Competitors pass in the night.

A powerful Union Pacific gas turbine locomotive has an easy time with a short freight passing another rare loco in the form of an ex-SP&S Alco locomotive,

now a BN diesel unit waiting its time to get on the main line.

 

In the land of make believe Don Carnegie wins the prize with a modern diesel with a heritage paint

in Milwaukee Road passenger colors. The second unit is another "what if" the Rock island survived

to put this color scheme on another modern unit.

 

Steve Hart runs BNSF trains almost every day so on his day off he runs BN locos on the Evergreen.

 

Steve Weso is another Wishram baby so he models the SP&S as he remembers his dad running the

real ones back in the day.

 

That couple looks like they want to hop aboard this SP&S freight to get back to Spokane. Maybe that

will work if the engineer slows down enough to allow them to jump on.

 

Now we have a new railroad called Citirail in Spokane or is it another lease unit owned by some

small bank in New york called Citibank that realized an investment in locomotives is a good idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marvin improves the North Coast Limited.

Marvin was popping his buttons today on the improvements he's made to his model of the

Northern Pacific's premier passenger train. when there were such things to be proud of.

 

Adding the red warning lights to his observation car took him several days to figure it out and

get them working right.That should keep those drunkin freight engineers from banging into his train!

 

Tom Kirk made up a work train this afternoon with Union Pacific power .along with a newly acquired

Southern Pacific unit in trail

 

What caught my eye was the pre-built sections of ready to drop into place when they have a derailment and

need to open the track as soon as possible.  The tie down chain really sets the models off.

Not a model you see every day much less the real ones.

 

Tom was arranging my SI covered hoppers and I thought they looked neat lined up in a row.

 

Finally I got this photo from somebody that I thought it was most appropriate that someone honored

the firefighters, medical, cops and others that show up to these disasters that we seem to be having too

many lately. Norfork Southern did it back east and that is something nice to see being done. But those

cop cars should be out chasing people off the prop....oh, never mind!

Building the fleet...some real and some imaginary

I was looking over some of my latest creations and I realized how I am constantly adding to my

Spokane International fleet of rolling stock. This gon used to be a Santa Fe model until I turned it

into what could have been if they purchased any of these types of cars. I used the box car lettering.

The SI had 50 of these covered hoppers to move cement usually for a customer on the line.

These models need to be assembled and I usually find them at swap meets as kits. Modelers today

don't need to do much work for excellent models but they pay a hefty price for the detail.

Athearn 40 foot flat cars are the standard fare for my flat car fleet. Removing the brake wheel system

is required and add a brake rod on one end to make it official.

Every flat car, gon, coal car needs to have a load to make it on my railroad. This one was freelanced

with barrels, boxes, ties and a couple of workers to finish it off. Photos taken with my iphone!

Early maintenance sand and gravel car always makes me think who is going to empty this car? I hope

they have a clam bucket crane to help them do it? Again boxcar lettering makes it all possible.

Decals are still available but who knows for how long. Jerry 509-939-5845

Lets go on a train ride!

Today we are riding on the North Coast Limited  out of Spokane for the far reaches of the country!

Four units is plenty of power to move 14 cars at track speed.

 

You got to be somebody special to be riding in the tail car of Northern Pacific's premier train.

Extra fare to say the least!

 

Before modern diesels it was steam engines that did the work on the railroads. The little 2-8-0 has a local

delivery and blessed with a tiny 4 wheel bobber caboose for the crew.

 

Greg later put on additional cars to see how many cars it could handle. I think 5 cars was it.

 

Oakway Lease units were popular during the 1980's but it did not continue as BNSF could buy them

rather than lease them from EMD.

 

Greg Mercier had this Maine Central unit pulling its weight around the layout. His wife comes from

the Northeast and therefore Greg models it as well as NP & SP&S.  Smart Greg!

The Milwaukee Road makes a comeback!

At least on the Evergreen!  Engine 156 was Milwaukee's entry into the Bi-centennial paint schemes

that covered the United States railroads back in 1976. This one was one of the best.

 

So here we are in 1976 with 3 units on the point pulling a large trainload of equipment. The F45 in the

middle is another rare model the railroad had on the roster.

 

The engineer ignores the competition as both enter their own tunnels thru Mount Whitney.

 

What is really special is these Locotrol unit 2/3 of the way back in the train.

 

As Don Carnegie's train made its way around the mountain he now has done a 180 degree turn and

passes his own caboose. Ah the good old days!

Expaining the Latah Bridge in Spokane

 

 

Explanation from a railroader about the Latah Bridge

and Sunset Junction I refer to from time to time.

Carlton Evans

10:44pm Mar 11

Gerald... the tall bridge is "new"... it was built by BN to tie in the old GN, SP&S, UP, and Milwaukee onto the former NP route through Spokane.

At the wye at Latah Junction (on the bridge, itself), the right fork, going westward, heads towards Lions, which is where we get back on the GN line.

The left fork of the bridge puts us on the SP&S line after it crosses I-90. We are on the SP&S through Scribner (Marshall) and tie into the NP a couple miles west at Lakeside Jct. From here, the SP&S is abandoned to just a few miles east of Pasco and the UP gets on it's track for it's run along the Snake River and on to Walulla and Hermiston.

The NP is the short bridge that crosses I-90 to the left before the tall bridge. It goes downhill to cross the Colfax highway, through Marshall, Lakeside Jct, Cheney, Ritzville, to Pasco.

We usually run the westbounds up the "Highside" (SP&S) and eastbounds down the "Lowside" (NP) because the westbound grade is easier on the SP&S than on the NP lines.

 

 

Before time began?

BEFORE

The primitive stage of Beaver Canyon finds Burt playing the foreman's job while the worker, Tom

Frank is doing the underneath stuff. We had no idea what was going to turn out at this area except that

it was going to be special.

 

AFTER

Probably the most scenic spot on the layout where 3 railroads pass through this spot.  The passenger

trains are on what we call the Blue Main which is the major rail line. The Red main is hidden behind

the Great Northern train and is the smaller main. Then there is the Green Branch line which is reserved

for little cars and small locos because it has tighter curves. Not bad for a bunch of kids?

It was celebrate Pre-Merger Day at the Evergreen

It was unplanned to have all this stuff show up at the club today but here it is! Northern Pacific and Spokane, Portland and Seattle trains gather towards the rear of the

club layout! We could have added more but then we have enough. Mr. SP&S Keith Wiles missed it as well as his job on the railroad kept him away. Sorry Keith!

 

The new look for the SP&S shows up with one of the broad scheme GP7 trailing the original  paint

scheme. Member Greg Mercier soon to be moving from the Seattle area to North Idaho has found a

new home here at the Evergreen club. Goodbye 405!

 

Marvin found the turnaround on the Red Main to his liking as he now travels the opposite direction

with his Northern Pacific freight.

 

This odd collection of locos was run at an earlier time with SP&S #332 leading the pack.

 

I just finished a number of Up box cars with a little weathering and Scotty took them around the layout

with his 2 UP Centennials. Freight cars look so much better with a little TLC added to them! Right Ralph?

 

Finally a little suspender humor for Burt!

Does life mirror art or is it the other way around?

As a life long photographer , at least until I could afford to buy film I was always interested in photographing life including trains, planes and automobiles ( including

cop cars, fire trucks, etc. ). This time its art mirroring life as it shows "somebody" being approached by a BNSF cop while an "innocent" railfan is about to be questioned

as to what he is doing.  Duh, I'm taking a picture of some fascinating train coming down the tracks.....I have been doing so for over 50 years.  Why do you ask?

Co-conspirator Bob Gadsby ( border patrol Bob ) worked for several months finding models and decals to pull this off. I think Marvin had something to do with it as well.

 

Another potential member has been rejected by your President Quinn as

she does not conform to the limitations of our train club aisles. I guess we

need our elbow room? We have so many rules don't we?

 

Speaking of big we have the largest pair of locomotives ever built in the form of DD-40s ( I kid you not)

which were Union Pacific's Centennials built in 1969 as I saw the first one ( 6900) at Ogden station

for their 100th anniversary of the Golden Spike which united our country from sea to shining sea.

 

Scotty Smith acquired 2 of them recently where one has sound and the other does not.  These locos

were huge as they had 2 diesel engines built into the one body and each loco generated over 6000

hp to get trains over the grades in Wyoming and Utah.

 

The real 6936 visited Spokane a number of years ago and is the last operating survivor of the class

and is now in the UP Heritage collection along with a Big Boy, Challenger and a Northern steam locos.

By the way these photos were taken by my iphone as my battery gave out on my Canon. Not bad?

 

 

FreeMo comes to Spokane!

This is the best bridge I ever saw in HO scale. Allan Cunningham is the creator and what a structure it is.  Allan also did the curved bridge in the back of the

Evergreen layout with the girder built into the system. This one must have taken Allan quite a while to build and well worth the time. The people in the back

give it scale as to its massive size. Love the colorization!

 

FreeMo allows a modular system to travel distances and can connect with other modular systems.

The only stipulation is your 2 outside modules need to conform to the standards of wiring and track connections.

This circle allows everything to return back around. Hundreds of modules can be used in any design

imaginable.

 

The big boys were there as well with G scale or as some like to think of as outdoor equipment that

goes in the garden or the backyard.

 

Another private module layout had a lot of detail and interesting scenes such as this Great Northern

passenger train being pulled by an Alco FA, which was a freight unit in real life. Pretty anyway.

 

There's a lot of effort put into these modules as well as hauling all the units long distances just for

the satisfaction of showing off your work.

 

Years ago I created the artwork for the Spokane International Railroad and I have decaled many models that

followed the prototype and some to my imagination. This model was spotted by Dave H. and he sent

it to me after the show. The SI was merged into the UP so they were not able to purchase a modern

Airslide hopper such as this model shows but it does show some creativity using a boxcar decal set.