Evergreen goes Canadian!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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.‏

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

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.‏

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

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

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?

 

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

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

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?‏

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

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

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?‏

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?