Friday Afternoon crew was working on the Railroad!

 

While Jim Bowden was working on the new paper mill site at the back of the layout, young Jack Pappas

was preping Mt. Whitney for the site of our newest model of a ranger station Jack put together.

The wood chip rotary is now installed in the green building and additional switches and track has been

installed today by Jim. We are waiting on switches to arrive from China or someplace. The tan building

is the main building in this paper complex.

 

The was a brass kit the Jack found and put together with

solder and care as it was very detailed. Jack did a terrific job on it.

He painted it too!  Don gave it to the club, thanks Don!

 

Willl Windom was showing off is Santiam and Western fire car this week and I was very impressed as well.

 

This is our newest member at the club but no stranger to me. His name is Chris MacKay and I knew

Chris some 10 years ago at a different train club. He was 13 years old then and loves modeling and ranching

so he is a welcomed addition to our other 40 members. Brings our average club member age down a few years

as well.

Remember the Baldwins?

No I don't refer to those mediocre actors that you see on TV from time to time but the steam engine

builder that could not continue their success in the diesel market. Baldwin Locomotive Co. had a number

of switchers here in Spokane when I arrived here in 1967. 

 

I never could get the model designations of the Baldwin locos down so we just say it's a switch

engine moving a few loads from one yard to another. Our new friend and member Doug Neighswonger

is the owner of this model. The flatcar is my creation.

 

Here she pulls into the Blue Main yard with its catch and out of the way of the mainline freights.

 

NP #415 passes through the Port District on its way to delivery point.

 

Two competitors race for the finish line before they both disappear from the railroad scene, the

SP&S in merger as a BN unit in 1970 and the Milwaukee Road in a sad end in 1980 as a bankrupt railroad.

 

Another fallen flag was the New York Central in a disaster move as a merger partner with the Pennsy.

Somebody should have gone to jail on that one.  Doug Neighswonger owns these beauties.

 

 

 

 

Keeping it out West........well almost!

 

Greg Mercier brought in this fantastic model of a Titchy small crane and what a terrific job he did.

With his blessings I gave it a little weathering for an in-service look.

 

Colin Fitzgerald now has this 3 unit FA set for SP&S followed by a 5 car NP passenger train.

 

The famous NP Mainstreeter was also present on Thursday as Marvin matched the real one with the

right cars in his lineup.

 

Greg also had an NP freight train riding the rial for several hours without a hitch. If we were

giving out trophies, Greg would have most of them.

 

Just to be fair, I included a Eastern railroad called the New York Central with the appropriate back east

rolling stock following along. New member Doug Neighswonger, ex Milw and BN employee, is at fault.

 

Back to Gods country is another Doug model of a Great Northern switcher doing God's work by

delivering box cars to on line customers.

At the train Show... Modeling German railway guns

 

Most of us follow military history, navel battles, tanks and stuff but not so much for artillery. At Sunday's

Train Show this fella shows up with a railway gun that was considered heavy like this gun in

desert colors.

 

Next to it was a model of the 4th largest moveable item ever built. This monster had a 33 inch diameter barrel

which is twice as big as anything we had on our battleships of World War Two. The Germans used it up

in Russia at Savastapool (sp) and took a 1000 man unit to operate and move it. The shells would have

been a job moving them alone much less building a double track to move and align to gun.

 

Here's a close up of the detail and the guy did a fabulous job in the building and painting of it.

 

Keith acquired 2 more SP&S RS units to his fleet and the semaphores would make it right at home.

 

Donald's 2 Milwaukee Road switch engines get main line service getting a bunch of coal cars to small

towns running out of coal for their homes to heat.

 

On a positive note many new members found that our workbench in the back of the club layout has

a grey Formica top that we haven't seen since it was installed years ago. I assume a party will be held to

celebrate this occasion?

Fw: West of Freya Street Bridge, before and after.

A few years ago I took this photo of 2 trains going west near the Freya bridge. Now it's a parking lot

for new cars from the factories. But it always was not this way, It was the home of a large meat packing plant.

The upper tracks was the original Northern Pacific main line. The lower line was the new main line.

 

Looking west from the bridge itself, the photographer shot the east entrance through the fence.

 

My suspicions is that the car was the photographer's.

 

The new main has been installed on the left. The Armour plant is now located on the north track.

Next time you cross the Freya bridge check it out. Keith Wiles worked this area when is worked for the

BNSF as the west switcher for the Yardley yard. When they banned cattle cars from the railroad that

took out the need for the plant.  Nothing ever stays the same.

 

 

Special invitation to a special night at the Evergreen Railroad!

 

 

 

 

 

The Spokane Train Show is next Sunday and we at the Evergreen club open our club to the visitors

coming into town and the locals and give them something to do the night before the show.

Besides we like to show off a little bit as well! Jerry

 

 

50s and 60s video by WESO

 

 

 

The theme makes this one of the best videos I have ever seen. Jerry

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI0R3aEbISs

50s & 60s Northwest Railfanning on the ERM www.youtube.com This one is for you Bill In the 1950's and 1960's, Spokane was served by the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Spokane Portland & Seattle, Union Pacific, Milwaukee ...

Urban Renewal comes to the Evergreen Railroad!

The backside of Cobbleton had a small rail yard for the Red Main rail line. The guys thought that it was

a static area where it could be better utilized as an industrial area. We took a vote at our last business

meeting to make it happen.

 

Like magic it disappeared in a few days after the vote. Will Windom poses for the camera after it was

removed from this earth. Paper switch copies give Will the ability to figure out the best placement for the

track plus the blue squares are the footprints for new replacement buildings.

 

Bakersville crime spree is squashed by the local police as the town pimp was arrested by the boys

in blue. Rumor has it that one of the customers caught was the local BNSF railroad cop on duty.

I say throw the book at him! Let him serve 50 hours of model train service!

 

The merger is will on its way as multible loco colors are apparent in this freight heading down the main.

 

The power towers are now installed with blinking lights to keep aircraft away while a Frisco passenger

train approaches the area. Next is stringing wire for Bakersville.

 

Unit train of Maersk containers gets ready to move product across the country.

Fw: Is it snowing....somewhere?

 

It must be for the management of the Santiam & Western to bring out the push plow to open up the

main line! Looks like the boys put a little extra effort to make her look almost as good as new!

 

Bakersville can be a busy place as 2 competitors pass each other on different main lines.

 

Another Doug H. special line up of 4 Louisville & Nashville yard goats plus somebody's red goat sit

on the number one track in the Blue Main yard. Strange that they would all be numbered 99?????

All steam engines are not the same size or do the same job. The bigger the wheels the faster it could go

but the smaller wheels could be more inclined to pull more weight but it a slower pace.

 

This little Northern Pacific 2-8-0 is owned by Greg Mercier, a recent Western Washington resident

who decided to retire in Northern Idaho. Potatoes anyone?

 

Last but not least is our Air Force crew chief who is a very

unique individual. This shirt message is from the puppeteer

who has a Muslim terrorist puppet who talks this way. Strange?

 

 

Fw: We have 2 towers in Spokane....I own one of them!

 

Once upon a time, besides the tower at the Spokane County Courthouse, there was a railroad station

in Spokane called the GN and SP&S station. It had a tower attached to it to let people know where to go

to get on a train to places like Chicago, St. Paul and a sleepy town west of here called Seattle. That's one

of the billboards we purchased to alert the folks as to what was going on.

 

A few railfans and citizens thought the station should be saved

when the city removed the stations from the Riverfront Park Plan

to the Expo "74 plan. I led the fight to save the stations by putting

the issue to a vote of the people. It only got 43 percent favorable.

The city in turn saved the tower. Some called it the "Quinn" tower.

 

After 46 years it has been remembered in the newly remodeled

Quinn building on West Garland Avenue in Spokane by my

lovely daughter Bonnie with this 11 foot 8 inch rendering on the kitchen

wall. My artist of over 20 years Vic Holman points it out to me.

 

There's my little girl now in front of the Quinn building with the

new fountain and fence to keep out the wanderers. The pencil was

my idea some 40 years ago. I'm a lucky man!

Fw: Another boring day at the Evergreen!

 

 

Train after train running the mains....when will it ever stop! Hopefully never as we seem to be having

too much fun with our clothes on! Mike Baker was running  his BN units on Tuesday.

 

Jack Pappas had his 3 BNSF beauties pulling a long freight.

 

Jim Bowden showed off his 2 GN Alco FAs that are copies of actual units that ran out of Hillyard until

they sold them to stepchild SP&S who loved the Alcos.

 

Will and Jerry (me) worked the mountain to create flat spots for the power towers that will soon allow

Bakersville to bring them into the 20th Century. Candle sales will suffer with the arrival of electricity.

 

Rod H. had this car on his train and told me that this was a Gorre & Diphetid car from the John Allan

collection. He was the premier modeler of the 1950s and 1960s. As Dolly Pardon said on the Johnny Carson

show it costs a lot of money to look this trashy.

 

Plenty of action on both the Red Main line and the Blue Main line as this Chicago & Northwestern

train has to deal with tunnels and grades which they had very little to deal with in the midwest.

 

Rod loves to catch me taking a nap or some compromising photo so here's one for him. Notice the

image on his phone is his hand! Didn't know that when I shot it but works for me to show you.