Variety is the spice of life....ask Bill Clinton!

The same goes for model railroading! Marvin lived in Paradise, Montana growing up and when the MRL came into being it passed through Paradise making it the

hometown favorite. Until recently MRL had a fleet of hand me down locos that they rebuilt, repainted and ran as road power and yard service. Plus they saved

a lot of money by not paying a designer to come up with a paint scheme except this dip stick job with stick-on logos!

 

Now this a designer paint scheme but only wishful thinking as UP did a series of these to keep the

railroad logos in their ownership. Still, a pretty nice concept if the Rio Grande did survive the UP merger.

 

Another model owned by Jim Bowden is this Chicago & Northwestern heritage paint job done with the

same reasons as the Rio Grande unit.  There is a real engine with this design running on the rails!

 

Sixty years ago this would have been the typical paint scheme for a railroad using green and orange

as the corporate colors. The only way to make them look better is with a little weathering! Yiks!

 

The best train on the rails this week has got to be the Northern Pacific North Coast Limited that served

Spokane for decades and I was privileged to ride it several times in my younger days when I visited Spokane.

 

Keith and I were working on this Hobbytown metal monster Thursday night trying to get the 50 year old

model to work properly when leaving Keith thought it would look good next to the engine house with

the GN herald on it.  I think he was right!  Ring job please!

 

 

Odd things happening around the Northwest

Here's something I never saw before and that is ditch lights on the back of a locomotive! This one was working the Union Pacific rails on Mission Steet where the old Spokane

International had their roundhouse and yard back in the day. Say, the that Keith Wiles hanging on that last car?

 

Another oddity is this NIWX in the Cheney yard working for the Eastern Washington

Gateway Railroad. Photo taken by Bruce Butler or Ted Curphey.  Is it the 60's again?

 

Business must be good as the railroad is using this borrowed Montana Rail Link unit as well.

This one is not beat up as the others seem to be.

This one was sent to me by Mike Walcker, and ex-Evergreen member who was railfanning the

Columbia River and caught this terrific shot of an westbound coming out of one of the many tunnels on this

part of the Union Pacific route to Portland, Oregon.

 

This is the first time I ever saw this window arrangement on the passenger car. This car was seen

a week before by me at about the same spot east of Yardley. I am told it is some kind a geometry car

to make sure the trains don't fall off the tracks. The rivet counters will correct me on this.

 

Finally another weird car is this covered hopper and I took the photo because of the lettering on it.

When it was passing me I realized it was one of the heritage cars with an SP&S logo on it!

They have heritage logos for GN, NP, Burlington Route, BN and the mighty SP&S. Wall plaques anyone?

 

 

Modeling in the 1/87 scale on the Evergreen Railroad

Once in a while the Burlington Northern travels on the Evergreen and now after 20 years gone I am getting nostalgic about the railroad that wiped out my favorites in the Northwest.

Part of modeling is remembering the past and the BN was a big part of growing up around here with trains. If you don't like BN then enjoy my rockwork!

 

Mike Baker sets up some of his rolling stock in the port district.

 

This Citirail locomotive is a lease unit that the BNSF uses and now they have models of them as we

can see on the layout.

 

That very afternoon I caught #1204 in the Spokane Valley sandwiched between 2 BNSF brothers.

From the numbers I would guess they have  over 200 of these units on lease from Citi Bank.

 

Keith Wiles show off his hometown railroad, the SP&S, pulling #2 between Spokane and Portland, Oregon and passing through Wishram on each trip.

 

Strange power shows up just about every week to keep it interesting, Mike Baker had a brace of

3 Burlington Route diesels pulling a freight and was part of the BN merger back in 1970.

September 1st, 2008 the Evergreen Train Club was born!

 

 

That was 8 years ago that we paid the first day of rent on the joint. We celebrated with 5 pizzas from the famous Rocky Rococo pizza from downtown and you can see a little is still

left in one of the boxes on the table.  It was a terrific evening and one of accomplishment to survive 8 years of dues, estate sales and other venues to keep the doors open.

 

We also had a birthday to celebrate as well for September and Marvin had 2 cakes to honor Tom Kirk, one of

our members. Burt helps himself to a slice of heaven as Marvin looks on.

 

Marvin had 4 of these MRL units pulling his Boeing aircraft bodies past that brave fisherman who does

not seem to understand those engines are 3 scale feet from his body!

 

A large 4-6-6-4 articulated makes its way across a modern steel bridge as the older wood one is long gone

with the remnants of an earlier time at the bottom of the stream. That's what can happen to your Tyco

steam engines that got the blow torch treatment to indicate a bad fall.

 

Earlier in the week 3 SP&S Alcos move the freight just like they did some 45 years ago along the Columbia River.

 

Greg Mercier has 4 NP Geeps working up hill at Beaver Canyon. I remember the day that Ralph Thomas

came up with that name and it stuck. Rumor has it that he might be visiting us this month!

F units on the Evergreen Railroad

In my conversations with the subject of model railroading I sometimes use railroad descriptions that

may seem strange to the folks who don't live this life of railroad verbiage.  When General Motors EMD

division got into the railroad business they came up with F unit to represent a loco that had fifteen hundred

horsepower and made to haul freight trains. It didn't work out that way as they were good with passenger

trains as well.

This photo is of a Northern Pacific passenger unit with lift rings, grab irons, handrails and windshield

wipers add to the quality of the looks of this engine. Perfect painting also helps.

 

Another version for the Northern Pacific but in freight colors instead.

 

This Rock Island unit does not have the extra details but the paint job is special.

Panoramic photo of Evergreen train club

The room is about 25' by 60' and this is what it looks like with an iphone pan shot pushing the button while panning the room. See the distortion in the building in the lower right corner as the camera tries to "stitch" the images together for the shot.

We are celebrating our 8th birthday for the start of the club back in Sept 1st of 2008 this Thursday and when asked how much have we invested we say $30,000. The bigger answer is that we have as many hours as we have dollars invested. After all,

these things do not build themselves, its done with the creative and savy talents of lots of members. Construction of the foundation, design work, trackwork, wiring, buildings, scenery, trees, painting, signs, the list is endless ....and its all for fun. Thanks Guys!

Blue Cut fire in California

 

You guys aware of the Blue Cut fire on Cajon Pass?  It's pretty nasty, and all rail and road traffic has been stopped

for a couple of days now, and it may be a couple or so more before any kind of train service is restored due to track,

structure, and signal damage.  The picture below shows what happened to one bridge along the former SP.

At least it appears the fire wasn't started by a train, and both BNSF and UP were able to get all their trains out of the area.

 

You can probably access the multitude of posts on trainorders.com even if you're not a member.

 

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Photos taken with my iphone at the club today.

Wearing his SP&S shirt today, Greg Mercier brought in 2 sets of Northern Pacific trains including this beauty representing the North Coast Limited. Greg

joined our club about 1 year before he moved here from the west side of Washington State. He says he does not miss the traffic of the Seattle area.

 

The other NP train was one of these 4 unit sets of F units. The other set was Marvin's so I got

them to set up for this shot of them passing in the night.....or day.

 

Engineer John Schwarze does not get enough enjoyment in running the real thing for BNSF so he spends his

leisure time running BN merger stuff on Tuesday afternoons with us! The other train is a Rock Island

commuter train owned by Don Carnegie who usually champions another railroad called the Milwaukee.

 

Don's big time favorite on Tuesday was this new Rio Grande 4-6-6-4 Challenger hauling a long string of cattle cars.

 

This Milwaukee unit gets a ride on our transfer table and depending what attention it needs will

determine which door it will enter for service. Saves a lot of track work with this system.

 

 

 

50th anniversary video from Jerry Quinn

Hi everyone,

 

This is a video of my life and it comes with lots of my photos and music of the times

put together by my youngest son James. I think it is terrific and I want to share it with

family and friends that some of you saw it presented at our 50th anniversary party we

had 3 years ago. Some of you may see yourself in it as well. I wasn't always this old! 

It was a very good life. Jerry

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uKlr_hrcFkM&sns=fb

 

 

Fw: New Evergreen video

Hi Guys,

Steve Weso does it again.

He does what I try to do with photos, he does with video.

He makes the club layout come alive!

Enjoy, Jerry

 

From: wesolowski4@comcast.net

Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2016 4:46 AM

To: Quinn, Jerry

Subject: Evergreen video

 

Hi Jerry,

 

In the midst of the fire outbreaks, I made another video to distract folks from reality.

Evergreen Mainline freights - enhanced with real train sounds!

 

The "Weso"

 

 

click on this here link ----->   https://youtu.be/XHjJaBtMo24

(copy and paste into that thin box on top of the Google page)

FOR THE NOT TOO YOUNG...but those who wish they were! Jerry

I have no idea who put this together, but it is wonderful!! 


 
Long ago and far away, in a land that time forgot,
Before the days of Dylan , or the dawn of Camelot.
There lived a race of innocents, and they were you and me,
 

 
For Ike was in the White House in that land where we were born,
Where navels were for oranges, and Peyton Place was porn.
 

 
We longed for love and romance, and waited for our Prince,
Eddie Fisher married Liz, and no one's seen him since.
 

 
We danced to 'Little Darlin,' and sang to 'Stagger Lee'
And cried for Buddy Holly in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
Only girls wore earrings then, and 3 was one too many,
And only boys wore flat-top cuts, except for Jean McKinney.
 

 
And only in our wildest dreams did we expect to see
A boy named George with Lipstick, in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
We fell for Frankie Avalon, Annette was oh, so nice,
And when they made a movie, they never made it twice. 

 
We didn't have a Star Trek Five, or Psycho Two and Three,
Or Rocky-Rambo Twenty in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
Miss Kitty had a heart of gold, and Chester had a limp,
And Reagan was a Democrat whose co-star was a chimp.
 

 
We had a Mr. Wizard, but not a Mr. T,
And Oprah couldn't talk yet, in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
We had our share of heroes, we never thought they'd go,
At least not Bobby Darin, or Marilyn Monroe.
For youth was still eternal, and life was yet to be,
And Elvis was forever in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
We'd never seen the rock band that was Grateful to be Dead,
And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson, and Zeppelins were not Led.
 

 
And Beatles lived in gardens then, and Monkees lived in trees,
Madonna was Mary in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
We'd never heard of microwaves, or telephones in cars,
And babies might be bottle-fed, but they were not grown in jars.
 

 
And pumping iron got wrinkles out, and 'gay' meant fancy-free,
And dorms were never co-Ed in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
We hadn't seen enough of jets to talk about the lag,
And microchips were what was left at the bottom of the bag.
 

 
And hardware was a box of nails, and bytes came from a flea,
And rocket ships were fiction in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
T-Birds came with portholes, and side shows came with freaks,
And bathing suits came big enough to cover both your cheeks.
 

 
And Coke came just in bottles, and skirts below the knee,
And Castro came to power near the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
We had no Crest with Fluoride, we had no Hill Street Blues,
We had no patterned pantyhose or Lipton herbal tea
Or prime-time ads for those dysfunctions in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
There were no golden arches, no Perrier to chill,
And fish were not called Wanda, and cats were not called Bill
 

 
And middle-aged was 35 and old was forty-three,
And ancient were our parents in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
But all things have a season, or so we've heard them say,
And now instead of Maybelline we swear by Retin-A.
They send us invitations to join AARP,
We've come a long way, baby, from the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 
So now we face a brave new world in slightly larger jeans,
And wonder why they're using smaller print in magazines.
And we tell our children's children of the way it used to be,
Long ago and far away in the Land That Made Me, Me.
 

 

If you didn't grow up in the fiftys,
You missed the greatest time in history,
Hope you enjoyed this read as much as I did.
If So, PLEASE FORWARD this note to
someone who will appreciate these memories...