Weekend Update 4/17/11

[eric220]

I have been too long absent from these proceedings.  Starting next week, I should be contributing much more regularly as construction begins and progresses.  In the meantime, a little something to get in the mood.  My parents are in town, and my dad brought this for my new train room.  My grandfather picked it up from where some silly brakeman left it along the NEC.



Of particular note to me:



It even still has some of the original oil in it.  I'm debating rigging it up with a remotely controlled strobe that my wife can use to summon me from the recesses of my railroad lair.

[James Costello]

More miles on the roadtrip. Currently in Portland OR, after spending most of the week in Montana, at the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex. The Walton is the former GN employee inn for their winter operations over Marias Pass. We've had some lovely spring weather since arriving in the USA two weeks ago:







Snow's pretty rare for us, so it was cool. We skiied the back country of Glacier National Park and then the Walton's own trails before leaving for the west coast. We thought the weather would improve from there, but we encountered a snow storm between Essex and Spokane and then it rained heavily most of the way from Pasco into Portland yesterday. Visibility and conditions were pretty poor to shoot the parade of trains along the Columbia River, but I did pull into the rest stop to catch this stack trains we followed for a bit:



Looking forward to hitting the Cascades with Scott tomorrow.

[seusscaboose]

Gotta ask Lee, whos that GG1 belong to and what's it doing there?

Carl commandeered it for a spin up the hill and back.  I am getting ready to send it off for some work (sound install).  Come over in May, we can hook it up to a mail train and you can run at Mach3... beware though...  The Tucker/Greenspring area of my racetrack has become mighty congested lately, and we have instituted train orders.  Neither of which, I am sure,  will slow you (aka "Bullet Bob") down as you plunder through Milepost #1 like Sherman to the sea.



You're always welcome for some casual running 
EP

[techrepjapan]

I started a company.
 

Great! Good luck, Mr. Smith! I look forward to seeing the products you will be offering.

[S Class]

*Sigh* everyone is getting stuff done and I'm standing still, great work guys.

I finished a law assignment this weekend, gotta have a way to pay for all the trains in the future  ;D

[Philip H]

The Historic Operations Division of the Baton Rouge Southern took delivery of a recently refurbished H-14-44 this weekend.  Painted as KCS 40, the loco received a chasis and prime mover from the Bufkin Div of the PRR and underwent an electrical upgrade at tghe Laurel Valley Lines Cambridge shops. Road testing was completed Friday night in Glen Burnie on the NKP.

[wm3798]

Progress update:  Finished installing the west ready tracks.




And now... Palm Sunday with the family.

Lee

[noblerot]

I started a company.
 

Good luck, looking forward to see what you will be offering

[Bob Bufkin]

Carl commandeered it for a spin up the hill and back.  I am getting ready to send it off for some work (sound install).  Come over in May, we can hook it up to a mail train and you can run at Mach3... beware though...  The Tucker/Greenspring area of my racetrack has become mighty congested lately, and we have instituted train orders.  Neither of which, I am sure,  will slow you (aka "Bullet Bob") down as you plunder through Milepost #1 like Sherman to the sea.



You're always welcome for some casual running 
EP

Sounds like a plan.  I'll bring a mail/express train and run it with my PA/E7 sound combo.  I'll also bring the Hiawatha and I promise to keep the speed in checki.  Been practicing on that.  Probbly a habigt from my old racecar track days.

[delamaize]

I have a new steam project I am working on, I am very close to a point where I think I have something worth taking a picture, stay tuned.

Edit: Welcome back folks! here is the pictures I promiced.

it is REALLY rough right now, spent most of the time working on it trying to get the damn front, ungeared, truck quatered. The motor mounting is Temp.

here is a shot compaired to the Class B climax

[lashedup]

David - Good Luck! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Got started on coal storage bins (ran out of styrene!) and built one part of a coal conveyor plus a few other updates...



More here:

http://therailwire.net/forum/index.php/topic,17191.270.html

[Iain]

Went to the Norfolk Southern Historical Society meeting yesterday.  It drizzled some during the morning into mid day.  After that, the sun came out.


Rob and I were heading back here when, about Carthage, we start seeing pinestraw on the road in increasing quantities.  Further along, in Spring Lake, none of the stoplights had power.  When we got to where NC 24 meets Murchison Rd., Army MPs had blocked 24 off and were redirecting traffic down Murchison, which was clogged.  We got a little further along and started seeing trees down.  Eventually, we got up along the airfield on Pope and some of the hangars were missing their roofs.  By this point I was getting rather worried about my house as it is entirely surrounded by trees.

Long story short, the one limb down on my land took out the power line behind the house.  However, some people I know have lost their houses.

[BCR 570]

My layout, when complete, will portray the BCR's Dawson Creek Subdivision which diverges from the mainline at Chetwynd.  However, I will also have a short run north on the Fort St. John Subdivision from Chetwynd into Septimus (hidden north staging).  Andy Thomas (aka BCRailFSJ) is building a layout in Calgary which will portray the Fort St. John Subdivision from Septimus to Fort St. John.  Our layouts are both in the early stages of construction and will represent different eras, but we though it would be fun to simulate a train departing my layout and arriving on his.  A trip to the Calgary Supertrain show this weekend provided an opportunity to do just that.

So, in fulfillment of Andy's request last weekend for a ballast train to attend to his recent tracklaying efforts at Taylor, I asembled a work train comprising caboose 1820, ballast hoppers BCOL 2514 and 2524, flat car BCOL 1361 with dozer, diesel fuel tank car BCOL 1943, and box car PGE 4155 for tools.  Andy has not yet installed his DCC system, so the default power would be RS-3s BCR 573 and BCR 570 as all of my other locomotives now have decoders.  WORK EXTRA 570 was ordered from Chetwynd at 0730K on April 15 and is seen here departing Chetwynd:






After proceeding north on the Fort St. John Subdivision, WORK EXTRA 570 arrived at Septimus for a meet with EXTRA 632 SOUTH, the southbound Septimus Turn:






At this point, our train received a little help from the Seabus, SkyTrain, and WestJet:











I will let Andy document the remainder of the train's journey on his layout from Septimus to Taylor.  After completing the train movement we took in the Calgary Supertrain show, which was well worth attending with four indoor soccer fields full of model trains.  Numerous manufacturers were in attendance including Athearn, Intermountain, North American Railcar Corp, Rapido, and True-Line Trains.  I took this photograph from one end of the show just after it opened and before the crowds materialized:




Over to you, Andy!

Tim

[BCRail_FSJ]

Tim.. It was great having you in Calgary.  Sorry about the snow

Work extra 570 continued its run down the hill from Septimus on my Fort St. John subdivision layout.  After running past the gravel pit at Teko it crossed the massive Peace River bridge and arrived at Taylor to commence ballasting work on new yard tracks.  The following pictures and video document its progress.

After completing the ballasting work, Work Extra 570 returned to Chetwynd (with a little help from Westjet, Skytrain and Seabus again)

It was fun turning the clock back to 1977 on my layout.   

[wm3798]

Andy, that bridge makes my palms sweaty!  Amazing stuff.
Lee