It was Canadian night at the Evergreen Railroad!

 

 

It just turned out that way that 3 members showed up with Canadian models to run on the layout tonight. Spike ( Mike) Gorley had his 2 big units working in

elephant fashion while new member Greg Domme got his new CP Rail diesel running just ahead of Spike.

 

Upon departure from the club Greg asked if I could weather his new unit for him. I think I have a new

best friend?

 

One of Spike's cars was this Saskatchewan grain car and I would vote for this paint scheme the best

paint design of modern freight cars. Its dramatic, colorful and easy to read from a mile away!

 

Adding to Greg's train was this Union Pacific diesel that I weathered last week and now leads the

Canadian loco which happens in Spokane frequently as they share motive power through the Northwest.

 

Not to be left out was Steve Weso's Maersk loco along with a Santa Fe unit just like they did when there

was a railroad called the Santa Fe. It was painted like this for a TV commercial as Maersk is a shipping

company and might be remembered in the movie...Mr. Phillips. We won that battle as I recall.

 

John Schwarze adds his train to the collection as they have their trains passing each other going their

separate ways.  The 2 UP units are factory paint colors, the dirty vents on the middle train are by Jerry the Q,

Evergreen Railroad Modelers go on tour!

Having four real railroaders on the membership roster pays dividends at times for our model railroad

club as Keith Wiles invited the Greeners to a Family Day Open House at the Fuel facility at Hauser, Idaho.

 

Not only did they have events, prizes and lunch for us they included a tour of a BNSF Dash 9 4400

horsepower locomotive. Wearing earplugs was a requirement for us.

 

Marvin gets the catbird seat so he gets in the cab photo. It's a heck of a lot better than the old systems

and now the crew is in air conditional comfort and a lot less noise than steam and early diesels.

 

Steve Welton points out something to his wife as they closed down Track 1 for the event. The locos

on Track 2 are being fueled for their trip to Seattle and will get another fill up when they return east.

Keith Wiles, John Smith, Mike Gorley and Marvin Sheppard talk it up as other folks tour the engine.

 

While we were there on Saturday 3 trains were in and out of the facility including this stack train with a CSX borrowed power stopped by for a fill up. One thing they didn't count on when they

built the facility was most trains have pushers at the rear of trains today so most have to stop twice at the pumps to take care of the trailing units.  Slows things down.

More photos from the fuel depot on Saturday.

 

 

 

Keith goes through a little briefing before the tour with Marvin, Steve Welton and Mike Conners

paying close attention.

 

Other members watch the monitor in the Train Masters office where you can see all the rail traffic in the

general area around Spokane.

 

Steve's wife gets a shot of Steve getting ready to enter the cab of one

of the locomotives on display.  Some guys take their wifes' to Hawaii,

Steve takes his wife to a fuel depot! She still enjoyed it!

 

They keep track of how many units they serve each day and how many gallons as well.

 

BNSF had a cop unit with a K-9 on display. We later found out the name of the dog......QUINN!!!!

 

Finally Keith Wiles had the last laugh and brought his own set of hand cuffs for Evergreen's

wayward President Jerry. But Saturday was a free day so they were not needed.

We can relive the sixties all we want!

 

 

 

It turned out to be a flashback in time today at the Evergreen club. Marvin, Greg Mercier and Mike Conners stopped their trains for this timeless

scene many of us remember if you are older then we care to admit.

 

The original FT diesel locomotives that banished steam engine across the county back in the 1940s

still run on the Evergreen route. It was designed with the 4 portholes to make it unique.

 

Southern Pacific got into the act with a medium sized steam engine doing the duties but will someone

tell Don to do something about those wires under the cab? Maybe that's a SP feature that they painted

their hoses that way back in the day?  I'll ask Heimerdinger?

 

This was a commercial job I did for a guy down in South Idaho who wanted a model of an HH660

diesel in Washington, Idaho & Montana colors just like the SI had with the red and yellow stripes.

What in the world is Steve Welton looking at?

 

 

 

I think there is a favorite new baby in the family!

 

After a 2 year wait his 2-10-4 Texas & Pacific steam engine finally showed up at the train store here in Spokane. Steve was checking out the whistle sounds and other things on the

programing track at the club when I saw this beauty!  I've painted a few steam engines in my day but this one would sure be a challenge!

 

These 3 NP Geeps brought me back to reality as there seems to be a drag race between the locos and

the Cosco truck. Since the truck is a static model my money is on the train!

 

I walked over to the Blue main yard and it was filled with dozens of coal cars from 2 different eras.

 

Don Carnegie's Milwaukee Road train had 64 coal cars and Steve Weso;s MRL train had 52.

Both trains were mighty impressive.

 

Not to leave Union Pacific out of the conversation Tom Kirk had 4 big ones pulling a mixed freight

as well.

Playing on the railroad.

A little known fact is that the Milwaukee Road sold one of their 4-8-4s to the Rio Grande back in the 1940s to see how it could deal with the grades

in the Rocky Mountains. It least it happened on Janis Ledum's HO scale Rio Grande. The sounds were terrific as it pulled a passenger train around.

Tommy Frank's auto rack train wakes up the slumbering cattle waiting for their chance to visit a McDonald's

location near you.

Rod picked up this operating maintenance vehicle and I stuck one of my SI flat cars for the picture.

Rod has plans for this critter so still in tune.

2 Union Pacific GP9s hustle a local freight into the tunnel system on the Blue main.

Steve Weso had this SP&S FA2 set in the original paint scheme pulling a decent mixed freight.

Everything is right with the world!

Woops! Something did go wrong and lots of cars went flying on the Red main. Steve shows his frustration

to the camera as a NP freight pulls up behind. It's the same look for Steve if Hillary gets elected!

Jimmy Bowden gets all steamed up!

When Jim Bowden joined the Evergreen club some 7 years ago he was a Lionel guy with a storage room with lots of good looking O scale stuff.  Now everything Jim does is first class including

today's running session with 2 magnificent HO scale steam engines, both with sound!

 

His Northern Pacific steam engine is a good looking copy of their passenger power that pulled the

North Coast Limited or the Mainstreeter in the 1940s and 50s. Today is is practicing with freight cars.

 

The other engine is a jewel of a model in HO scale of a Great Northern 4-8-4 steam engine that

pulled the Empire Builder or the Western Star from St. Paul to Seattle with a stop here in little old Spokane.

 

There was more action on the club layout with opposing sets of Spokane, Portland & Seattle freight

engines passing each other from time to time as I looked to see where they would meet.

 

As I was setting up for another shot of the 2 sets of SP&S power this Great Northern freight past by. The era

was still valid so no harm, no foul, besides it gave me something to say!

 

Both SP&S freights had cabooses but they are not prototype as you expert rivet counters are going to spot

that the SP&S did not have steel bay window cabooses and the other caboose did not have the right sheathing.

After all it's not like I called them B-26s or something evil.

Steve Weso record shattered by upstart Jim Bowden!

The world record for train length at the Evergreen club was shattered Thursday my Jim Bowden with

his 7 Northern Pacific locos. Jim started out with a 75 car train set to prove the engines could handle it

and continued to add cars.

The long train was impressive enough but it soon was going to get better.

Jim kept adding as the power was sufficient to keep pulling the longer and longer train..

And here it is folks....126 cars including a caboose! You can see the caboose going the other way just above the silver car on the front of the train. It loops

around the entire Mt. Whitney mountain, port district, Old Town and past Blue Main yard. And it stayed on the rails!

Marvin had 3 of his modern power pulling a freight train but not as long as Jim's.

Burt had his only "modern" locomotives running the main as Burt prefers the 1930 era with little steam engines.

Looking for love in all the right places.

 

.

 

I'm always looking for a new angle when I get my hands on my Canon camera to shoot the Evergreen layout so my viewers don't get bored with the same old thing.

On Tuesday I had Marvin running his NP freight with 4 first generation diesels that I remember the real thing so well when I moved to the Northwest.

 

So I asked Marvin to stop his train at various spots so I can get the train without any motion to ruin the shot.

This one is at the middle of the layout and I don't usually crawl under the layout to get to this spot.

 

The Titanic ice plant is usually shot from the other side so this gives me a new look for this area.

Ice reefers were so important to the railroads to keep produce fresh for the long journey back east.

 

The Evergreen layout is rich with tunnels and bridges that it even amazes me after 7 plus years at

this location to have so many photo opportunities for taking these pictures for you.

 

They named a building after me and it is the red one on the left of the train. I missed out on the GN tower

so this one will have to do.

 

On Monday I visited the Greenwood Cemetery with the wife to visit her dad's gravesite and as we

were leaving I saw this sign and I thought how appropriate for them to have a special place for

model railroaders to be interned together so they can discuss the advantages of different scales.

What's a Rebekah?