place to pull up to is the Titanic Ice platform to pick up

a few ice reefers.

 

John Schwarze has his Western Pacific and associate Sacramento Northern subsidery trundling

past the Bakersville train station.

 

And finally the BNSF still owns cabooses but they are sealed from intrusion as they are now only pushing

platforms so a worker can ride in relative safety for short rides around industries and drop offs. This

worker was friendly to a foamer looking for a photo. This was taken on Monday from a road entrance.

The Empire Builder strikes back!

5 locomotives and 18 cars makes for a dramatic setting to do it big!  It would have to be an exceptional Builder to have 5 locos on the point but

anything goes when you are talking model railroading! Janis and Rod made it happen! After 1967 I remember most GN trains were multi-colored like this one!

Amtrak then took over in 1970 and that was the end of that!

 

Tommy Frank had his modern power running with an

Oakway lease unit on the point of his freight train.

 

What could these 3 guys be talking about? How about a merger? Who wants to include that Great Northern guy?

 

Keith got his 5 unit SP&S freight on the road but I needed to add

the headlight as it was not on when I took the photo.

 

I ran out of space on the last Morton e-mail and the shot is not in focus but I like the angle so much

that I included it on this one.

 

Finally we had a visitor on Thursday by Peter Heppler who I featured an e-mail or 2 back showing

the raw  Blue main yard in its infancy. Peter seemed impressed on what we've done since his departure!

It was terrific seeing him again at the club.

 

 

The Morton local strikes again!

Mr. Milwaukee, Don Carnegie, had his 2 Milwaukee Road U boats on the local first yesterday pulling a gaggle of Evergreen club log bunks.

 

The log bunks are flat cars with steel U shaped brackets to keep the logs on the car as they transit

back to a logging mill to turn them into beautiful things such as 2 by 4's.

 

Don has his train on the Green Branch which gives me different photo opportunities than the Red or

Blue main lines give me.

 

This first time angle looking  up at this bridge scene

gives us a unique perspective.

 

The Heimerdinger bridge on Mt. Whitney could be found in the wilds of the Cascade Range.

 

The Allan Cunningham bridge was created to make the loop at the back of the layout work nicely

especially with the steel girder in place to get around the tunnels below the bridge.

There's a new queen in the empire!

They were promised for 2 years to be delivered and they finally came! Jim Bowden was one of 12 guys that ordered the Great Northern S-2 Northern

and here it is in all its glory! I added the smoke but it did do some of that on its own. There's a saved one in Havre, Montana that I saw several times

over the years and now they are in perfect model form at our club. Models reflect history that we try to remember with models.

 

 

Jim has been collecting GN cars for a number of years to create this masterpiece.

 

Jim's other train on Tuesday was his 2 Alaska Railroad diesels.

 

I think every car was an Alaska Railroad car including this colorful caboose. Jim spent 40 years

up in the Great White North  and now lives in sunny Spokane.

 

Greg Mercier just got back from Hawaii and brought in his Maine Central  passenger train.

 

Burt test ran his 2-10-2 Canadian loco that he purchased from Allan Cunningham and soon will

turn it into a Union Pacific loco with the help of one of his friends that knows how to do that.

Another Weso production video

 

 

From: wesolowski4@comcast.net

Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 5:23 PM

To: Quinn, Jerry

Subject: another video

 

Hi Jerry,

 

I sent you this link a few days ago but don't see that you've received it or shared it yet.

 

Weso

 

 

click on this here link ----->   https://youtu.be/Rzn2eTDzXt4

Before and After... Beaver Canyon

BEFORE

79 days since we started on the layout is where we were at this moment in time. Nov 19, 2008. The red

chalk lines represent the Green branch and the Red Main yet to be built but the Blue Main is in place with its

cork roadbed and rail.  It was hard to imagine what this was going to look like in the future but we

were determined to find out. It's like making sausage....it's not pretty.

 

AFTER

This was the most difficult spot to scenic for me as the footing to the bridge were in place and I had

to figure out how the rocks would work in the canyon itself. The answer was to thin cast the rock so they

didn't have a backing or connection and added individual rocks pushed into our "Oatmeal" ground cover and then

I connected the rocks with spackle. It made Beaver Canyon our most scenic location for photos.

Clinic anyone?

Before and After... the Blue Yard, north

Peter Heppler was an early member of the Evergreen club and the date is December 2, 2008 or 3 months since we opened our doors. As you can see it is in

a primitive stage with plywood cutouts for the backdrops, the cork is down for the main tracks but no actual rail has been placed. I don't even think the crossover

switches remained after we put in the 10 track yard. We passed the hat and raised about $500.00 to get it put in. Money, effort and time, that's all you need!

 

Peter Fassler is the son of member Mike Fassler and Peter has the right stuff to run his trains on the layout as he keeps an eye on it, runs at reasonable speeds,

and never gets any of the other guys concerned with his talents. The Blue main yard is a big feature of the club's operations as everyone sets up in either

direction for their trains.  Atta boy, Peter!

All cabooses are the same....aren't they?

Looking through my collection of 587 caboose photos I realized how many varieties of cabooses there are.

Here are a few. This one comes in a 4 wheel version for the B&O. Baltimore RR Museum, Baltimore, MD.

 

A friend of mine who is on this e-mail list is Mark McNaghten and I was able to get him in action

coming back from a trip to Pasco or Wenatchee, 2 terminal points west of Spokane. They call this kind

bay window style and it is 1 of 2 that used to be Great Northern RR for taconite service.

 

My father-in-law shot this for me down in Arizona or Nevada some 40 years ago. Now it is a place

called home for somebody. The initials are for the Los Angeles & Salt Lake subsidiary the UP took over.

This one is called a no-wheel version.

 

Photo taken near Interbay near Seattle where they hung out waiting to be called into action.

The Big Sky Blue came into being in 1967. The photo was taken around 1970. The caboose was

removed from service about 1985.

 

Some cabooses come with platforms which serve the crew better in yards and industrial areas where

jumping off and on is more common. Probably a stove, a toilet and a desk inside and that's about it.

 

One of the saddest photos I ever took was near the New York state  border where this collection

of cabooses was deteriorating to the elements.  It was from a defunct railroad called the

New York, Ontario & Western. Probably around 1965.

Back east railroading

 

This tunnel still exists but the rolling stock is long gone. It is the exit from the New York Harbor area where the old Lackawanna station still serves

the region as NJTransit out of Hoboken, NJ. My nephew Kevin Quinn works the tower for this section of commuter trains that arrive

and depart by the dozens every day.We went thru that tunnel on the way to New York City last year when the Super Bowl was

about to be played there. The Seahawks won that weekend in February 2014.  Is that Kevin near the brake wheel?

 

It was credited to be on the Susquehanna somewhere in New York State. Does anyone know where? Does it still look like this?

Before and after .....north end of Blue Yard

 

 

 

BEFORE

Member Terry Frank puts on the final coat of "Oatmeal" ( our ground formula) on the hillside above the Blue Yard. Putting

it on with your hands makes for a smoother surface before the colors, bushes and trees go on.  To be a good

modeler it seems good knees are required. The date is March 6th, 2009 or 7 years ago. Anerexia is not tolerated

at the Evergreen!

 

AFTER

Today we have a forest growing up so we can justify our newest industry to cut them down for houses, pianos and

baseball bats.  What a Union Pacific Gas Turbine is doing in the wilds of the Northwest baffles me!

 

Before and After.... the front entry.

BEFORE

This is the extreme front part of the layout where some of the track is installed and the upper red chalk

lines represent where Burt indicates the upper Green Branch will be built in the future. Dateline late 2008.

This is the area we wanted to do our best work as everyone who comes in the door will see it first.

 

AFTER

The red chalk line is now the bridge where the little steamer is crossing. While we didn't rush the

scenery we sure worked on it as much as we could.  Our dearly departed friend Roy Wyatt and his

son Kyle made the bridge in three parts and what a showpiece it is!  A guy named Glen Krause did

the trees. I wonder what happened to him? Ralph and I worked the rocks. Good times we had doing it!