Columbia & Western wayfreight video

[mark dance]

Whowever is calling for more CN, must not have noticed the Missouri Pacific screaming eagle on the side of one hopper. There seems to be a fair number of wayfaring cars on the C&W far from their home rails.

Having CN GMD1s running around sounds like the green and gold invader trying to muscle in on the C&W territory. It seems like it's now leaning slightly more towards the freelance side of things these days, so you should get at least one NAR GMD1, too.

The video was really well appreciated, and I especially found the onboard scenes in an empty hopper car to be quite dramatic. Those shots really gave a sense of elevation, from the railway clinging to the mountainsides just like on the real Boundary sub, and being able to see the next part of the line in the distance around the next corner or mountain spur.

I did feel however that, as much as it is a part of your operating scheme, having the hand of god reaching down at some points did detract a little bit from the flow of the video.

Maybe there might be some experimental technology that will be found that could make the switching a little more 'hands off', or maybe the old school technology of a few strategically place uncoupling magnets, even removable ones, just for the sake of making videos.

thx for the kind words!

As to CN,  I lived outside of Thunder Bay on the top of Lake Superior when I was just getting into the hobby.  The CN main actually cut through the back of our acreage and I recall hiking through the woods to see elephant-eared SD40s (I think it may have been too early for the -2s) pulling endless strings of ore ginnys to the huge ore dock in town and a Pt. St. Charles caboose always on the end of each train.  In town the GMD-1s would take over and push the cars up the dock.  In recent years GMDs have been spotted around Vancouver as well.  Don't worry, they won't find a home in the operating rotation but I just have to have them to revisit my youth and I still have a weak spot for the bloody nose orange and black CN scheme.

Now on to the road names in the video.  Having a prototypically correct mix of road names is pretty important to me as I think it makes a big impact on whether the images ring true to the observer by comparison to photos.  As a result I keep track of the road names on the layout and I think it is pretty close to the photos I have from the period.  Over 75% of the cars currently on the layout are CP with the majority script and block lettering.  BN and its predecessors, with whom the C&W directly interchanges both at Nelson and Cascade, make up about 10% of representation,  tank car private owners like Gulf and Shell and GATX another 7%, and the balance are CN, PGE and more distant road names to spice things up just a bit.   Over 40% of all the cars are box car red, CP 40' box cars.  It wasn't always like this.  One day I compared a shot of Nelson yard in 1970 to the Nelson yard on the C&W and out came almost all the bulk head flats, lots of action red and most of the 50' box cars.  In return in came nearly 60 brown CPR 40'  XMs.

As to magnetic uncoupling, we are touching on a religious topic here but I can't hold my tongue:  I personally "despise" magnetic uncoupling both in theory and practice.  (Ducking for cover.  I know I am going to regret that but it is Saturday so I have the time )

md

[kornellred]

The preponderance of prototype uncoupling is still accomplished with human hands, so there is no incongruity in it's association with model railroading.

As long as one has the fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination necessary to accomplish the task.

[PGE-N°2]

Hence the prediction that some experimental technology will be found that could make the switching a little more 'hands off', although I did qualify that the use of uncoupling magnets could be strategic.

[mark dance]

This is an example of why I refer to myself as an operator before a modeler: I will readily comprise adherence to the prototype to enhance/simplify the user experience.  I am not striving for an accurate model - I am striving for a fun experience.  If I can do both within the resources available I will but usability comes before accuracy.

The thing I don't like about fixed magnet uncoupling is it often forces inconvenient steps into operations.  Manual uncoupling allows the operator to do what makes sense in a flexible situation.  The hand from the sky doesn't bother me any more than the tags on top of the cars.  I deliberately showed both in the video because this is how you interact with the C&W "machine" and this is what it takes to operate it.    Same with the use of "bullet proof" Peco code 55 track.  Similarly I don't like photo-shopping in back drops in photos because that doesn't represent how the layout looks when you operate it.

This is why I sometimes  think I should have my TRW license revoked when I see the quality of some of the modelling! I greatly admire the modelling - but my objective may well be different.

md

[PGE-N°2]

There's nothing wrong with that approach. In person, I wouldn't care about the hand from the sky, it just shocked me a little bit in the video. Of course this is coming from someone whose locomotive roster is currently fifty-percent comprised by odd paint schemes and roadnames that didn't exist, including at least one locomotive type that was never built.

It also includes rolling stock lettered for a freelanced railroad that would be right at home on the C&W, with a name that pays homage to the legendary Kettle Valley. So I guess I can tolerate the hand in the sky, but I will still believe and predict that with the way you are adapting other technologies to model railroading, it is only a matter of time before a working coupler lever is found for N scale, especially with PWRS doing working air hoses, now.

As far as quality modelling goes, though, I'm sure the majority of users here are completely stupefied by your bridges to the degree that they would probably all grant you an honorary lifetime membership anyway.

[elnscale]

Mark,

This is superb. Over the last few years I seen your posts on your modeling which are always of the highest quality. What this video does is tie it all together. Everything flows just amazingly together, the gradual changes in the vegetation as the climb continues, spotting with wayside snow until there is a full covering, then the reverse on the descent.

As others have commented, the commentary then cements that all together.

I especially like the view pulling out of the siding by the limestone tipple just west of Fife where the massive Kettle River Bridge is off in the distance (about 37:45 on the video). I see that this is just like in the prototype. Here's a photo.

Thanks for doing this and posting it.

Steve