Calvin returns to the Evergreen!

Snowbird Calvin spent the winter in Arizona and returned to the club this Thursday. Marvin explains what we've done recently to Cal as Marv's Boeing train passes by.

 

New member Steve Wesolowski showed up with more prize winning models with this beauty of an SP&S FA with all the goodies on it. All that's missing is the weathering!

 

My Big Boy was taken out for a spin as Don's Milwaukee Road steam train makes its way over a bridge on the Green branch.

 

Marvin waits for the arrival of his 3 Northern Pacific passenger locos so in the mean time he was

using my freight units to get it over the line.

New member Richard Mewes passes the stock yard recently installed with his UP SD45

John Schwarze entered the action with his Western Pacific set of GEs and EMD power as it cruises

past the port district.

The Milwaukee Road F45s catch up with Steve's SP&S freight. It shows the seperation between the 2 major rail lines we have on the Evergreen. We call it the Blue main in front and the Red main further away. Got any name suggestions for the lines?  The Green branch goes over the top of the Red main.

The Amazing Wesolowski

The Evergreen club had a special visitor this afternoon and Steve brought in some of his prize models to show us what he has been doing. His first offering to show off was this Montana rail Link SD40-2 model in HO.

 

These units get into Spokane from time to time and Steve has the details on his models almost as good as the real ones.

Working headlights, working blinker, extra real chain on the railings, hoses everywhere, lift handles coupler chain, grabs, etc. Nice work!

His next item was this lumber car showing off the tie down cables just like the real ones.

Must have just come form the factory?

Another was this SP&S wood car for wood chips including some that dropped into the girders!

A few MRL empties done very well. Steve should be an inspiration to all of us modelers to reach up to the next level of modeling our favorite railroad items.

I've been working on the railroad!

My latest 3 projects for some of my customers are as follows. I turned this Southern Pacific wide vision caboose into a pretty SP&S model. It's an O scale model and I was able to weather the trucks but that's it!

 

The next project was to make the B unit to look like the factory painted A unit and I think I nailed it. HO model. No weathering as there was another A unit that went with this set and I didn't want them to look out of place.

 

Probably the toughest paint job I ever did was doing this Great Northern 4-8-2 in the Glacier Green paint scheme for passenger service. The white wall tires were a bear to do. I little grey dusting on the drivers and a dull coat after the photo was taken. Next is an NP SD45 remake of the cab.

 

 

Thursday night action...so we must be in Spokane!

Our newest edition to Evergreen is the cattle pens and we are now filling up the place with real cattle! Well almost real. The driveway is nearly complete along with the rail crossing to get into here.

Scotty showed up with an impressive collection of CP locomotives and lots of Canadian grain cars.

 

Keith had a set of SP&S and BN locos on his train including this #2085 that he actually ran the real one on the BNSF.

 

Keith also had his favorite F units pulling a SP&S passenger train through it spaces.

Burt keeps adding more trees to the new forest we are creating towards to back of the layout. here will be a log reloader up there on the flat to get the logs on the trains for the mill.

 

Chuck showed up this evening and ran his Southern Pacific 4-8-2 around with a terrific sound system. Once you go sound you'll never go back to quiet!

 

 

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.