Friday Night Group

Operations at the Lyon Valley Northern

2008-03-16T21:41:00.002-04:00

The FNGers were over to the LVN to conduct two steady hours of operations

Here Stan and Joel are switching out the grain terminal.

Later, Normand working with Mike Hamer moved bulkhead flats from the siding to lift onto their mixed freight local.

You can see Ron and Andrew working the Stbd coal mine in the distance. Joel and Stan are busy shifting their locomotives onto a 12 car set of BNSF hoppers

Her is Andrew throttling up his coal drag while Ron watches to make sure the turnouts are clear at the other end of the classification yard.

Ron and Andrew wait as Stan backs his BC Rail locomotives into the yard.

Bobby did an oops, accelerating instead of stopping, which caused an accident in the container terminal. Everyone came over to take part in this highlight of the night. The O scale figure was knocked clean over by these HO cars. Deadly deed did not go un-noticed

Stan and Joel are hard at work pulling these grain cars to the flour Mill

Here is Bobby enjoying these pair of GP60Ms

Of course the beavers really had a good time and had moved to the VIA station near Hamer curve. They really enjoyed kabitzing with the passengers and watching the main line action.

Here you can see Bill and Jim operating Richmond yard: the time saver. They did it their way yet it did get done and done well.

Mike and Normand were busy switching the Cement plant

From this Angle you see the NAR SD38-2 about to latch onto a cement hopper as the BNSF Coal Drag goes by on the main.

It was a great night and we had Beer, pop, tea, coffee cake and cheese curdes after. All was done by 22:00 as we were on the road the next day to Kingston for their railroad show and the NMRA SLD meeting.

A Snowstorm-delayed Session Satisfies

2008-02-24T10:59:00.004-05:00

A trainful of railfans arrived at Mr. Hamer's last Friday night, ready for a long-delayed session on the B & M. Mike was proud to show off his latest purchase...a Boston and Maine Rail Diesel Car equipped with interior lighting and sound. Mike purchased this commuter engine from local modeller Michel Boucher. The train was captured approaching the New England River Bridge after having exited Marshall Cut.

Here we see Mr. Hamer, making up a train at the duckunder entrance to the layout room. The yard at this location poses as both Lowell Junction (south) and Portland (north) depending on train movements.

Rob is Mike's crewmate and they seem to be really enjoying themselves outside the trainroom. Along with Mr. Hamer, he is blocking the traffic for train MP3, a hotshot manifest freight.

B&M Alco switcher #1170 is busy working the north siding in town in the shadows of the large Phillips Furniture Factory. The crew aboard this Black Beauty is kept busy throughout the evening spotting and lifting cars from local industries and setting out traffic for mainline trains.

Here's Jim in the layout room. While the image is dark from this perspective, Mike's layout was designed using the old museum trick known as the shadowbox technique.

This "going away" shot was taken by a local railfan out near the inbound end of Marshall Cut at Milepost 39. The FT AB pairing #4217 are seeing their last days along the B&M as they will be traded in for parts to produce the latest purchase of GP9's in the new Bluebird paint scheme. Today, the engines are hauling outbound B&M train MP3 originating in Mechanicville, NY and terminating in Portland, Maine.

Bob's all smiles! Who wouldn't be...when you're operating trains with the boys of the Friday Night Group.

Close up shot of milk car: The local crew has just placed this milk car on the milk track leading into Marshall Creamery...a busy facility in North Dover. Milk trains are found on the headend of passenger trains due to their quick requirements to get to market.

We spot Ron working the town switcher as he is standing near the Boundary Road location on Mike's layout. Boundary Road is located on the outskirts of the town of North Dover.

Joel is Ron's crewmate for the local switcher job in town. Judging by all that traffic on the sidings in North Dover, they will be kept rather busy today. Joel is perusing the scene in an attempt to spot a particular freightcar.

Later on in the session, Fred is at the controls and he's all smiles thinking that he's got the challenges of the task well in control.

Howard is caught studying some of Mike's latest handiwork with craftsman structures. Looks like Howard, a craftsman modeller himself, is suitably impressed.

Here are the lads watching excerpts from the feature length film The Secret Trains Of New York City which included scenes from ten local layouts.

There were also just a few calories consumed - but we were all very disciplined and watched our waistlines closely.

It was an evening worth waiting for.

A Friday night Teaser

2008-02-24T10:29:00.004-05:00

A Friday Night Teaser

Before you get to see all the shots and thoughts, we need your input. Because our layouts are typically well lighted, often with 5K flourescents, we tend not to use flash taking pictures around the layout. That can be a problem with people not on the layout since the light falls where it's intended - on the layout - not in the surrounding area where all the photogenic participants are.

We then can have heavy shadows that make it difficult to see all those smiling faces. Even on the layout, since we don't set up extra lighting for these sessions, details can be lost. But ... we have Photoshop. We can colour correct, apply auto contrast and auto levels, and adjust the brightness/contrast settings. Even so, I personally find that fill flash is required to eliminate enough shadow to see the full gloriosity of those smiles.

The problem arises because different folks see different brightnesses, probably due to the differences in our monitors. I suspect it varies too between work and home for the same reason. So ... here are two sets of shots: a train full of happy railfanners and a happy host.

Let's have some feedback on preferences for the brighter or darker pics. Just click on the Comments link and say something.

Thanks all. Now comes the session (well, after Photoshopping them all). Jim

Finally, an operating session

2008-02-16T11:57:00.008-05:00

Between sickness and winter snowstorms, we haven't managed a scheduled session since mid-December. John's all better now, though, and Mike will be hosting his re-scheduled session next week.

It's been so long since we had an 'official' session, I forgot about pictures until Mr. Mike got out his camera and started taking some. By that time, we were no longer around the Vancouver Island Logging layout, so Mike took a couple of us sitting around chatting and consuming calories.

Things weren't quite as smooth as usual, with the layout not having been operated for quite a while. Also, I've spent a fair bit of time under the layout working on the mid-level section and pushing around the wiring a bit too much. Even with a checkout a couple of days earlier, there were more glitches than I would like to have seen. Nevertheless lots of trains were run, people had fun and there were no serious problems. Here, the Shay is pushing a cut of coal empties past the tipple.

Mike took the first train north, John following with the train south from Nanaimo. Bob took on Ladysmith and called back "Aren't there supposed to be some cars at the wharf?". Well, Mike and John took care of that, dropping a number of loads for shipment off island. Next, Bob remembered that he also had to handle the log and coal cars in the Victoria Lumber yard. No more comments about nothing to do after that.

Mr Mueller took on the Chemainus log dump (now who would have guessed we'd find him there?) and the run down from the middle level, making the first official crossing of the new log bridge over the Chemainus river. It's only temporarily installed so that it can be removed for work on the riverbed.

Stanley took the log train to transfer the logs that Mike had brought down south to Chemainus.

You can see the preliminary layout of spline showing where the double switchback will be located on the way up to the Victoria lumber show. It will work its way up both sides of the mountain via two cuts so that operators around the layout will be able to follow at least some of the progress of the Shay as it pushes its empties up a 5 or 6 degree rise to the top.

After all our hard work, we relaxed and solved many of the (railroad) world's problems while we had some tea and calories (nicely baked by Pat) to work off over the weekend. Now, back to work on more scenery for the upcoming Bobber convention in April!

Bytown Bobber on schedule!

2007-12-21T11:47:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed that the postings are not as frequent or regular as they have been in seasons past. A large contingent of FNG-ers are NMRA - St Lawrence Division members, and are helping with the NMRA - Niagara Frontier Region convention, due to arrive in Ottawa on April 25, 2008.

Visit the convention website at www.bytownbobber.org

A number of layouts that have appeared here on the blog will be included in tours available through the convention, so you'll be able to meet some of the boys in person! In the meantime, the FNG will continue with a reduced operating schedule in favour of getting some of the layouts ready for visitors.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The LVN Meltdown

2007-12-15T11:20:00.001-05:00

Well it was 14 December and the FNGers were over in force. From Left to right you have: John, Fred, Mike, Bob, Paul (From Montreal), Stan, Joel, Jim and Ron. By the smiles on their faces, it looks like they had a good time running trains and kabitzing.

An hour and a half into the session, we had a melt down and the loco net started to send out random signals. It got to the point that the five operations came to a halt and we went to digitrax diagnosis. We purged the system, Had to re-address half the power and reconsist everything.

By then the boys were into coffee, tea, pop, beer, cheese curds and cake. Conversations were enthusiastic about railroading in the Kettle Valley and I got unsolicited offers for a book of ink sketches from that area. Not for sale:)

After we got things up and running again, a few of the boys began to operate some more as the challenge of the Richmond yard time saver got them pack to the puzzle. And Jim had to get back to his local freight in Shelby.

Mike Hamer brought over a few of his new craftsman structures. Karl from Surrey Custom Models produced a great kit called "Morty's Market" . He placed it along with the Bar Mills Shackpack in among the scenes so we could all appreciate the work and learn from his mistakes...Ha Ha ...I mean his great work.

All in all it was a great learning experience and I gleaned a lot about digitrax issues. I had added four new plug in terminals since the last running session and I think it stretched the loconet power supply to the max. Ron had provided valuable insight into specific wiring upgrades to fix the problem and I will work with him over the holidays to improve the situation before the next full operating session.

Another Visit to the Sunny Southwest

2007-12-01T08:07:00.001-05:00

A couple of inches of snow falling on Ottawa last evening made our visit to Bill Scobie's expanding Rio Grande Southern's layout that much more enjoyable. Bill had nine trains set up for us, and it took until 11 o'clock before the last freight pulled into Ridgeway.

Two of Bill's friends - Don from upstate New York and Joe from Pennsylvania - had made the trip for this operating session. Here we see Bill explaining a few of the changes since their last visit.

As well, Bill Meridith and his son Jason joined our Friday Night gang in enjoying this marvellous depiction of narrow gauge railroading.

Suspecting I might be the only one to think of it, I brought my camera to document some of the happy faces as they made their way through this great scenery; unfortunately, I forgot to bring the tripods, so some of the pictures may be a bit blurry. As I am just getting the scenic part of my own layout going (see the previous blog entry), I concentrated on that aspect of Bill's railroad.

Scenic details such as the dead trees and other litter oddly bring the layout to life. Remembering their effect, I have started to collect lots of modelling litter before the snow hides it entirely. The Spirea will be showing for the winter, but the two or three feet of snow covering the ground around it is likely to discourage foraging until the Spring. Leaves to be ground up in the blender are completely out of the question.

I've also remembered how good the track looked at Bill's with the ballast brought right up to the tops of the ties.

This curved switch appealed to me ...

As did this bucolic scene.

My evening started with a train from the new trackage at Teluride to Vance Junction. You can see my train cooling down at the station after completing its run.

Here's the view in the opposite direction. Both are on the upper level.

It was hot in the cab, so I took a break before checking on the other activities.

Back out on the layout, David was pulling his train into Placerville ...

Mike and Bob were filling up the tender with a bit more water ...

Fred's train was escaping ...

Stanley was struggling up the grade ...

Ron was finishing up his run ...

and both Tom and Chris were having a serious discussion.

Here are a few more shots from a very satisfying
evening.

Back to the West Coast

2007-11-17T08:53:00.000-05:00

This week was my first hosting session this season. Ten of us got together to see what the summer had wrought. Having had a mini-session on one of the alternate Fridays in October, most of the summer's bugs had been found, so the evening went fairly smoothly. Here you see first-time visitor Ron being guided by Stanley at the Victoria Lumber yard (names of the logging companies change from time to time as I try to decide whether to use real or fictional names) just north of Ladysmith.

Just a couple of miles away at the Ladysmith transfer wharf, Chris was pulling cars from the car barge, getting them ready for the first freight of the night. With a cast on my left foot, putting all the construction tools away before the session was just not something that happened.

You can just see the developing Comox logging extension at the mid level cutting across the wall above the wharf.

This view shows more of the extension as well as part of the new sky painted by my daughter Lynne. With tree-covered mountains added in plaster or paint, it will provide some great late-afternoon colour to the scene.

Meanwhile, Fred and Mike were having an active discussion with Joel and John. Perhaps Mike was debating just how much help he was going to have to give me on the fine points of preparing this week's blog entry. Not to worry, Mike; I just go back to your previous posts and follow your example, though not with nearly the panache.

Across the crew lounge, Joel and John listen intently to the words of the master.

Bob points out the developing Arbutus canyon he helped Jim to start framing. The steel trestle bridge seen often in Robert Turner's Vancouver Island books will one day appear right behind where Bob is standing. 210 feet of structural steel have been stacked nearby and are awaiting the arrival of a construction crew. Unfortunately the contract has not been let yet, so the existing plywood structure will have to suffice for another year.

Here we see a view of the Victoria/Nanaimo yard with the newly-levelled extension in place. Only four of the extension's track have been laid and already there's a suggestion for a design modification to build an escape track into it for the passenger engine. Bill and Mike work together on one train while Stanley and Ron handle another.

You can see that the overhead lighting uses reflectors rather than diffusers. The result is that the light stays pretty much concentrated on the layout, but it makes it harder to see our cheerful subjects switching the loads.

The latest interim turntable bridge, version two, was installed the day before on the layout. Based on the excellent article by Patrick Lawson on the turntable at the Russell roundhouse in Victoria, the bridge is approximately 70 feet long and still in use. You will be able to see more about it on my own blog in the near future. A pit has been dug just past the turntable for a curved ash pit - another item awaiting contract. To its left is a new water tower erected by Pierre Groulx, who travelled all the way from Lachine to install it.

Climax #2 pushes log cars out onto the Chemainus log dump ahead of an idler car, keeping most of the weight off the trestle. In the background and at water's edge, the developing rock faces can be seen. More experimentation with colouring the plaster is required before any shrubs can be allowed to grow. Trees will be planted once the nursery delivers them to the log dump.

John Mitchell’s Canada Southern Railway

2007-10-22T23:36:00.000-04:00

The FNGers started the season with a visit to John's double deck empire.

Here is a description of his layout.

The Canada Southern is designed to represent the NYC high-speed double main track through South Western Ontario in the mid-fifties. The upper level models the Windsor yard and icing facilities, the Detroit passenger terminal, the Detroit River Tunnel and the branch to the Heinz cannery in Leamington. The lower level represents the small western Ontario town of West Lorne and the division point of St.Thomas.

The layout is prototypical and operation oriented. It features NYC luxury passenger trains and high speed through freights as well as local switching. Two other railroads are modeled. The Pere Marquette (C&O) is represented by symbol freights and locals running their own trackage from Detroit to St. Thomas, while CPR passenger trains use the Detroit River Tunnel during the course of their Toronto / Detroit / Chicago routes. Extensive staging is in place to handle this traffic.

The comprehensive fleet of locomotives, passenger & freight equipment are all painted accurately for the mid 50’s paint schemes and weathered extensively. The Detroit Passenger Terminal and area are well developed scenically, with most other areas under development with building or mockups in place.

Layout Characteristics

Scale: HO
Size: 20 X 40 feet
Prototype: CSR (NYC), C&O, CPR
Locale:Detroit to st. Thomas Ontario
Period:Mid 50's
Layout style:Double level shelf with helix
Layout height:40 to 58 inches
Benchwork: Cantilevered shelf
Roadbed:Cork on Homosote and plywood
Track:ME code 55, 70, 83; Atlas 100 in staging
Turnouts: ME code 70 and 83, Atlas 83, Peco 75 and 100
Minimum radius: 24 inches, most are substantially largerl
Length of main line:160 ft. visible, 50 ft in staging, 90 ft. in helix
Scenery: Carved styrofoam
Backdrop: Painted masonite, cut out paper flats
Power system: Digitrax DCC
Operations:Switch lists, dispatcher
Typical Operating Crew: 3 to 8

Fun was had by all as we tried out a new computerized waybill system. Flimsys were rolling off the printer as we matched the prototype ops.

A very enjoyable evening we chatted about and tried a new concept of looping the layout prior to doing the tasks to lengthen the run. I think it worked rather well and certainly would be something in full operation.

Summer in N Scale

2007-10-03T09:03:00.001-04:00

Members of the Friday Night Group spent seven sessions over the summer building a coffee table layout for the CHEO hospital raffle. We posted the progress of this build on the Railroad Line Forum and there are just tons of pictures of our activities.

Here is the link to the story

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17503

Not to mention some photos below to wet your whistle. Thanks to Lisa (Mike's) wife for letting us use the house for the build as it was a great contribution to this charity.

Looking forward to the operating session that will be starting soon.

Final Session of the Season in Colorado!

2007-05-27T20:10:00.000-04:00

Stan, Bill and I were a tad late arriving Bill's place on account of us momentarily stopping at Stanley's place of work. While Stan parked the car and scurried inside, I heard the distinctive sound of a train approaching. I quickly jumped out of the car to capture this shot of the northbound O-Train arriving the University station stop. Moments before, it had crossed the span over the Rideau River.

I knew that the Carleton University station stop was the only location along this north-south corridor where there is a passing siding. As I turned around to see the train pull to a stop, I realized that the southbound had been waiting in the station all this time. It was great getting the chance to capture a "meet" of these two trains!

As soon as Bill began offering up jobs on the railroad, Rob and I jumped at the opportunity to snap up a train. Two other crews were already well underway on the busier trains but that was okay. Kaz and I were assigned train 600/601, the turn from Telluride to Vance Jct. This was only a short hop, so we were afforded the opportunity to do some railfanning along the route! After bringing in some six cars to Vance Jct. our orders show that there is only a single lift on this day. The photo above indicates that we have run around our train and will shortly begin our climb up to Telluride located at 8756 feet above sea level.

We are well on our way out of Vance Jct. climbing the grade past Illium at 8120 feet. An ardent railfan managed to frame this image nicely between the tall timbers. Note too, the timbers on the trestle! Bill Sn3 Scobie's layout is a joy to behold. The track is all handlaid, the scenery is spectacular and now Bill is utilizing a computer software package which generates his work orders for each session saving him countless hours of work in the process! That must be why we always see Bill with a great big smile on his face!

The town of Ridgeway at 7002 feet above sea level is the lowest location Bill models and all other destination distances along the line are defined from this point of origin. With the immense station, water tower and expansive yard off in the distance, this can be a very busy location along the line.

Yes, that's one immense yard at Ridgeway. Bill tells me that there are just over 230 cars on the railroad. I would've imagined that on a layout some 60x25 or so you would think there would be more...but we have to remember that it's the operations that dictate the car numbers.

This wonderful scene is located at the end of the peninsula which houses the huge industry at Vanadium. We are near the location known as Deep Creek at an elevation 7723 feet and some 35 miles out of Ridgeway.

Stan and Bob are manning this train as they pass the station platform at Placerville. Bill's locomotives run like a charm and look magnificent!

This train is hugging the cliffs as it descends downgrade into Ophir. There is a long passing siding before the town and this train quite likely will have some switching to do when it reaches Ophir.

The roundhouse and turntable outside Ridgeway are a-buzz with activity providing railfans with numerous subjects for their shutters. Bill certainly has a wonderful stable of horses on the layout!

Well, one would think that perhaps a sighting of a Yeti or Sasquatch might be in order in the high hills of Colorado...so what might these creatures be, we ask?

Why, no need to worry...just two locals who have escaped incarceration. We are quite confident that the authorities will have them captured by nightfall and they'll once again prove no harm to society! (Happy Birthday Peter!)

You always meet great people at Bill's train sessions and his buddy (Dan or Don) from Rochester, New York is no different...a wonderful fellow. Thanks for sharing your fine stories with the boys of the Friday Night Group!

Here he is...the man of the house! Bill, you're looking great laddie! Thanks so much for sharing your truly remarkable layout with the Friday Nighters. We always look forward to a visit to your Sn3 layout!

Lounge Lizards and Layout Wizards

2007-05-05T12:56:00.000-04:00

Eleven lads descended upon Bill's place for a fine session of train operations last night. Train running, however, was not the only thing we were celebrating. That's Bob crooning the "Happy Birthday" song to our hirsute friend, Chris, who is all smiles as his dear wife let him share the occasion with his beloved train nuts...I mean, friends. Bob did one better, though...for this night was his wedding anniversary!
John, not to be outdone, leads a chorus of the birthday song while Fred and Jim on his flanks try to figure out which key John is leading them in. One thing is for sure...the squeals on the flanges in the train room sounded better than this choral ensemble!
Joel is ecstatic that Bill has the actual track plans for the rolling mill which which Bill has modelled on the layout that he is oblivious to all the noise around him. You see, Joel also wants to emulate Ottawa Central's operations, so these maps provided to Bill from the company are a gold mine, although Joel will most likely model something different along the OCR than L'Orignal.
Rick, sitting on the stairs, is wondering to himself how he can make a fast exit from the choir rehearsal and Mike, on the right, is trying to tell Joel that this is not always what happens on a Friday night. Joel simply wonders what he got himself into seeing as he is a recent member!
As for Bill, he's got it right. For he's pointing to the train room, the true reason we came to his place this evening. Yes, he's all smiles as his crew lounge and layout can easily accomodate the eleven operators with room to spare. Train ops began promptly at 8:00 PM and continued to well after 11:00 PM. It was just after midnight when the lads departed having enjoyed a wonderful evening. Enjoy the pics!

The first call went out at 8:00 PM and Joel and I jumped at the opportunity to run a train. Our first job on the evening would be as the OLOR crew up in Hawksbury aboard the leased CN unit 3219. Our task on this day would be to lift two loaded cars of shingles from the shingle plant (against the wall in the picture) and to procure two loaded gons of coil and four empties from the Rolling Mill.
With our train assembled and air brakes checked we began to roll downgrade from Hawksbury on a slow order toward the Glen. Our train was spotted below the highway overpass just south of town as we began the hour-long trip down to Glen Robertson. Check out the heavy equipment on the old dirt road beneath the bridge!
We know we're near the Glen when we spot the familiar landmark...an old wooden road overpass. In a few moments we will arrive the wye at Glen Robertson where we'll wait for the mainline CN train up from Coteau.
In no time at all, the CN mainline freight arrives with interchange traffic and after a swift exchange, both trains will be on their way back to their destination of origin. That orange Sclair car on the siding above the tracks certainly adds colour to the scene!
A little used siding in Glen Robertson serves as a storage/team track for now. Eventually, a plant is planned for this location which should equate to greater traffic on the spur.

With the acquisition of new freight cars, the OLOR is parking some of its equipment in sidings away from Coteau and rumour has it that some tankcars from other lines are stored at Walkley Yard in Ottawa. Bill, seeing as how we have to reach cars on the siding in behind the backdrop on the layout, you should consider extending the "lead" on the far left near the entrance to the furnace room to allow greater flexibility for switching in this area.
Sure, there's no scenery here at Coteau in staging, but switching this yard is still a blast! Rick seems to be really enjoying himself as he is partnered with the Mikey Man on this job!

Some recent developments on the layout include Bill painting all light surfaces with black paint. This little trick has worked to tie in all the scenes and make the layout in this area seem more complete than it actually is.
We all love Bill's scratchbuild of the white farm house located at the junction in the Glen. It's got great roof lines and curves. For those who are concerned about windows affecting the scenery, there's no need to worry here. When the trains run through beautiful scenes like Bill has and when operators are focussed on their car cards, switch lists and train orders, they lose sight of the fact that windows are there above the scene.
Indeed, this is one fine layout Bill has on the go. He has created a superb depiction of the operations of trains to the east of Ottawa, an area great for railfanning and for stimulating layout building!

OCR Open House

2007-04-28T21:17:00.000-04:00

The boys of the Friday Night Group ran trains at Mike Mueller's place last evening. Alas, no pictures from the session, but some of the lads reconverged at the Ottawa Central's Walkley Yard Open House the following morning. Here are some pics for your viewing. These next two shots I've posted for our Alco fans out there...one showing the port side of a diesel locomotive...
...and the other showing the starboard side of one of its brethren! Take note of the "stop" sign painted blue. Michel Boucher has created some of these in HO scale to hold trains on the grade. He used a railjoined and soldered some wire and a sign to create them. You simply "pinch" them to the rail and they work to hold a consist still.Here we see two RS18s in front of the shed. The red unit in behind is the 1840 shown in the previous photograph. Thanks Chris for this shot! Notice the trucks hanging around the area.

This van was involved in an accident this past week when the crew of the train failed to realize that a van was on a track they were working. The trucks took most of the force and were damaged.
While the big Alcos certainly impress, so do their smaller switcher brethren! Yes, with the early morning fog and mist which turned to rain, the day wasn't the best, but, hey, whenever you're near trains it's always sunny!
Yup, a railroad yard has many goodies to share and the railfan has the "pick of the crop"! Gotta love them there Alcos!
Who wouldn't want one of these puppies on their layout? With the little snow we experienced this winter, I guess this fellow stayed right where Chris and Joel and I spotted it.
Ah, yes! Ottawa's O-Train made a guest appearance as did a VIA train seen in the background. Both trains were open to the public for perusal with people on board to answer any questions the public would have. Who knows...maybe this youngster will someday drive a train now that he has been introduced to the controls inside the cab of the O-Train!

An open house offers interesting cars to be visited and studied as well as easy-to-spot work crews. How about modelling this example...anyone interested? For you fellas who model the modern era, the graffiti on this car could be modelled simply by using a white gel pen!
What would an open house be without the "Cab Ride" and the kids certainly had smiles splashed across their faces! Even with the damp weather, their spirits certainly weren't dampened!
Here's Friday Nighter, Chris, shaking hands with our good friend (and diesel custom painter) Charls Gendron. The 50-tonner was a workhorse for the Thurso Nation RR. This is one beautiful piece of rolling stock, the Bytown on the Thurso & Nation RR. All this restored equipment was brought over from the National Museum of Technology for the Open House. We certainly appreciate all the work the volunteers do in the restoration department.
Well, I normally wouldn't stand in this location with a diesel bearing down on me, but on this day...it was allowed! (big grin!)
You'll never know what kind of things you'll discover that ride on a railroad track! That Central Vermont crane showed off its capabilities throught the morning.

As the caboose always says..."b-d-b-d-b-d....that's all folks!" I hope you enjoyed the tour of the Ottawa Central Open House as much as I enjoyed snapping pictures of it!

Car Cards on the E&N

2007-04-21T14:11:00.001-04:00

Jim has been keeping himself busy with Bob's assistance as he has recently developed a fine car card system for his train ops sessions with the boys of the Friday Night Round. Let's examine what Jim has on the go!

The photograph to the right shows a car card for CN 40' boxcar number 520176. It indicates that the CN car is currently residing in Chemainus yard and needs to be lifted for its destination point at Nanaimo. This is event 2 with event 1 sharing the bottom of the card in an upside-down fashion. Of course, events 3 and 4 are on the backside of the card.

Jim found the logo for the various railroads on the Internet and they certainly dress up the card nicely. The colour and length of each freightcar is indicated on the cards as well. The system worked admirably last evening and the boys caught on very quickly with many already experienced in the use of this carcard method.

We had a very interesting visitor amongst our midst for the session. Chris, on the right, was in town on business from his home in British Columbia. Like many model railroaders, he checked out the local hobby shops. Well, Chris lives in a remote location of BC so he depends upon mail order business for his hobby demands and he orders frequently from Jeff's Lark Spur Line. He met John Friday afternoon while visiting the store and John invited him along to Jim's. Chris is a pilot and he's been flying since 1974. He also worked as a train operator for the real railroads in BC and Alberta for ten years and spent another year on the train as crewman. Chris really enjoyed the session at Jim's and he visited my place this morning to run trains on the B&M.

This photo depicts a minor change to Jim's layout which has made a major impact as far as operations go. Jim has lengthened the peninsula which shares both terminal yards on the layout. By adding about 16 or so inches across seven classification tracks, there is room for between fifteen and twenty additional freight cars. This has added immensely to the switching at both terminuses of the railroad. At the time of the photo, the ballasting was still settling and Jim will line up the added shelf after all trackwork has settled.

We see Bob working the yard at Chemainus while Chris looks on. Notice the mountain formations beginning to develop. Ah, Jim...all that scenery should be done in time for the big convention! (Big smile) Chemainus, along with Ladysmith, are the two locations along the line where train meets can take place...and Bob, acting as crewmate to me and overall dispatcher craftily arranged train times to ensure these meets would occur. Good job Bobby!

Yes, Jim's layout is a work in progress, for sure...and we don't ask him to clean up for the session! We wouldn't want to stop his progress for too long, after all. That being said, the trackwork is clean and all Jim's track is handlaid...a beautiful sight to see. Take a look at the track curving out of the yard as it crosses over two parallel tracks. You can't find that in storebought track packages!

While the plaster may still be white and the styrofoam pink, that does not hinder the FNG from operating a layout! Here we see a close-up view of the yard in Chemainus...a rather busy location. Mike M. and Rick worked the log dump while mainline trains came and went dropping and lifting sundry traffic.

Now, this is what I call two happy campers...and why wouldn't they be? They're in a model railroad room with a bunch of great friends! That's Fred on the left and Chris with a big grin on his face to the right. Chris's smile is extra big on this night as he just found out that he is the proud grandpa to a tiny little granddaughter, Alison Lela Sandra! Indeed, the skies are always blue around these two lads...or is that the air that is blue! (smile)
Remember that classic movie, "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum!" Well, a funny thing happened on the way to our ops session. After picking up Stan, I convinced Bill that the quicker way at that time of night to get to Jim's would be to head south to Walkley and east to the 417. Lo and behold, we spot black belches of air beyond the trees to starboard. I snapped this shot quickly from the moving vehicle. Didn't get a chance to shoot the three Alcos that were stopped at a signal as they were too far away! Oh well, that one got away. I wonder if they had their car cards with them?

Livin' On the LVN

2007-04-15T12:03:00.000-04:00

Indeed, life is worth livin' on the LVN, aka...the Lyon Valley Northern. Fifteen people were treated to an entertaining and busy session of train operations at Chris's place this past Friday. Here are some pics for your perusal!

I've chosen this photograph that Chris had taken to showcase the colourful railroad he has constructed in just over one year' s time.

Let's step back in time to the weekend before, Easter. Joel and I headed over to Chris's place to assist him in creating countless lumber loads so that his Richmond Yard scene (including the lumber mill) could be finished to some degree before the session. Using Henry Ford's "assembly line" method, we constructed tons of the loads, some of which are seen in the photo to the left.

As part of that same work session, Chris asked me if I could "resurrect" the trees from the Alder Model station diorama I created for him and place the stand of foliage up against his painted backdrop. With the careful use of a putty knife, the entire ridge was removed and placed in the back of Richmond Yard blending in perfectly with Chris's newly painted backdrop.

While all the other lads were running mainline trains on the evening, Chris asked me to take Don "under wing" and work Richmond Yard. Don was excited to bring along his newly painted and lettered road switcher and we used this puppy to switch the yard. Here it is spotted working the essential runaround track on the timesaver section of the layout. We had a blast working the yard and finished early enough to run the train we made up around the layout!

Chris and Don enjoy a smile after Chris, with the help of John reacquired Don's locomotive address. Took a while, but it worked out in the end.

The boys are standing in front of the caboose tracks at Richmond Yard. This yard area includes the large engine facility as well, so whoever works here has quite a lot of things to consider.
We spot Gerry working the coal train near the cement plant. Gerry, it was great having you out for the session as we miss you when you can't make it out!

No, that's not a "fast clock" on the wall. The time reads 10:10 PM and train ops went on until about 10:30 on this evening followed by refreshments.
Because of the larger number of attendees, Chris created triple crews, a very unusual move. I'd be curious to find out the views of the lads how the communication went with three to a team.

We spot Gerry, Bill and Jim drilling the coal mine located in the corner of the room. The double mainline is spotted curving into the big classification yard where we see some intermodal traffic ready to be spotted or lifted.

Chris uses up his space in a clever manner and the large cement plant is a case in point. It is situated on an angled corner of the layout with a single spur leading into the facility.

I've created two road crossings for Chris here, one that can be seen just beyond the plant entrance and the other located on plant property. Visitors can appreciate the weathering techniques Chris employs on his factories.
Another view of the cement plant shows the angled corner of the layout in this area and the roadwork. It is here where Chris has utilized the static grass method in various layers around the plant. Running your fingers across the grass feels just like a brushcut!
Every train ops session has its "oops" moment and last Friday evening was no different. No names will be mentioned, but I believe we have a trio of offenders here! (couldn't resist)

Seems like the engineer and crew were not in full communication with each other! Yikes!

No damage done, but the road inspector had his camera man on scene and we are certain there will be a full inquiry!

Hey Chris, aren't those bumpers there to serve a purpose? (just teasin)

Just a handful representation of who attended Chris's. We see Joel, Ron, me, Don, Chris with John kneeling in the centre.

Eenie-meenie-minie-moe...who's the handsomest of them all?

Thanks, Chris, for a very rewarding evening of train ops.

Your wide aisle width certainly allows for numerous operators!