Remember this train photo?

While we were visiting the Fife Museum we heard a train horn and went over to the tracks to, find Union Pacific #4714 leading the pack. Not thinking much about the lead loco ...until Thurday!

 

Steve W. showed up at the club with 3 UP locos with the $4714 leading the pack with the second unit having the flag graphic just like the photo shot. I thought it was kind of neat to get so close to the real thing. But what is that red thing sticking out of the ground?

Plastic is your friend!

We got a mini clinic from Scotty on Thursday when he brought in his new toy called a 3D printer. Here he is showing us the details of the printer as I could not envision a 3D printer before yesterday.

 

Here it is doing its thing by oozing out a tiny line of melted plastic with a heated cup with a sensor telling it what to do. Scotty is making a panel that will hold a DCC chip and the associated wires that go into a locomotive. Quite amazing!

 

Another rare sight was Marvin running his passenger train with NP U33 locomotives. He is waiting for delivery of accurate NP passenger F units ....but until then.

 

New member Bob Gadsby has the colors right but they are also in a time warp. The BNSF orange was in the heritage of the GN so there is that. Still looks good!

 

Canadian Pacific also showed up with a grain train run by Spike Gorley. Love those Province cars.

 

Burt started his log reload project on the other side of the short wall by putting in the bigger trees and the reload platform. Stay tuned.

Moving freight along the Evergreen Right of Way!

We had an open house on Saturday - the night before the train show here in Spokane-  and as usual I sent out the e-mail notice to the media and as usual they ignored it! Flyers at the hobby shop and my e-mails got us about 40 people to show up for our event. No crowds but friendly people none the less.

 

Burt's Shay ( above ) was a a pleasant change from the regular stuff and this Canadian National FM unit is another rare model on our railroad.

Terry Frank usually spends his time in North Dakota running a front end loader moving gravel but when the ground is frozen Terry spends his time with jobs closer to home. Here we have him doing his own video or picture taking of his BN train.

 

Terry also brought in his roughed up SD7s running out their final years on the UP. They are in sharp contrast with the clean helicopter on the flat car.

One recent addition to the lumber mill was this chip loader by Marv Sheppard.

 

My little 4-4-0 passes another iron brother on the Green Branch. The Green line handles all the older and smaller stuff as the radius is not much more than 24 inches and bigger equipment works better on the other bigger railroad lines.

Heading west to Monroe, Washington

Last Friday I got in my car, all by myself, and headed for a train show on the west side of Washington State. Being I took the northerly way through Wenatchee towards Stevens Pass I was able to get in one action shot under cloudy skies. This empty coal train was heading east and passing the Rock Island dam it has some of the most dramatic Basalt outcroppings near a road so it makes for a dramatic backdrop.

This close up reveals that someone is planning a do some plastering to improve the look of this mountain. Or maybe it is to keep rocks from chipping off and landing on someone's car?

 

On the top of Steven's Pass it was noted that there is no snow to speak of as it should be about 10 feet deep along the road but not this year! I guess Boston got our share and they are not giving it back! That's a ski resort in the background and they had barely enough to keep the place open.

 

Two miles further down U.S. #2  I took this photo of the old GN snowsheds where 100 people died about 105 years ago just to the right of this photo at a place called Wellington where snowslides came down the hillsides and wiped 2 passenger trains and lots of equipment into the canyon. The greatest rail disaster in American history. Trains bypass this area now with the 8 mile Cascade Tunnel a few miles away.

 

Getting ready for the customers is the caption for this shot as I am whittling down my HO collection of models. I did pretty good at this show.

 

I also had my photo CDs from my 50 year collection plus a few railroad heralds that I make through

Signal Signs. The Monroe show is about as big as the Spokane shows.

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!