Evergreen Railroad Club

Planning to visit sunny Wellington this year?

2012-02-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

No, I don't mean the Wellington in New Zealand, but the one in Washington State. 102 years ago on the crest of the Cascade Mountains the most terrible railroad disaster occurred in the United States. For days in February 1910 we had a cold front come in from Canada and a wet front "El Nino" came in from the south over California. The 2 fronts stalled over the Cascades and dumped dozens of feet of wet snow capturing several passenger trains and many pieces of Great Northern railroad equipment and crews in a town called Wellington.

A crew shows how deep it got where the tops of the rotary plows were below the top of the snow. Then the snow slides started and washed all buildings and rail equipment into the ravine.

But before the snow rotaries could be brought in from other regions it was all done by hand as the rotaries that were
here were now at the bottom of the canyon. That structure behind the men is the top of the snow shed where the trains would go through if they could.

Up the hillside somewhere is the main line of the Great Northern. it will be weeks before this electric locomotive will
be moved back to the rails. Over 100 people were killed in this tragedy and it caused Jim Hill to start to build the current 8 mile Cascade Tunnel to avoid this location. Some 19 years later the tunnel was finished and so was Tye, Washington. They changed the name of the town from Wellington because of this terrible event. I found these photos at an auction in Spokane and I knew they were valuable enough to save them for history. I hope you agree.

Open House February 18th with Thomas the Tank Engine!

2012-02-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

OPEN HOUSE

SATURDAY,FEBRUARY 18th from 5pm to 9 pm

Evergreen Railroad Modelers, 18213 East Appleway, Spokane Valley

A sure croud pleaser is the world famous TV and movie star "Thomas" will be running this weekend.

The members of our club are inviting visitors and especially children to see our impressive HO layout we have built in a 25 foot by 60 foot storefront at the Greenacres Shopping Center.

We have 18 bridges, a dozen tunnels, large city, seaport, large rail yard, 3 different main lines, mountains, small town, many industries, and with a computer system that allows the operator to run trains with realistic sounds for steam and diesels in real life situations.

MEDIA DAY IS SCHEDULED FOR

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16th

Call Jerry at 509-939-5845 for more information for video production,

interviews and photos for advance scheduling.

Leftovers from Thursday night‏

2012-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

Jim Bowden brought new his new Northern Pacific FT units to the club and are they beauties! The Fts were the first of the

cowled F units that dominated railroading for over 20 years. When I saw F units running around Spokane back in the day,

I don't remember them being this clean?

I took this photo of the Cunningham bridge at a high angle to give it a different look as the two 4-4-0s made their way around the Green Branch. The Whitney mine has been closed down by the government because they would not put doors on their buildings!

Tommy was sure proud on having his UP passenger train almost finished and running around the layout. Tommy is marking the cars to be sure they line up the same way and will mark them somehow on the underframe.

Tommy's train passes underneath the Thomas train that we will feature Saturday night on the 18th of the month. Jim Bowden

changed the whistle to be more "foreign" sounding.

Young Steve Welton ran his new trainset up the hill in front of the club layout. Say that's mighty fine rock work son!

The Teakettles rise again!‏

2012-02-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought it was safe to bring out your diesels the little Giants make a return in force in a doubleheader on the Green Branch. These engines will be featured in our Saturday February 18th open house from 5 to 9 pm at the club. By then I should have the lettering on the second loco in NP.

The little 4-4-0s make there way across Heimerdinger bridge on the north end of Green branch.

The real star at the Saturday Open House is the world famous Thomas The tank Engine! Jim Bowden acquired this beauty and installed a sound chip that makes it a real attention getter. This open house is geared for the kids but age is not a factor in enjoying steam trains running thru the mountains. That's Saturday Feb.18th from 5 pm to 9 pm. at 18213 East Appleway in the Spokane Valley. Take exit 293 at Barker Road and go south. Take a right on Appleway and go 3 blocks to the Greenacres Shopping Center.

Cobbleton keeps getting better and better as Rick martin adds tress and scenery to the east end of the city. I'm working on the trolleys so soon we will have a real live city to show off.

One of those newfangled diesel sets show up at Union Station at Cobbleton that is owned by Tommy Frank. Jerry repainted the units from ex- Milwaukee Road units and matched the yellow to the AHM colors on the passenger cars. Tom is looking for a tail car to go with the other 13 cars he now has.

New member Steve Welton watches his brand new high tech diesels make its way around the layout on the Blue Main. The lead unit is one of those heritage UP units painted in the Western Pacific colors in honor of one of the many railroads merged into the mighty Union Pacific.

Strange beast passes thru Spokane‏

2012-02-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

There I was minding my own business when i saw this SD70 ACe in trail heading west. The morning light darkened the trucks but the colors are there. When we were looking for a home for Evergreen RR Modelers the pink building to the left was considered for our layout. We got a better location with windows.

This is what Spokane should look like in orange, yellow and black. This set was eastbound with a string of 100 empty container cars going somewhere in a hurry. N ope, did not trespass for the shot, sorry Dave!

I came across this photo of Mt. Whitney taken almost 1 year ago and my how it has changed!

This will cheer up young Mike Applegate lost somewhere on the trundra of North Dakota as these are Mike's F units!

Another oldie is Keith's SP&S passenger train passing the ice house before the siding was installed. I would guess the piece of track and the loco was the eye candy to "Get Er Done".

Evergreen goes Canadian!

2012-01-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

3 members showed up yesterday at the club running Canadian railroad equipment. The boder is located 100 plus miles north of here but last night it seemed we were in downtown Calgary. I wonder what the currency exchange is now, Eh?

One of our Canadian wannabes was our new member Steve Welton who was another of the ex-River City members that joined our club. Steve is horsing around so I could shoot this picture of him!

Alberta Al worked up the tunnel portals and track to allow Burt to give the castings a primer and include the famous "oatmeal" to seal the ground cover to make ready for the finsh coat. By the way we will be selling prepared oatmeal at the February Train Show here in Spokane (February 19th, 2012 Spokane Community College, Lair Building, 930am - 330pm).

The next photo should be a finished entrance so you modelers can use this example to do this kind of thing yourself.

Tunneling a mountain

2012-01-24T09:41:00.000-08:00

Allan did more tunneling today and he has the wing supports in place ready for coloring and then the famous oatmeal treatment for the hillside. Hey, that's my job!

Every railroad tunnel should have an exit as well and this is the north end of the Bakersville Mountain. Allan ran an engine part way to prove out clearances and tracking, Nice job Allan!

As a fan of the SI I do some freelanceing as well and this is one of them. It is one of 10,000

Santa Fe gons that Athearn made in the day.

I got in some airbrush work on 6 cars I had in kits so it was time to build them and do my weathering trick on them.

There's Don still reading the Evergreen Photo Book. This version was made for Brock with his locos on the cover. The sign to the right will go into the White Elephant with some flyers for our club. I alreadhy dropped off a bigger one for Sunset Junction Hobbty Shop. We will have an open house on Saturday February 18th, the night before the Spokane Train Show. Remember we have a table for Evergreen on the 19th at the show and members are welcome to use some of the 8 foot space. Jim Bowden has one and I will have 3 for Signal Signs.

The Dark Side of Modelling

2012-01-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

The rail yard got better since it got dirtier. Mike Baker is responsible! He is a good boy!

Wait a minute! Who cleaned up the turntable bowl? This will certainly ruin my reputation if this gets out!

Perhaps we need an emergency meeting to resolve this indignation!

The yard looks pretty though. The engines look nice. I'm confused!

Rise of the Diesels! The teakettles must be vanquished!

2012-01-13T18:14:00.000-08:00

This model used to be a Milwaukee Road E7, now under the ownership of Union Pacific pulling a string of AHM passenger cars. The B unit was a shell that got the colors to match the passenger cars for Tommy Frank. Jerry painted them and gave them a touch of realism in the form of weathering.

Guess what our new member Steve Weldon likes? High tech would be my guess and its another foreign railroad! Just look it the clean equipment! Someone needs to bring him up on Clean charges! They did run well and look terrific but I can fix that!

Now were talking railroading in the good old days! SP&S with a smoky Alco diesel run by Burt with Jerry's equipment. Nothing shiny on these units.

Just like the good old days!

The Rise of the Teakettles!

2012-01-12T18:11:00.000-08:00

The President of the Tea Kettle Commission has bribed the photographer to feature his prize in this e-mail to the folks who care about such things.

Sure its just a Tea Kettle but its a model of one of our steamers making its way around the layout on Tuesday. Say is that fake smoke?

This is not a Tea Kettle and to call it one might cause an international cross border clash with a large person. It is a beautiful 4-8-4 Northern of Canadian Pacific heritage pulling a equally beautiful passenger train. Say is that smoke fake?

The mighty Mon-Road Railroad‏

2012-01-10T18:25:00.000-08:00

The subject of this locomotive came up last week when Jim Bowden mentioned this engine has gone back to its original owner, the Alaska Railroad. It was in Moses lake, Washington for almost 50 years. I took this photo of this GI 2-8-0 back in 1971 when everything was new to a recent arrival from New Jersey. It was built for the Army during World War 2, remember the one we won? We didn't have Jane Fonda back then.

Last April of 2011 I went back there with the Great Heimerdinger to visit a home layout. We searched for this engine and found it hiding

behind a chain link fence. Monty Holmes,a junk dealer who owned it has passed away and that is where the name came from.

He did not have a railroad but a collection including a retired SP&S observation that he called Ruth, which I assume it was his wife's name.

Some of us collect models others collect models in full size.

On the rails in Spokane Valley.‏

2012-01-06T18:29:00.000-08:00

Herzog track maintenance train was seen on the secondary main heading east earlier this week. It had 5 gondola cars and a crane in the rear.

Note the tracks and wheels under the crane to allow it to travel the length of the train set to pick up or deliver materials to track side. This is the ex-NP main that is now the BNSF main coming into Spokane from the east. I may have stepped on the BNSF property but I'm not sure to take this photo for you. What...me worry? If you don't get caught there is no foul!

Another day on the Evergreen Railroad‏

2012-01-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

Looking for the locos to run this passenger train? They are in the works for Tom Frank and the cars are almost done as well.

Another long train was run by Jim on Wednesday morning when I showed up and this is the same train as the engineer says hello to his conductor in the caboose as it enters the tunnel going around Mount Whitney and the City of Cobbleton.

The same train passes the Blue main yard. Looks like the ballast crew is still on vacation.

The Odd Couple! Brock's track maintance vehicle has a hefty load to pull by being the one to pull our club track cleaning car around the layout.

The era of the teakettles.‏

2012-01-06T03:30:00.000-08:00

The the winner for the next photo album cover is......

John Smith's new toy is this highly detailed 3 truck Shay crossing Kyle Canyon. Say,.... that engine must be brand new, no rust?

Another favorite was this little Climax loco by Don Brereton pulling a steam powered crane and 3 log cars on the Green Branch. 2 jewels in one session!

Pete Heppler brought in a dozen fantastic cookies from the Rocket Bakery and his reward by me was the ageing of 2 auto racks for his layout.

Not to be outdone Jim Bowden brought out his 2 SD70s in Alaska RR colors and reportedly pulled 50 cars!

4 brains are better than one so Don, Jim,Al and Burt gathered to fix an issue with an errant switch that was giving us problems. Note the light behind showing that the layout power is on!

The subject is the S&IE map of railroad

2012-01-05T18:44:00.000-08:00

A visitor stopped by the club today and wanted to have a copy of this map we had on the wall. Some of you might like to know where this early electric railroad ran back in the day when it was the way to travel in the Northwest. This line ran near by son-in-law's home on the back side of the South Hill here in Spokane. We visited the Sharon electric substation last year.

Old rail facility restored

Pizza Party Overdose

2011-12-24T19:47:00.000-08:00

On Thursday evening we had a Pizza Party with club members. I ordered 8 large pizzas from Rocky Rococo - Ralph and Jerry's favorite pizza joint this side of the Mississippi River. It cost $200.00 and most members contributed to the purchase. I thought I ordered too much as there were 3 pies (36 pieces) left over but not to worry. We had dozens of visitors showing up at 6 pm where pizza was available to them as well. It was the best event we ever put on. Other than one ill tempered comment to one of the members it was a terrific evening.

CLUB PHOTO BOOK

I put together a photo book for the club from the 100's of photos I took over the 3 1/2 years of the club and the members. I brought in to the club Thursday and a number of you wanted one for yourself. Other than Lloyd I can't remember who told me you wanted one. I can add additional photos of a member for their version of the photo book so let me know if you want one.

The book has a hard cover, excellent quality photos, 30 pages long and a would guess 180 photos in my version shown here.

The cost is $35.00 plus tax. Email me at jerry "at" signalsigns "dot" com.

Fw: What are you doing the Eve of the Eve of Christmas Eve?

2011-12-18T20:58:00.001-08:00

That's Thursday before the big night. This would be a great surprise to share with our kids,

or your parents or your friends or even your enemies. After all it's the Christmas season!

CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE AT THE EVERGREEN

Join us on Thursday 12/ 22 from 6 to 9 pm

18213 East Appleway in the Spokane Valley... Exit 293 Barker Road.

Just one of the fabulous scenes we have created to share with everyone!

Sorry no smoking except the locomotives!

Towards the rear of the layout is this wonderful mountain we call Mt Whitney!

Look there's even snow for the season!

Cold night in Spokane -Part 2‏

2011-12-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

A real triple header! One of our best non-members chastised me for calling two engines on the front with one pushing a triple-header but I guess they all need to be in the front. Oh well, he is out of the will!

We had an 8 year old show up tonight with his mom and he brought in this 44 ton GE engine so I got him to pull a few SI ore cars around the layout.

All workers at the engine house know to keep the Alco's outside the building if at all possible. Alco's were notorious as smokers and qualified as steam engines for their pollution.

Steam engines waiting for the torch are next to the engine house where the victors reside for a time. in 20 years the Fs will be replaced by newer engines and in turn they will be replaced. The industry continues to evolve as I remember what Spokane looked like when I got here in 1967 and what remains today.

And finally Burt took some cars up the Green branch after loading up on clean fresh water from a water tank. Soon this engine will have a name, a number, and some road grime!

Cold night in Spokane - Part 1 - Burt's new toy

2011-12-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is what the railroaders called a Climax locomotive because that is who made them. They were built for low speed but plenty of lugging power.

The engine makes its way across the newly built bridge for the Green branch on its maiden run. Are those union guys ever going to get the job finished?

They are working late tonight at the engine shops with a Great Northern F unit on the Transfer Table. The dirt crew has not been by this place as the transfer floor is spotless. What are they thinking this is Lionel or something?

My favorite candidate for Vice president in 18 years is the fellow below who I was able to talk into running my Big Boy and blowing the horn around the layout. This guy has more enthusiasm for trains that most of us have! Mom looks like she is having a good time as well.

Who knew they had one?‏

2011-12-06T08:16:00.000-08:00

This one is for you train nuts. This photo is a post card I purchased 20 years ago and just found it in my collection.

Before the Spokane Union Station was built in 1914, the Spokane International and the OWR&N (UP) had passenger trains in and out of Spokane. So they needed something.

The post card has a date on it of August 2, 1911 and the station was located near the Inn at the Park on the parking lot across the road and to the west of Washington Street.

In those days if you didn't travel by train then you traveled by horse and wagon. Good luck with that!

How to make paint templates‏

2011-12-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

I was asked to make a special car for a customer from a O gauge Lionel car into an HO car of similiar model. The above print is a copy from my scanner of the Lionel car. I took it into the office and had a 66 percent color copy make and saw how it fit on the HO car.

I took the color copy and taped it to a piece of thin cardboard that will be my template for the silver airbrush pattern. The other colors will be decals but the pattern for the silver needed a cardboard template.

Here is the HO car with some of the decals applied. I little touch up is in order but that will be taken care of in the final work.

The finished template is now cut out through the paper copy in the upper right with the debris of the cut out part and cardboard panel are on the original scan of the Lionel car. Tomorrow I will spray silver with this template and we shall see how it turns out.

There will be a test on this tomorrow so bring your pencils ( or crayons) to the club.

The Good Old Days in the Cascades

2011-12-05T08:16:00.000-08:00

The Great Northern Railway is long gone, the electric locomotives retired, the depot is gone but the highway bridge remains. It is BNSF main line over Steven's Pass.

If you've ever traveled over US #2 from Seattle to Wenatchee you would have gone over this bridge. 2 miles away is a ski resort and to the top left of the photo is a small railroad town called Wellington/Tye.

In 1910 it snowed for 3 days at 1 foot of snow per hour that stopped all train travel in the mountains. 2 passenger trains were trapped across this valley where you see the cut in the mountain that the road currently goes.

The snow slides were coming and eventually one snow slide hit the passenger trains, steam engines, steam rotary plows and everything went into the canyon 100 people died that February in 1910 and to this day the worst railroad disaster in US history.

The site is now an historical place with appropiate markers. Jim Hill was so embarrased that it happened on his railroad that he started building a new route with an 8 mile tunnel to bypass the site where snow slides bring down rocks and trees on to the tracks and blocked in the trains.

The train in the photo just came out of the tunnel.

Kind of like the Titanic but on a smaller scale.

Thinking of traveling to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho?‏

2011-12-04T08:13:00.000-08:00

Especially if you are a bag of potatoes or something back at' the turn of the century...the last century! We see a crew moving bags of produce off or on the Lake steamer that ran from Couer d'Alene to Harrison, Idaho. Perhaps further up the Couer d'Alene River to Cataldo Mission, near Wallace, Idaho. This site is now a luxury hotel in downtown CDA.

Oh, the Good Old days!

Why didn't they take I-90?

New kid on the block‏

2011-11-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

We had a visitor stop by this afternoon named Bob who used to own North End Trains in the Seattle area and he brought in his pride and joy Milwaukee Road Westinghouse Quill electric. Bob ran it around a while and I was able to photograph it on our layout.

Here Bob's engine passes a set of Great Northern F units waiting assignment.

Tommy was also running his matched set of BNSF baby GEs passing the Vinegar plant at Bakersville donated to the club by Jim Trunzo.

The big reason Bob stopped by was to give us a few presents to the club including this detailed Intermountain grain car that needed a little repair and got a little weathering on top of it. The club now owns it including a 2-10-2 steam engine, a Milwuakee E-8 with sound and a box of goodies we might be able to use somewhere on the layout. More on this when i get photos taken of the equipment.

New and Improved.‏

2011-11-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

New member John Smith had a set of A & B units in Union Pacific colors and wanted them in Southern Pacific colors like he saw them in sunny California when he was just a mere child. His wishes were heard by the good fairy that makes things better at the Evergreen and we now have them almost finsihed to run on the layout. What is missing is smoke from an Alco, we can fix that!

That's better! That's what Alco products did when starting up and most of the time running. Though the magic of Photoshop we have reality!

Tommy had his BNSF units on the tracks and he did something he has not done before and that is have an engine at the rear of the train pushing just like

the real guys.

Imagine 100 cars behind with this guy pushing the final 30 cars up a grade and without a mishap!

And finally, Big Mikes' beautiful brass loco with paint! The decals are going on now that I am happy with the smoke-box and other stuff. Chuck H. gave me some pointers on where rust be - or would not be - located on a steamer. I thought it was everywhere? This is a Northern Pacific A4 passenger loco that was the Queen of the fleet before the diesels arrived.

The effort to save the Union Station in Spokane.‏

2011-11-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

If an atomic bomb blew up over Spokane the last standing building would be the Union Station on Trent Avenue.

That comment was to show how strong this building was. It was intergrated into the girder system that elevated the

tracks to the second story of this structure. When the vote failed to pass to save the stations Expo 74 was given

the green light to start destruction. When the contractors started ripping into it they realized that it was not

coming down easy.

Looking east we see the massive girder system that made up the approaches to the station. Division Street is in the

background, the GN station was to the left of this photo.

The waiting room was a pretty good size an it served the people of Spokane from 1914 to 1971. The railroads that used

it were the Union Pacific, Milwaukee Road and the Spokane International. Perhaps others but I'm not sure. Before the

vote was taken to save it or not something funny happened, There was a pile of trash put up against a wood door and

a fire was started....in a locked building! I wonder how that happened? The firemen arrived to a locked building!

So down she comes....ever so slowly. They changed the name of Trent Avenue to Spokane Falls Blvd to make it more

acceptable in a name. Someone explain that to me. The red wagon now sits on this location. How many uses could this

building have in Spokane's future? I can count a dozen off the top of my head.

Along with losing 2 railroad stations for Expo 74 we also lost a mile long High Bridge just west on downtown Spokane.

The current Centennial Trail bridge now sits on the abutments from this bridge. By the way, I served on the Expo committee

to make this event possible but I think the current Riverfront Park would be a better year round park than the 8 month

useage we have today as there are no buildings to have events happen. When the snow flies hardly anyone uses the park.

What do I know, I'm just a guy from New Jersey. These photos are available on CDs. That's my point of view. Jerry Quinn

Was the Great Northern Station in Spokane worth fighting over?‏

2011-11-13T08:02:00.000-08:00

The countdown begins for Expo 74, the World's Fair in 1974 in Spokane, Washington.

This building and the Union Station were part of the Riverfront Park when they put it up

to a levy vote in 1971. It got 56 percent yes but it needed 60 percent to pass. Then Expo 74

plan shows up with the stations removed from the plan. What happened?

Being in advertising and a railfan nut I got involved with saving these structures. I got the Spokane Ad Club involved

as you can see on the poster. We had about 35 of these posters made for the effort to save them as the theme for

Expo 74 was "Recycling" and reuseing buildings seemed to fit that theory so off I went to"fight city hall".

We lost the vote by a 43 to 57 so down they came. The city did not play fair but what is new about that? They tore up

the marble floors and photgraphed the dirt lines in the concrete using the picture in a newspaper ad saying "Do you

really want to save this old thing?" Here a carne is tearing out the boiler from the building to the east of the station.

Down she comes. Santa Clause came to the Ad Club Christmas party that year and had a gift for me.

It was a brick from the Great Northern station and didn't everyone have a big laugh when

he gave it to me. I paused for a moment and said to the crowd " I wasn't so much concerned

with the bricks ....but how they were arranged!" I can still get angry over this destruction. Jerry Quinn

Burlington Northern's Steam Engines

2011-11-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

Did the Bn ever have steam engines on their roster? Yes they did in the form of these 2 pressure cookers working

the tie yard at Sommers, Montana, about 25 miles south of Kalispell. No sparks were allowed so they pumped these

guys up to 600 psi and they ran around the property until 1975 or so.

The Good Old days!‏

2011-11-09T08:28:00.000-08:00

I was looking at my slides of the Bn a few nights ago and I thiough for the first time how I miss the Burlington Northern

now that the BNSF is in full flower and how boring it has gotten. Here we have 2 of the 3 Bicentennial units together

for the 1976 event. I nice break from BN Green.

Who knew? And if you did how does this unit look to you today? LNG fuel was being considered by the BN and this was

the mother ship to the plan. It normally has a large white fuel tender behind to supply it with fuel but I guess it did not

work out well.

In the magazine about 15 years ago some writer wondered if the BN ever used their Executive F units in freight service.

Well here is proof that they did as they pass under the wood trestle just west of Parkwater yard in Spokane, WA.

Modern BN inherited these old snow plows to get the snow off the tracks by pushing them as fast as they safely could

down the tracks. It worked most of the time.

One way to get old paint off a old locomotive was to use acid to strip the paint off for the new stuff. Soon 828 will work

around Spokane for another 10 years before it too is worn out for further use. My guess was that it was an NP unit.

Should I do more? We still have Baldwins, fuel tenders, Alcos. I miss the BN Green after all.

Cabless power units were popular for a time with the BN. We have 2 EMD rebuilds going east with 2 GE cabless

built new as B units heading west near Barker Road in the Spokane Valley. This was shot about 20 years ago.

I don't think BNSF has cabless units on the roster anymore. As least I don't see them coming thru town.

All of these models are now gone from the roster. NP SD45's had crankshaft problems and were failing often. The

4075 was an SP&S Alco unit ( I got one of the numberboards!) that just got old and worn out. The 5739 in a GE U33

and have been replaced by thousands of GE Dash 9s by the BNSF.

Evergreen Railroad goes high tech!‏

2011-11-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

If we had to pay this guy we would need Federal funding but we don't so Al keeps doing great stuff to the layout. Al is our

brains in the outfit when it comes to electrical stuff. He is installing a system that will detect a train approaching the switches on the

Green branch that will allow us to run manually or continually on our dogbone track design. It became apparent when we had our

open house that when we were running a train up on the Green that we could not get to throw the switch because of the crowd.

That's my Big Boy passing above by the way.

Bill Jibby has been installing additional plug in panels for our controllers in easier access

locations so we are always in control of our train.

This plug in is at the front of old city where you can see the breakwater implying it is a seaport.

Our other electrical brain is Jim Bowden ( anybody that can figure out electrical for

more than 2 wires is a genius to me! ) Jim is adding a bunch more electrical contacts

to the main bus for more consistent power to the rails. Atta boy, Jim.

Aged to perfection! Jim allowed me to weather his pride and joy 4-8-4 Santa Fe Northern. I was told to make it only 10 years

old and not hammered so it didn't look like it was on its last legs. How did I do? It used to be black.

Club News March 2011

2011-04-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

THE SPRAY BOOTH IS OPEN! THE SPRAY BOOTH IS OPEN!
After months since its completion, Jerry has finally painted a club model which was the grain tower that will be going
into the harbor area. I said I would not start it when all my attention was needed on the mountain. Well..........................

Terry Frank was up on the layout to install the first piece of the new bridge! Chuck H brought in the bents and the top section
for fitting and size down to the club tonight so it won't be long now.

The Blue Crew included Don and Allan who worked on the turntable alignments now that we have the infra-red sensors working.
Rick was giving them encouragement or flak, I'm not sure.

Just to show our train club is international in nature, here is the proof. Allan lined up his Canadian Pacific, Canadian National and Canmore Mines locos for a group shot in the Blue main yard. Allan didn't own an HO model some 3 months ago but he now has a pretty good start. He has a fantastic N scale layout at home but now he has an HO scale home at our club.

Bigger the Better

2011-04-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ralph's and Jerry's Big Boys pass each other over Goose Creek Canyon.

Big Mike Watches His NP F-Units back in 2009

2011-04-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

An older photo of Big Mike and his pride and joy:

Bakersville

2009-01-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

Bakersville takes on new industries that serve the produce industry in the area.

Big Rock Mountain

2009-01-17T17:41:00.000-08:00

Walking into the door shows a dramatic Basalt mountain that has all three rail lines having to get through it. Real Basalt rock was used to match the color and debris from it was used for talus.
More trees and brush will fill mountaintop.

New HO model railroad club

2009-01-17T13:22:00.000-08:00

The green awning will work well when we add our club name. We are in the process of remodeling
the front of our club location.