Good morning from Sunny and Mild Northeast Ohio! Russell, like your N&W 4-8-0, I have a couple of those in brass, makes me want to get them out and use them at the club. Managed to get a couple of cars done this week: Proto 2000 50' Single Door Boxcar that I converted to a centered double door boxcar. Car was painted with Scalecoat II Black, Boxcar Red and Silver Paints then lettered with Champ Decals. The NP was alone among the Northwest railroads that built 50' Boxcar with centered double doors. They were mostly built in the late 50's and repainted in this scheme in the late 60's along with the removal of the roofwalk and lowering the non-brakewheel ladders. Used mostly in moving lumber from the Northwest to areas all around the US. Exactrail PS 4427 CF Covered Hopper Kit, painted with Scalecoat II MOW Gray paint and lettered with Microscale Decals. The Louis Dreyfus Company was one of the big 4 agribusiness companies that leased hundreds of high capacity covered hoppers for the export grain business in the mid 60's and later years. A picture I took awhile back at the Strongsville Club, SP GP40P, SD45T-2 and SD45 on a general freight. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
A screen capture of a video I just finished; ATSF 717 departing Hannah Vista yard on the Baumgardner Local.
Here are a couple of strange, different, photos for you. I would guess that not too many of us have actually seen or visited a railroad wreck out in the boonies. Since my dad was a hoghead on the T&NO I got to visit several that were close to town. Here is one, image shows Jan 8 1956 on it. This was East of El Paso but that is about all I am sure of. In one you can see an F-3 or 7 on the shoofly. Can you imagine the racket that made or, if nobody is around to hear it, does it not make noise? ? ? Be well, Carl
I was looking out the rear vestibule of the westbound SP Golden State in November 1945 somewhere in NM. All of a sudden there were a bunch of boxcars, possibly others, spread randomly all over both sides of the single line track. I was only 10 at the time, but that was the first time I'd ever seen leftovers. Apparently I've never forgotten that image. WOW
I have seen one. In spring of 2011 driving south on US 287 between Amarillo and Childress we came upon the derailment of a coal train. There were several coal hoppers off the tracks with some being tipped over. It looked as if the coal had been all over the road but had been pushed to the side when we passed. Crews were at work to move out all the coal into dump trucks. When we passed in the other direction two days later all the coal was gone with only one empty hopper sitting on it's side between the tracks and the highway.
Yes the crews are pretty good at "the cleanup". In the case of the above images, the SP dug a very large and deep pit and just buried some of the wrecked cars. I don't know what the cargo was. The BNSF just had two of their large diesels and I think about a dozen cars on the ground, some autoracks, at Vado, New Mexico on the El Paso/Belen line. They were asking the public for help in identifying anyone messing around the tracks. They stated that someone piled ties on the rails that caused the wreck. I know that happened in the old days as I have seen it on "Gunsmoke" so it must have been true, right. Personally, my first thought was a split rail which just laid all the cars and units on there side. But heck, what do I know? ? ? No mucho! Be well, Carl
From 01/1981, my N Scale Delaware, Susquehanna & Northern RR v1.0, sized to fit into my Honda hatchback in case my work took me elsewhere. (It did.) This was a neat little railroad that I enjoyed for many years. Track is Arnold Rapido and who can forget those robust MRC throttlepacks?
Back on September 21, 1974 two tank cars exploded at the Southern Pacific Englewood Yard in Houston leading to many fires and cars being destroyed. My brother and I being young and stupid wanted to get a closer look at the devastation but of course all the roads leading to the site were barricaded. They ended up digging a huge pit and bulldozing everything into them and burring it. I guess it is all still down there. The smoke column was still awesome from a distance.
To continue with the wreck theme,growing up I lived within 500 feet of the B&O/Chessie/CSX Philadelphia Subdivision in Ridley Township, PA. The stretch of track from the signal "Chester" to the signal "Holmes" had five wrecks during the time I lived there (1963 to 1988).Three the wrecks happened at the grade crossing of our street, Fairview Road. I have to find my photos of the 1967 or 68 wreck my mom took. This weekend features a coal drag headed up by my IHC Lehigh & Hudson River 2-8-0 Consolidation. The hoppers are all Atlas Trainman 2-bay Offset Hoppers. The caboose is an Atlas Trainman Cupola Caboose. I was not too sure the locomotive could handle twelve cars and the caboose. I was pleasantly surprised when it did. Everything was running smooth until some where around the fifteenth lap. Then the loco started having trouble on this one curve that is a slight upgrade. Each lap the trouble got worse to the point the train needed a little push. Finally, it stopped on the curve with drivers spinning. I uncoupled the loco and it ran fine. However, when I used the two-finger crane to pull the consist it resisted strongly. After a bunch of head scratching, I finally began a close inspection of the cars. I discovered one of the axles on the second Erie hopper had popped out of the pin hole on the truck and the axle was jammed against the truck. Basically, the truck was being dragged by the train. Pop the axle back in and everything was running smoothly again. 1 of 3
Definitely a nice looking string of hoppers. They look well used but not used up. Those old IHC consolidations, althought it's been a while since they were produced, are nice locomotives. The price wasn't out of line at all, either. I have one lettered for the Pere Marquette. With a different cab it will be a good stand in for PM's class C (600 series) 2-8-0's. I'm thinking the IHC loco has a nice generic "medium sized steam" look that can be fairly readily made to look like any number of roads' power. All around, I have been quite pleased with it. I assume you like yours equally well.
I agree. They are good, inexpensive, and reliable. Given what they are they work for me. I had one of those highly detailed and expensive steamer. Itws delicate it seemed like everytime I ran it I had to fix this detail or that detail. I buy my locomotives to be run and to be handled. In all honesty I am not the gentlest person when comes to delicate. Too many sports and car accidents make me shaky at times. I currently have nine IHC locomotives for the layout. There are two more on the workbench I plan on removing the current road names and making them either/or NYO&W and PRSL.
