Friday Afternoon crew was working on the Railroad!

 

While Jim Bowden was working on the new paper mill site at the back of the layout, young Jack Pappas

was preping Mt. Whitney for the site of our newest model of a ranger station Jack put together.

The wood chip rotary is now installed in the green building and additional switches and track has been

installed today by Jim. We are waiting on switches to arrive from China or someplace. The tan building

is the main building in this paper complex.

 

The was a brass kit the Jack found and put together with

solder and care as it was very detailed. Jack did a terrific job on it.

He painted it too!  Don gave it to the club, thanks Don!

 

Willl Windom was showing off is Santiam and Western fire car this week and I was very impressed as well.

 

This is our newest member at the club but no stranger to me. His name is Chris MacKay and I knew

Chris some 10 years ago at a different train club. He was 13 years old then and loves modeling and ranching

so he is a welcomed addition to our other 40 members. Brings our average club member age down a few years

as well.

Remember the Baldwins?

No I don't refer to those mediocre actors that you see on TV from time to time but the steam engine

builder that could not continue their success in the diesel market. Baldwin Locomotive Co. had a number

of switchers here in Spokane when I arrived here in 1967. 

 

I never could get the model designations of the Baldwin locos down so we just say it's a switch

engine moving a few loads from one yard to another. Our new friend and member Doug Neighswonger

is the owner of this model. The flatcar is my creation.

 

Here she pulls into the Blue Main yard with its catch and out of the way of the mainline freights.

 

NP #415 passes through the Port District on its way to delivery point.

 

Two competitors race for the finish line before they both disappear from the railroad scene, the

SP&S in merger as a BN unit in 1970 and the Milwaukee Road in a sad end in 1980 as a bankrupt railroad.

 

Another fallen flag was the New York Central in a disaster move as a merger partner with the Pennsy.

Somebody should have gone to jail on that one.  Doug Neighswonger owns these beauties.

 

 

 

 

Keeping it out West........well almost!

 

Greg Mercier brought in this fantastic model of a Titchy small crane and what a terrific job he did.

With his blessings I gave it a little weathering for an in-service look.

 

Colin Fitzgerald now has this 3 unit FA set for SP&S followed by a 5 car NP passenger train.

 

The famous NP Mainstreeter was also present on Thursday as Marvin matched the real one with the

right cars in his lineup.

 

Greg also had an NP freight train riding the rial for several hours without a hitch. If we were

giving out trophies, Greg would have most of them.

 

Just to be fair, I included a Eastern railroad called the New York Central with the appropriate back east

rolling stock following along. New member Doug Neighswonger, ex Milw and BN employee, is at fault.

 

Back to Gods country is another Doug model of a Great Northern switcher doing God's work by

delivering box cars to on line customers.

At the train Show... Modeling German railway guns

 

Most of us follow military history, navel battles, tanks and stuff but not so much for artillery. At Sunday's

Train Show this fella shows up with a railway gun that was considered heavy like this gun in

desert colors.

 

Next to it was a model of the 4th largest moveable item ever built. This monster had a 33 inch diameter barrel

which is twice as big as anything we had on our battleships of World War Two. The Germans used it up

in Russia at Savastapool (sp) and took a 1000 man unit to operate and move it. The shells would have

been a job moving them alone much less building a double track to move and align to gun.

 

Here's a close up of the detail and the guy did a fabulous job in the building and painting of it.

 

Keith acquired 2 more SP&S RS units to his fleet and the semaphores would make it right at home.

 

Donald's 2 Milwaukee Road switch engines get main line service getting a bunch of coal cars to small

towns running out of coal for their homes to heat.

 

On a positive note many new members found that our workbench in the back of the club layout has

a grey Formica top that we haven't seen since it was installed years ago. I assume a party will be held to

celebrate this occasion?