Running wild on the Evergreen railroad - PART 2

This was a photo op that the guys wanted me to shoot so there are 3 of the runners together. What's that giant eraser doing in the photo? Heads will roll!

Another favorite railroad of mine is the Spokane, Portland & Seattle sitting here on a siding waiting for orders...or waiting for a pizza delivery from Bakersville Pizza. Looks like an upstart business has moved into town like Kelly Tires. It probably won't make it past summer. Where are those ballast crews? Probably having pizza as well.

Union Pacific hauled a lot of passengers and ice reefers back in the day. The apples needed a lot less attention than did the people.

Mike Baker brings back some fond memories when he runs this set of GN GE locos. The only thing missing is the smoke that these units had as their trademarks.

Speaking of  B units I finally caught one of them doing some switching on the east end of Yardley, Washington. Some months ago I was wondering what happened to all the cabless units the BN and BNSF were running a few years back. Now it turns out that we have 6 or more cabless models running their final years on locals such as the Colville run. Keith Weiles, member and BNSF engineer says they run sometimes as A-B-B-B-A  lashups just like the good old days with F units. It's a GP50 if I remember right, Santa Fe is the original owner.

Running wild on the Evergreen RR PART 1

Tommy Frank's UP passenger train passes a Mike Baker GN freight near Blue main yard. It looks like the ballast crew is still on vacation.

Steve Welton's fabulous UP Heritage units pull an intermodal up the grade over Beaver Canyon.  Modern stuff looks in place just as the older stuff does over the wood trestles in the background.

Rick Martin was working over this area all day with some help from Al Cunningham. They installed a new control system for the trolley line and working to get that back in operation. That little yellow/ blue diesel is Pete Heppler's pride and joy! Mine is the Susy Q RS-1. Nice coupler Pete!

 

Some members gather just to chew the fat as other guys run their trains on our layout. Hey, it's 6 o'clock and there is still light outside! And no snow!

Before I knew much about prototype railroads I did a number of freelanced models in the name of Timberline & Western Railroad. This brass caboose is a remnant of that vast empire that has seen better days now that I know something about the real railroads.

 

 

The Derailment Mystery Exposed

I saw these 3 guys working over by Bakersville and as I approached them I overheard what was the big joke about!  It was me! Dave Anderson will sure be glad to get this message now that the reason for all my derailments has been discovered!  I need Ralph to find out if they start their own car in the morning!

Allan did not spend all his time on solder spots today as he installed this extended height trestle to accommodate the double stacks the guys want to run on the Red line.  Those guys are still painting that bridge in the background, it must be a union job!

Look at these 2 guys doing God's work, putting in ballast to make my trains look and run better.

Allan got 7 of my Milwaukee Road units on the track by assigning DCC numbers in them and we test ran them later that day.

Don's pride and joy grand daughter stopped by with her grandmother and boy did they hit it off.

I am getting caught up on some GP7s I sold to Brock a ways back and I promised to paint them in Great Northern colors. I did 2 in the simple scheme and 1 in the more complicated scheme. You can see my technical way that I float the decals off the paper to apply them to the model. Soon they will be putting on miles and the layout.

The Evergreen Club Video!

Club night...steam engines, first generation Alco's and big time diesels.

Brock ran the wheels off his newly acquired GN steamer as it made its way around the Red main.

 

Jerry's 2 Alco RS-1s wait for its next assignment at Blue Main yard. The Alco's were making more smoke than the Big Boy in the background.

 

New member Steve Welton brought in his new Sd70s in the Union Pacific colors and a foreigner named Kansas City Southern, a long way from home where ever that is.

 

Rick had a surprise for the club tonight by scratch building a gazebo for the park up in Cobbleton, next to the trolley line. Time to get those rails rusty!

Open House Success at the Evergreen Club!

The look on the kids faces says it all!  Allan's CP steam train with 18 coal cars on the Green line was just a thrill to see run!

We did not get TV or newspaper coverage this time but a few radio stations carried the open house event on air. I guess we had 120 people but 30 some of that number were kids 6 or younger to see Thomas the Train running around the layout.

The double-headed steam power crosses Heimerdinger bridge on the back side of the layout. So where's the smoke?

Rick's Southern Pacific Alco powered train passes the CP train on the Green branch.

I think this guy is a new member....no wait that's an old member but we don't see him much with his work load being what it is. Both Terry Frank and his wife Candice were at the open house and she gave out cookies and train stickers to the kids when they came into the clubhouse.

Just in time for the open house!

Rick and Jim have been working on the trolley line and have installed street lights for Cobbleton. Rick did the install and Jim wired them up.

We now don't have to be afraid of the dark!

I brought in my SP&S 700 for a test run but it does not like the switches and would stall out. Therefore it does not make the grade for running Saturday night.

Mike Walcker was in town Thursday so we put him to work adding the apple trees to the hillside above Bakersville.

Burt was busy making up a few batches of Oatmeal scenery mix or what we now call Mountain Magic that we will be selling

at the train show. That's John in the background helping out.

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.