Planning to visit sunny Wellington this year?

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!

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

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!‏

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

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!

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