I got a call from the builder yesterday afternoon and he said the railroad just picked up TBX 3401 for it's first assignment! He told me they were loading down from the old depot slab in town so I rushed over to document it! These guys just love standing around and chatting. Meanwhile that's our train pulling up behind them. And there's our favorite gondola!
They broke her off from the train and backed her into the front track. I had to set my camera on a timer, then throw it as far into the air as I could, but check out how cool that shot turned out!
Our lazy crew finally rigged up the load and the crane came over and lifted it into place. Here's our crew getting everything tied down and secure.
And once again, before I knew it, the job was complete and our TBX car rolled off towards her Illinois destination around the horse shoe curve. But I didn't stop there! I jumped in the car and gave chase!!
I ran into position to catch this roll-by which I am quite proud of, if I do say so myself... Check out those lovely vintage Pepsi cars following 3401!
I caught up with her one last time just before she entered the tunnel, taking her far from my reaches on a single tank of gas... Where will TBX 3401 end up next I wonder.
A very nice send-off. And great train chasing there. I know how difficult it can be, with traffic and such. Especially in your car.
Really nice tarpaulin model. I saw your instructions for that somewhere. I really want to try a few with different colors.
Thanks for all the wonderful comments. This has truly been one of the funnest TrainBoard projects and I believe we haven't even seen the best part yet. Flash, yes I posted my technique for the tarp covered load over in the work bench thread. It is probably the quickest scratch build I've ever done.
I took a trip up to Streator, Illinois to do some rail fanning and spotted a newly painted Trainboard gondola with a load of scrap metal. TBX 3401 was in the Santa Fe Yard in Streator with a load of scrap metal bound for Peoria, Illinois. As I walked along the tracks toward the station, I saw a Santa Fe MOW pick-up truck with a soda machine in the back, parked beside the TBX gon. Pretty soon, a couple of guys brought a fork lift out of the workshop and climbed up to man-handle the soda machine off of the truck. At first, I thought they were going to pitch the machine into the scrap gon, but they put it in the back of another pick-up truck, instead. They finished transferring the soda machine at just about the same time I heard a locomotive moving some cars down toward the end of the yard. Shortly after I snapped this picture, the locomotive arrived to put TBX 3401 in the block of cars going south to Peoria.
TBX 3401 was shuffled from Track 3 into a block of cars going south to Peoria, Illinois...And then the Peoria block of cars was combined with other southbound blocks of cars to make up Train 152. SF Train 152 runs south from Streator, Illinois, picks up and sets out cars at an interchange track with TP&W in Eureka, Illinois, and switches Caterpillar, Libby's, and other industries in Morton, Illinois. Today, Train 152 was headed up by SF 3515, which looked like it had just been washed. I stood by the Streator station and caught a beautiful roll by as 152 proceeded south out of town.
SF Train 152 is gone and it looks like the Coke machine and fork lift will be leaving, too; so it is probably time for me to leave town, too. I'll head down to Morton and see if I can catch Train 152 dropping off that Libby's car at the Libby's Plant, and then follow TBX 3401 as it goes on to Pekin as part of the Pekin Turn.
