Party time at the Evergreen!

The month of May had 3 members and a wife of one honored with a birthday cake and pie at the club tonight.

Jim Bowden, Russ McPherson, and Rod Huffman (absent) plus Keith Wiles wife Wanda were recognized

for their membership in the club . Marvin is excellent in the production of the pastries and is the benefactor

and we need to thank him as well.

 

On top of the party was a visit by a local Kiwanis Club of some 20 members that got to see the club in

action with 5 or 6 trains making the rounds.

 

Here's a wide shot of 2 BN train sets passing each other in the race to get somewhere before the day is done.

 

Earlier in the day Mike Conners had his 2 Great Northern RS2s. They trundle on looking for a wash rack!

 

I put a Spokane International train together with 3 RS1s . The SI lasted until 1959 when the Union Pacific

took them over and got a connection with the Canadian Pacific at the border. They are my sentimental

favorite railroad.

 

New member Russ McPherson got 3 of his BNSF Dash 9s dialed up in the DCC system and pulled a

test train of coal cars to see how they performed. At one time I had 9 of them. One RS1 was sent to Switzerland!

 

The Western Pacific was well represented by John Schwarze with his RDC ( Rail Diesel car) pulling into

Bakerville station to pick up customers along the line. RDCs were a terrific idea that gave service to

passengers yet were very efficient in small crew and low maintenance as opposed to the steam engine

and passenger car service.

A scale mile of covered hoppers?

Steve Weso was at the club when I arrived today ( Weds) and was setting up his grain cars for a test

of his equipment for a performance test and/or.... a record?

As his 85 car train departs the yard lead and heads for the wilds of the Northwest to deliver wheat to

the starving children of Los Angeles or Compton or Santa Monica.

 

Steve's 5 engines handled the 85 cars very well and no derailments ( except for the yard switch timing out under his last 3 cars as I wanted to take a photo of the train not moving.)

 

Later that night he was going to put the Oakway ( blue ) units in the middle of the train and have the BN units

on the point. You can see his tail car with the blinking Fred on the coupler.

 

Marvin and John Smith showed up with their equipment but were not going to be any challenge to Steve's

massive grain train. The Wednesday gang is doing quite well even without my supervision!.

 

Evergreen goes Canadian!

 

 

Jim Bowden had his Canadian National train set on the rails today and are they beautiful!

 

Even the caboose is one of those Cadillac styles where no expense seems to be spared for the guys

who run the real ones up north. They are not going to call these beauties "crummies"!

 

High speed photography or panning the train as it makes its way at speed.

 

These locos have a classy paint scheme that grabs the eye.

 

Even the Canadian Railroads have to deal with tunnels, especially in the Rockies and we have some

18 tunnel portals on the layout.

Leftovers from Thursday Night at the Evergreen Railroad

One of our new members named Russ McPherson did not have DCC in his locos so I loaned him a set of mine in the form of 3 Milwaukee Road units.

Learning the details of DCC to a new guy can be intimidating but Russ caught on quickly. The black patch means someone else owns the loco and

painted out the lettering with a roller.

 

Another view but this time at the back of the layout where brother in law Tom watches Russ's train pass the

port district.

 

Many wood trestles were built back in the day and our Green Brach typifies that era. 2 SP&S diesels

take their lives in the hands to trust the bridge will hold the weight of 2 locos.

 

Tom Frank has a lease unit in charge of a BN freight back in 1980 when BN leased 100 of these

Oakways from EMD.

 

You can tell the train is on the Green Branch because of the wood tunnel portals on the line

 

Someone put a dozen log cars into Bakersville but the reason leaves me scratching my head.

Who amoung us remembers the "Train of Tomorrow?

 

Well, for starters, Jim Trunzo does as he visited us today and treated us with this treasure from the past.

 

It turned out to be a big flop as the lightweight aluminum bodies of the passenger cars was not a comfortable ride. It had all the "advantages"of riding in a bus! The idea lasted about 2 years and was dropped from the American attempt to save the passenger train.

 

Another Jim Trunzo special was this Pennsylvania steam engine with terrific sounds. Plus that whistle

was something special. Jim grew up in Niagara Falls and his love for the Pennsy goes way back.

 

Marvin brought out his Northern Pacific big power after a hard morning helping Burt move his

stuff to an apartment in Post Falls. Anyone wanting to help will not be needed for Friday.

 

We have a Western Pacific fan in the club named John Schwarze who grew up in California and

that is what he remembers as a kid.

 

The SP&S makes a daring run on the Green Branch crossing Heimerdinger Bridge on Mount Whitney.

Good enough to be a screensaver?

The mighty Great Northern 4-8-4 steam engine made a surprise return to the Wednesday night group of guys that make that night their night. This time Jim Bowden is

pulling a company train of all coal cars. We see unit trains these days but back then they usually mixed with whatever was needed to get down the line.

 

Back in the good old days a caboose was required for the crew to use as their office, bathroom break,

warmth, coffee break and home away from home.

 

Steve Weso, the video guy, showed up today as well with 48 well cars that made one heck of a long train. He told me he has 25 more well cars but he is

a modest guy and didn't want to show off! Next week he'll load 'em up!

 

MY final shot before I left today was Steve's power popping out of the Red Main tunnel under the

famous Wyatt bridge built by Roy and Kyle that is a standout on the layout.

Man does not live by freight trains alone..

Greg Mercier had 4 NP GP9s on the road today but by the time I got my camera in action it was down to three. Oh well three is better than two?

 

Especially when such a beautiful passenger train shows up like Keith Wiles' 20 car Great Northern

set as it transits the port district on the Evergreen layout.

 

Keith's power for the passenger train are 2 brand new SDP45s that were built as freight engines but

they added 4 feet on the rear and added steam boilers to them to keep the cars warm in the winter.

 

The track to the right is owned by a competitor railroad  that I refer to as the Red Line. The other

2 are for the Blue line and the middle track is the passing siding for an opposing train.

 

Railroads arch enemy is still the trucking industry that gives the railroads plenty of trouble fighting

for a lot of the country's business. Hey trucker, watch out for those boulders on the road! Where's the

scenery guys when you need them?

 

I was pleasantly surprised to see the old Great Northern tower

from a new vantage point which is the Davenport' Grand

Hotel, a brand new 500 room hotel located just south of

Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. I was involved in trying

to save the station back in 1972. Pay no attention

to the girl on the sofa!

Meet Mr. Western Pacific

I never asked why Mr. WP had on a Milwaukee Road shirt but I was a guest with a half dozen other

Evergreen members back in October 17th, 2015 and didn't think to ask! Jim Pendley is his name and

lives near Thorp, Washington in the Cascades and works for the mighty BNSF as an engineer.

 

This is why I call Jim Mr. Western Pacific as he has built an exact replica of one of the most identified bridges in the United States in the form of the Kedee Wye on the WP.

 

Jim has an entire building dedicated to this portion of the WP where the left side is the California direction of trains going to San Francisco while the right side has 2 lines with the

far one heads for Wishram, Washington and the close in one heads to Nevada with Reno as its first stop. The engineering of the model is first rate!

 

This WP train would have come west to the Kedee Wye from Nevada and I stood at this very spot some

35 years ago to shoot a train on this bridge. Very impressive! Jim is on the e-mail list.

 

There are several other impressive bridges on  the layout including this one with a southbound coming

down from Washington State with Big Sky Blue GN locos leading the pack. How many trees do you have, Jim?

 

The rock work is a work of art as well and Jim closely

matched the rocks at each location with special attention to the

colors of the rocks. Jim's layout was just featured in Model

Railroader magazine if you read such magazines.

 

 

Fast moving trains add to the challenge

When I bring my camera into the club I try to take action shots rather than posed shots. This is one of them. Greg was running this Maine Central engine and

rather than ask Greg to stop at a certain location I try to pan my camera to the same speed of the train so the engine is in focus and the scenery is blurred.

 

Here's another one but not as much success. All the cars in the yard are hopelessly blurred as I was

holding the camera over my head to try to stop the 2 Milwaukee Road trains. The one in the

background was a bonus as I was moving to the right and would increase the blur factor as that train

was moving to the left..

 

This moving shot was better than the still shots I took so I went with it.  Mike Conners set of GN RS-2s.

 

This one we see that the trucks are in focus but Tom Kirk's Rio Grande train is moving. Oh well.

 

I was sitting down in one of our club chairs when Greg's train was approaching the front of the layout

and I took a grab shot. The loco is so small that the movement can't be seen so I went with it.

 

Jim Bowden's 2-10-2 ( 2 wheels leading, 10 driving wheels and 2 trailing make the wheel arrangement ) meets up with Greg's 2-8-2. I moved at the right speed of the locos

and got them in pretty good focus. And for you environmentalists' out there the smoke is fake so don't think the Evergreeners are hurting anything but your religion.