Catching up on Evergreen Model Railroad Club action!

The Fassler brothers, Mike and Peter have a neat looking Canadian Pacific passenger train coming together and they look live they are right at home in the Selkirks

 

Mr. SP&S Keith Wiles is putting together a early 50s freight train but these coal cars need loads!

 

Phil of Pesek peak fame, got a new toy in the name of a Kansas City Southern big steam engine. I love how he highlighted the wires between the engine and tender to make it look more prototypical!

 

Keith switched power to 4 of his 13 FAs he has in his inventory for the SP&S. The coal cars still don't have loads!

 

Tommy Frank is proud of his BNSF set with one of those famous B units in the middle of the power.

 

Spike Gorley has 2 CP trains running and when I saw them coming together I got him to stop and pose for this shot. Marvin's LMX train was iceing on the cake! If I don't get them to stop the train will be a bit blurry.

Installing a top to a mountain.

Recall that this mountain top was built 'off site' to make it easier to build, you will notice from the photos below that where it will be placed is a bit of a challenge to get to easily!.

When we first installed the top we found that we added too much edging and it was wider than the mountain allowed so I cut some off the right edge so it would align with the bottom rocks.

 

I then added some foam spacers to the base to allow the corner to align better with the walls but

than meant making more of the front part to have larger rocks than I was planning.

 

As I added the rock ( plaster castings ) to the edge I was not sure this was going to work but the space and the steep angles make me wonder what could I do different than what I was doing.

 

Working up there and bending over got me worn out after 20 minutes. I called on Burt to bail me out

as he heard me talk on scenery many times. Burt did most of the spackle work between the rocks

to join the rock collection into one piece.

 

I then encouraged Burt to add some of the "oatmeal" ( a more technical version of paper mache ) to the left slope and cover some of the rock that I installed along the edge of the addition.  Burt also sprinkled some color on the oatmeal to give it some color. Next week I will colorize the rock to look like the grey already there.  The trees will also be cut down as they were too big.

Variety is the spice of life!

Thursday was variety day as these pictures show!  We first start with Don Carnegie and his traveling orange and black show. This time its 4 big units from EMD and GE.

Keith Wiles showed up with new power for his SP&S passenger train in the form of 2 F units in the original paint scheme.

 

New member John Schwarze turns out to be a big Western Pacific modeler and he had 2 U-boats as part of his power set.

 

Another new toy that Keith brought with him was a custom painted C-415 which the SP&S had 3 new units at one time. These were used as switchers on the railroad. We are going to fix those numberboards!

 

Spike Gorley is all Canadian and his trains prove it as they pass Don's Milwaukee Road set.

 

The top of the mountain got some attention last night as I colorized the rock and gave the ground some cover. The rock debris looks dark but I hope it lightens up when it dries. If not primer grey will be used. Trees to follow.

OATMEAL... the breakfast of good looking scenery!

I call it Oatmeal because it looks like it. Don't eat it as my lawyer tells me to say it so I don't get sued. 

The vertical rocks are made of plaster but the green stuff on the tops of the mountains that I colored is oatmeal. The advantage is that is goes on easy, about 1/2 inch thick, smoothed out and ready for coloration with Woodland Scenics . The easy part is that you can poke trees into it without the need for drilling as you would have to do if it were plaster and that would leave a white powder residue. Yikes! The prior e-mail showed how to use it as well as using it as a base for the "dry wall mud"! That's the name!

 

 

"OATMEAL' IS YOUR FRIEND!

 

 BEST PLAN IS TO USE A 5 GAL. CONTAINER FOR MIXING

• ½ SMALL VERMICULITE – COMES IN LARGE BAG (CENEX STORES)
• ½ FIBER BLO-IN INSULATION – 3-4 CU/FT BALES (HOME DEPOT)
• MIX DRY TO ¾ CONTAINER WHEN WATER IS ADDED AND ADD EQUAL
•                    PARTS OF DRY MIX UNTIL ¾ FULL.
• ADD WATER TO MAKE A THICK OATMEAL CONSISTENCY
• ADD 1 GAL. OF JOINT COMPOUND
• ADD POWDERED OR PRE-MIX PAINT TO COLOR THE MIX ( greys, tans, light colors)
• ADD ½ TEASPOON LIQUID SOAP DETERGENT
• MIX THOROUGHLY.  WILL KEEP 3-6 MONTHS IF KEPT COVERED AND STORED IN A COOL PLACE.
• BEFORE USING ADD ONE QUART OF WHITE ELMERS GLUE, AND MIX THOROUGHLY. USE WITHIN TWO MONTHS. 
• TAKES SEVERAL DAYS TO DRY TO PLANT TREES IN, BUT STAYS SOFT FOREVER.

The Burma Road has been eliminated by the Bowden brothers!

10:00 AM FRIDAY JANUARY 9TH 

I showed up at the club this morning and Marvin and Jim were hard at work removing a section of track that was called the Burma Road by some. (It's a WW2 thing if you don't understand.) It had a low spot in it and was the topic of concern.  Jim holds his hand underneath to find out what was wrong.

5 PM FRIDAY JANUARY 9TH

They were still at it when I came back to the club 7 hours later and most of it was completed including a new crossover so operations can have the inside track now serve the lumber mill.

Thursday January 15th at 6:15 pm

The magic of making molehills into mountains will be revealed so just about anyone who wants to build mountains can learn how to do it from Jerry Quinn. Please, no

questions on electrical or plumbing problems.

Using Photoshop this is what it will turn into. I will show how to build the basics, arrange the rock castings, connect them all and add "Oatmeal" to make ground cover for trees and bushes and grass. No reservations and please keep down the applause! Questions? 

Disaster on the Evergreen Railroad!

A sun kink in a welded rail is suspected in the derailment of a westbound Boeing train that was heading for Everett, Washington. No one was hurt but the aircraft bodies are a total loss!

 

Don't believe everything you read, especially when Jerry Quinn is putting out a model railroad e-mail with Marvin Sheppard in cahoots with Jerry. We are just reminding you folks that this very thing happened on the Montana Rail Link this past summer. Six plane bodies hit the hillside and river. Yikes!

Another wreck occurred on the front part of the layout but this time it wasn't staged! Brock Nelson had his 3 giant UP SD90s pulling a very long train and put lightweight containers up front. When Brock started his train up the grade the light cars decided to pull in a straight line with all those cars in the background acting as an anchor.

There's the rest of the train so let that be a lesson for all you wanna be engineers!

 

Finally Brock got everything pulling in an orderly fashion and didn't have another problem!

 

One of our number asked about Santa Fe and do I have any to show? Yes, but just a few. Almost makes you want to visit southern California back in the 50s?

My top 6 photos of the Evergreen Club in 2014

John and his son look intently at their SP train near the back of the layout.

 

 

Keith learns the tricks to weathering his models under the wary eye of Jerry.

Burt puts on a show making trees for the club.

 

Eight members went on a railfan trip to Marshall Canyon this past summer that overlooks the ex-SP&S,

NP and UP/Milwaukee Road trackage back in the day. Now dominated by BNSF to exit west of Spokane.

Another big improvement to the layout was in installation of green skirting by John and his wife.

Phil makes a video on his new Kansas City Southern F units. I hope he put in the film in his phone

to make it happen! Which one would you vote as the best photo? You can't vote for yourself!

New Evergreen Video!

The Evergreen Railroad discovers Alaska!

Evergreen member Jim had his Alaska Railroad in attendance this afternoon at the unusual Saturday gathering  because Thursday was tied up in some calendar event called New Years.  Jim spent 40 years in Anchorage before moving to Spokane and saw the Alaska run just about every day.

One of Jim's trains was this 1999 version of Alaska passenger train you might see on TV called......wait for it.......Alaska Railroad!

Another top story at the club today was the unvailing of Marvin's  aircraft bodies train loads that pass through Spokane on a regular basis on its way to Everett, Washington to complete them into airplanes.

Besides the 2 aircraft bodies Marvin made the parts cars that accompany them in plain brown boxes so vandals don't put little round holes in the cars when they had the big Boeing logos on yellow cars.

Jim's Alaska freight train had numerous flat car loads of heavy equipment that is hauled on the real Alaska Railroad. Great job on them, Jim!

If Evergreen RR Modelers had a junior member other than Chuck it would be Peter who runs his trains for his dad as well as any member of the club. Atta boy, Peter!

Disease found at the Evergreen train club!

Recently posted on our refrigerator door by Marvin is this age old problem that I know I have suffered from over the past 50 years.  After achieving a level of acquision of 600 HO locomotives and 3000 cars I have been officially designated a carrier of such a problem. I have sold off about 50 percent of this collection but I can say I still have more than most. Just saying!

Here is a close up of the problem....other than the "Lies to everyone" comment I confess to the rest. Club President to 2 train clubs, trying to save train stations from

destruction, putting on conventions, organizing tours of home train layouts, picnics, clinics of weathering and scenery....yes, I am guilty of being a pusher in the hobby.

Just don't tell the wife!

 

Back to yesterday at the club Jim had the Santa Fe steam engine pulling a freight train and this model was putting out real smoke! Trust me on this and I didn't need to add Photoshop smoke either.

My Great Northern F units took a breather and got some mechanical attention from the shop crew.

I took my SP&S Alcos out for a spin and they did not perform very well as one of the units kept loosing its memory and was pulled along with the others. Oh well, they are Alcos!

Here's a close up to one of Jim's flatcar loads and I was impressed with the securing of the barrels with the wood brackets and the wire banding around them.

 

Upon shutting down the lights at the club last night I realized that some of our efforts go unnoticed and that is the lighting we put into our buildings and streets. Just about every building has lighting and it adds a lot to the scenery.

 

 

Saturday event goes smoothly!

With the Christmas holiday landing on our usual Thursday club session we had a Saturday open house to make up for it. So about 40 guests showed up to see what we've done and ran trains for them.

 

One of our guests was the president of the River City club in town and Mike T seems to be enjoying himself while he checked out with the other club has been up to. Mike is a very nice man and we talked about the different club's activities and shared the same ideals for the hobby. Thanks, Mike!

The star of the show had to be Mike B's pristine Great Northern Empire Builder.

Spike G ran his grain train with the big red Canadian Pacific units that frequent through Spokane on the real Union Pacific connection to Canada.

Milwaukee Road has been gone for 34 years but Don C remembers them with his fine collection of the railroad models.

Terry F showed up at the club after a long absence to run his BNSF train with help from his grandson.  Sharing the railroad experience is to be admired.