Bad Day On The Battenkill

605 and 4116 (both short hood forward) derailed just short of MP 1 eastbound at Greenwich on Tuesday March 8th while pulling the flanger. Leading truck of the 605 skewed badly towards the (north) hillside due to the accumulated ice. After many attempts to jack/block/crib during the next two days finally the decision was made to bring in RJ Corman. They arrived on Sunday morning and two hours later both locos and the flanger were tucked away successfully at the engine house back in Greenwich.

Earlier on late Friday afternoon "borrowed" Pan Am 352 powered five hot cars north from Eagle Bridge to the mill and returned that same evening to EB several hours later.

Cully

Brad's Op-Session

These are some shots of our operating session the other night (2/27). We started around 3:30 and went til around 11:30 with an hour lunch. Except for sore feet, we really don't realize how long we've been going. In the pictures are Lianne and JR Stevens, Tim Stockwell, Bill Bibby and my wife Katherine (keeping Bill entertained). A shot of my train sheet from the days running. We had 17 trains show on the main which includes the trains off the SAR and locals that only OS at one or two Cabins. If we ever run more mainline trains, I'll have to do something about all those locals or I'll run out of room fast.

Lianne is the conductor on SC-2 spotting a hopper at Norlite with the 453 and 2311.

In the Crew Room is JR at the throttle of SC-2 while Bill and Katherine chat by the fire.

In Mechanicville, # 37 has just arrived at the station with Lianne at the throttle while Tim is getting ready for a return trip up the SAR with SM16. Bill is at his post on the B&M side where he can see all that's happening in the yard.

I gave Bill a throttle and now he has to figure out what to do with it.

Tim working SM16 on the SAR at Towle and Son Sand and Gravel using borrowed D&H 7319 and the SAR 77.

Enjoy, Brad Peterson



MM&A At Newport Marina

I was out overnight celebrating the arrival of March 1st! This is the month where signs of spring start to appear around us in Vermont. MM&A train 710 with assigned B39-8 8569 seemed like an obvious night photo candidate, and I waited in Richford until I heard them departing from above the border in Farnham, Quebec before heading over to this spot in Newport to set up. Railfan rule number six: "Always make certain your train leaves its terminal before you do." Rolling into the city, the bank air temp display reads twenty two above, not bad for March 1st. Then I drove down to access the overlook I had in mind to shoot from, and problems begin to appear already concerning "signs of spring", LOL! The view from the overlook is spectacular! But......it features a full northern exposure along Lake Memphremagog which stretches many miles north across the border........and the wind is howling out of the north! Snow squalls come and go in bursts.......snowflakes flying by me horizontally. Its because of nights like this that my fleece pants resurface atop the debris field the back seat has become in June! Ha,ha,ha! They stay in the car for occassions such as this. Oh but the view here! Once I have added the extra layers of clothes and start setting up the lights along the tracks everything falls into place. A big part of the fun of night photography for me is just getting the lighting "set up" for me. And with this being my first visit here once I finsh setting up out comes the camera and tripod and the fine tuning begins. When I drove in here tonight I thought it odd that the sidewalk to the overlook was'nt opened up, plowed or something. The observation revealed a hint of what was to come! Ha,ha,ha! Oh but the view of a train passing by. So trying a test shot I see a couple adjustments to the lighting I want to make, I figure I have time and jump back into the civic to drive down below. While I finish moving a couple lights around, I hear a single blast of an air horn from up the lake! Not realizing the sound is being "carried well" by the north wind I drive back up to the camera to wait.........and wait. The camera strap is flapping horizontally, the snow has stopped, the wind has not. Ahhh, this is why I bought my new tripod which will support eighty pounds! Ha,ha,ha! I look down at the light stands, anchored with sand bags, the flash units atop them weaving in the wind. I remind myself, its amazing this system works at all in weather like this! Thank god its March or it would be really cold out! Ha,ha,ha! Two small city plow trucks go down over the crossing plowing, and they courteously avoid taking down the light stands along the street. Then the air horn again closer this time. From my perch I can look squinting across the end of the lake here and spot Newport Marina, and the outline of the open fill I shot 8569 on this past summer. With train speed of perhaps ten or twenty mph in places, there should be no surprise appearances here. A bucketloader starts moving snow around beyond the tracks, leaving me contemplating what next? This driver also avoids taking down the lights stands around the building, nice! But........I don't really want a bucketloader in my night photo eh? Then I notice it! The tracks in the distance across the lake and above Newport Marina are lit up. They made it down the hill! And silently 8569 appears then disappears behind the marina, emerging to cross the fill coming towards me. I fire off an awareness flash for the crew, not realizing they will have time at ten mph to count each light stand as they pass through the lighting setup! But only the building is lit up in the test shot! The flashes lighting up the train don't go off. A second try, same results. I think, well........at least we are not 2000 miles out tonight! Ha,ha,ha! Its no small wonder why, looking down at nearby flash units, the Pocket Wizard controllers bouncing around in the wind. Then out from behind the bluff comes 8569, snow all over the place, into position she arrives, I mentally remind myself that this would be a great time for the lighting to work! LOL! And press the shutter.............and the lighting does its thing! With a big smile I give the crew a wave as they pass by underneathe me, the engineer giving me a couple toots in return. I watch the short train pass by, thinking what a wonderful spot to catch 8569 at...........then head for the warmth of the civic to begin rescuing the light stands. Shot in Newport, VT on March 1, 2011 at 04:10 with the 5D and Zeiss ZF 35/2 lens. Please enjoy! Comments are welcome.




All The Best In 2011;

Gary

Jim Brooks's D&H

The station is constructed of Evergreen styrene, the window frames and the entry door are commercial products but the freight doors and phonebox are scratchbuilt, the roof is from clevermodels and is a printout on cardstock glued to the styrene roof. I modeled the station roughly as it stood in 1979. I still need to add the electric meter and the "FOR RENT" sign on the south side of the structure. I'am currently working on building the rest of the structures in Thompson, Pa and plan to build the entire scene to be incorporated in a future layout.

The Spreader is a Walthers kit, I did not build or paint this one but I decaled, detailed and weathered it, I tried to weather it to match the picture on pg 114 of the D&H color guide(yellow book). I have a second one that I will be building and plan to super detail it with air and hydr lines as well as some specific D&H details and it will be a red one which is also on the same page of the color guide.

The Hi-wide is mounted on a Walthers HD depressed center flat with GE reporting marks, the load itself is actually a hollow box constructed from balsa wood and is resting on 3 short sections of I-Beams, I used some styrene angle pieces to make the brackets that are welded to the car to hold the load in place. The load is not glued to the car and can be removed in 1 piece, the GE logo on the box is where I used some modelers license but I thought it was a nice touch.

Jim Brooks

More of West Waterford

Kings station and logging company.

Wooden trestle bridge for logging line.

80 ton shay heading up the mountain.

These camps are located 1 mile south of Putnam Station on Lake Champlain. The water will be added later after the docks are added.

Mark

Mark Oliviere's Layout Update

I finally got around to sorting through my layout photos, here is the logging company and a D&H freight going by Kings station.

The beginning of the new tunnel located near the trestle bridge. The old exsisting layout I saved and added to it.

Completed tunnel. Fred prepaired the plaster and sorted through the trees for Dave. Dave glued the grass and ground cover then placed the trees on the mountain. I took care of the construction of the frame/screen work, tunnel portals and staining.

A day out hunting.

This is the main power distribution and monitoring panel for the layout. There is also some controls for the turnouts on the module that the panel is mounted to. There are 4 other control panels around the layout for the different modules.


Enjoy, Mark Oliviere



The Afternoon Milk

The Afternoon Milk has left most of its train at Hollister's and is holding on to one car as it shoves back to the water tower at the Skenesborough Station in the early 1950s. Head Trainman Jimmy Wood is seen riding the top to protect the movement.

Things are quiet in the late 70s at the Skenesborough Shop.  There is no Slate Picker today so the Sharks are shut down while the 404 an Ex LV unit waits to lead a trio of Alcos north to Rouses Point. 

Jim Lafayette

More Progress On Deans Railroad

More progress today. Cut in several key switches and cross-overs. Made a jig to mark the second main center line, followed by cork road bed and track. Finally a test run. Next time we'll be installing 18 gauge feeders, a 12 gauge bus, cicuit breakers and a Digitrax Chief DCC system. Soon to follow will be sidings, industries, the yard, an interchange or two, a staging yard and engine servicing tracks.

Enjoy! Chris Rittner & Dean Splittgerber Jr.

The Big E Report

On Saturday January 29th I made the trek to Springfield, MA for the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show. Here are some of the neat things I'd like to share.

Southern New England "O" scale

City Classics....Go Steelers!

 Awesome U25B "Executive Line" from Bowser.

 New Bowser "Executive Line"Century ALCo C-630, pre-production.

 NY&OW Historical Society

 New From Bachman, RS-3's

 Bachman, D&H Hopper

 Bachman, I Love NY boxcar

 From ExactRail...

I bought one of these ExcatRail PS-2CD Covered Hoppers!

 From our very own local CH&R Structures , The company house...

 Tower B in Albany, NY

 and the rooftop water tank.

 From InterMountain, the new SD20-2Ws in HO and N scale.

From Custom Model Railroad.......great downtown structures.

From Mark Williams of Imagine That! Laser Art Products....the most impressive boothe at the show by far!

 From Bar Mills, really nice expanded booth this year!

 Nice building seminar, way to go Bar Mills!

 Cobleskill Coal from Branch Line Trains.

 My new favorite structure from Branch Line!

 XO Tower in Mechanicville, TMB Custom Models , he built this from the magizine article and produced the magizine article for Rail Model Journal. Awesome Stuff!'

Me and the VTR Moose!

 Atlas had a nice booth the new GP-40-2 (W)

Woodland Scenics had a great booth....lots of new stuff.

Rob D