Day 3 - Riding the non Rocky because we are now on a bus!

 

 

 

Today Burt and I get on a tourist bus and we get the front seats. Here we depart beautiful Banff for parts unknown to us except we head north to Jasper!

 

Our first stop is at Lake Louise where they have an elaborate hotel to view a glacial lake. It was built by the

Canadian Pacific and it has thrilled millions of us tourists over the 100 plus years of its existence.

We get back on the highway and head north again and in the distance we see what we are going to cross.

 

Thye had a number of these overpasses along the way and they are not what you might think. They are

not for cars or people either. They are built for animal crossings so man and animal don't run into

car fenders and windshields. Clever these Canadians!

 

Each bend in the road reveals another beautiful scene I wish I could model this well in miniature.

 

What's this....railfans on the road? Getting a shot of a Canadian steam engine?  The only problem is

that there isn't tracks within 100 miles of where we are because the terrain is too tough to build through

this region of Canada. They see some animal and I hope they keep their distance.

 

 

Riding the Rocky - Part 4

 

The Canadian railroads have as many tunnels as we have on the Evergreen club layout....well almost.

They were too numerous to count but the best tunnels were yet to come.

 

That would be the Spiral Tunnels, this one is the lower version that goes into a mountain, makes a complete

circle inside a mountain and crosses over itself coming out. We just came out of the second, higher spiral

when I took this photo of where we just were to gain altitude.

Here's the same spot but 50 years before so the trees are taking over the view. I am standing on a

turnoff from the highway where Canadian Pacific locos in maroon and grey were the colors of choice back then.

The right of way is the light colored spots above the lead loco where it entered the tunnel and the smoke

indicates the other end of it. This shot is on my Canadian photo CD.

 

Our first day was from Vancouver to Kamaloops. And this is the second day from Kamaloops to Banff

where we will get off the train and stay the night at a hotel. There's no sleeping accomodations on the train

for the guests. The 500 people stay at different hotels in each city.

 

The bus dropped us off at the hotel and we picked a place for dinner on our own.

 

When we turned on the TV much to my surprise was my name shown on the TV. But where's Burt's name?

Riding the Rocky. Part 2

Upon arrival at the Rocky Mountaineer train station

Before we boarded the train, the 500 plus customers were entertained by a piano guy playing tunes

for our departure. Champagne was served to the guests. They sold hats and shirts there as well in their own Rocky train station.

 

Here we see how we traveled as the girls gave us our instructions on eating, drinking, snacks to come our way.

 

We followed the Frazer River for a time and past Hell's Gate where my buddy Ralph and my grandson David spent

a day here while on a 2007 NMRA train convention down the road. They have a aerial tram that brings you down

to the buildings near the river.

 

One side of the river is the Canadian National track while the other side is Canadian Pacific tracks.

They share rights of way so all traffic flows on one direction on each side. Less wrecks seem the goal?

 

Here is where they switch sides as CP took the easy way as they were first and CN had to it the hard way

with what was left.

 

One of the girls serves lunch or a snack or dessert. Her name was Nancy and all of them were very friendly.

 

Riding the Rocky - Part 3

 

I was pleasantly surprised that the door vestibule would be open for us crazy photographers to take

photos without the interior glare on the windows. They have platforms for the Gold guests on the larger cars

but I was a Silver guest and the door window worked just fine for me.

 

You can see the difference between the cars for the different rankings but for another $1000. per guest

that was the only advantage I could see. Maybe the Gold guests got massages?

 

A photo of the photographer? How quaint! That's me and Burt. I call him Burtley. He still likes me.

 

Much could be seen by us rail travelers in the way of railroad equipment such as this one sided snow plow

 

Every curve of the rails gave us a new perspective of the mountains and it was impressive to see

where snow and water have carved out chunks of hillside. The railroads had to deal with each one of these

details especially rocks.

 

One moment it is quiet and the next moment a 300,000 pound monster to passing your glass

window by at least 4 feet.....at speed!

Riding the Rocky. Part 2

Before we boarded the train, the 500 plus customers were entertained by a piano guy playing tunes

for our departure. Champagne was served to the guests. They sold hats and shirts there as well in their own Rocky train station.

 

Here we see how we traveled as the girls gave us our instructions on eating, drinking, snacks to come our way.

 

We followed the Frazer River for a time and past Hell's Gate where my buddy Ralph and my grandson David spent

a day here while on a 2007 NMRA train convention down the road. They have a aerial tram that brings you down

to the buildings near the river.

 

One side of the river is the Canadian National track while the other side is Canadian Pacific tracks.

They share rights of way so all traffic flows on one direction on each side. Less wrecks seem the goal?

 

Here is where they switch sides as CP took the easy way as they were first and CN had to it the hard way

with what was left.

 

One of the girls serves lunch or a snack or dessert. Her name was Nancy and all of them were very friendly.

 

Going on a train ride....through the Canadian Alps! Part 1

 

 

You can't get there from here as Burt and I needed to get to Seattle before we can get to Canada, at

least from Spokane. Here we have 2 Alaska planes in perfect coordination moving towards the gates.

Burt got sick and his sister wanted to give Burt a present of a train trip and get to pick a friend to go with him. Me!

 

Burt and I then jumped on a puddle jumper for the 25 minute trip to Vancouver, BC where the great

adventure begins. It had propellers!

 

Arriving at Vancouver we were greeted by a limo to get us to our hotel. Now I know how the rich

people feel.

 

Now that we had our hotel room acquired we walked a few blocks to the Lookout Tower

and viewed the harbor area from this vantage point. Alice and I took our first cruise from this dock

to Alaska back in 1997.

 

Did you know Canada has trains? Who knew?  Pretty good scenery for a club layout as well.

 

And here's the reason we are here to ride the Rocky Mountaineer from Vancouver to Banff and back

in a round about way so stay tuned.

Another N scale layout masterpiece from Jerry Jr.

Several years ago I featured what my oldest son Jerry Quinn was doing in his garage with N scale.

Not being all together happy with the results he has rebuilt it into another wonderful layout with a twist.

Many of his buildings are kitbashed from multible kits to make them into skyscrapers in a mix

of European and Japanese with a hint of American design.

It is in its early construction with many details still left undone.

One outstanding feature is the interior detailing there alternate floors are lit and furnished so it

looks like any city where some are dark and some not.

Another amazing detail is lights added to the N scale cars. jerry described that cars can be purchased

ready to connect at $25.00 each but he has purchased in bulk N scale cars that he adds the lights to at

something like a $1.00 per car. And he has a load of them of this layout. Something us HO guys need

to pay some attention too?

 

The city church is a real eye catcher to look like a small church in the middle of any modern city that

has been built around but still survives. Nice work, jerry!

Passing trains on the Evergreen Railroad

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA07Lu7F4VA

Passing Trains www.youtube.com Raw footage from various nights at the Evergreen Railroad Modelers club in Spokane Valley, WA

The unique and amazing Alaska Railroad

 

 

 

THESE PHOTOS COME FROM A PHOTO COLLECTION OF SOME 12,000 PHOTOS I ACQUIRED. NOW I HAVE 180 OF THEM SCANNED

AND FOUND SOME BEAUTIES I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU GUYS!  JERRY

 

If running a railroad in the coldest region of America was not tough enough, try doing it with hand me downs and trade ins. This weird unit stated out as an

Alco RS-1 but the weather required a little bit of protection for the crews. This unit, according to Jim Bowden was an RS-1 built with a shroud to keep them

from exposure.

 

They had more than one of them by the numbers. This one gets a different paint scheme. At one time the railroad was run by the febderal Govt.

Now the state has the honors.

Early paint scheme for the passenger units in the blue and yellow that will remain.

 

Many Alaska F units were cast offs from the Rio Grande Railroad

 

Alaska could not leave well enough so the took another RS-1 for switching work but now the crew has

a terrific view of what needs to be done.

Variety is the spice of life!

I had 3 Joes recently and this is the last one of the inventory that should sell this next week, Don Carnegie took it for a spin on Thursday for its final

trek on the Evergreen layout. They were 5000 horsepower monsters in the era of 1500 HP diesels. Time and wear and tear took its toll of these unique

locos originally built for the Soviet Union, hence the name Little Joe in reference to Joe Stalin, perhaps number 2 monster that ever walked the earth.

BN had 14 different paint schemes in it 25 year existence and this one was unique to 3 SD60 units

with its orange/black stripes on the nose. Steve Weso knows this stuff so that's how I am so in tune as well.

 

New member Ver Walker took his UP engine for a stroll on the Green branch with a caboose in tow.

Maybe something we would have seen on the Camas Prairie Railroad in its day?

 

The Northern Pacific had quits a few GE locos on the roster including U25s, U28s, and U33s. They all

looked similar and us railfans and modelers would know the differences. Marvin had this set working the

Blue Main.

 

Member Janis Ledum had these two famous locos running with some heritage passenger cars in tow.

BN painted 3 of them in the red/white and blue in celebration of our country's birthday in 1976.

 

Keith had his Alco C-636 in charge of 3 baby Alcos he acquired from me recently and what a sight

they make climbing the hills of Evergreen. I miss all of it and modeling allows me to remember better

when they used to run through Spokane.