Tuesday in West Westford

Mark's new Bachmann Spectrum 80 Ton 3 Truck Shay with DCC and Sound, very nice.

King of the mountain! No just Mark working on the logging line scenery.

Freddie is mixing up another batch of plaster, the class yard is to the right of him.

A blurry picture of Dave working is better than no picture at all!

Man turns locomotive into soda shop

Joe Merli didn’t quite know what to do with the 1950s-era, General Motors-built E-8 passenger locomotive, but knew he couldn’t allow the 60-ton steel beast go to the scrap yard, the Schenectady Daily Gazette reports.
So he purchased the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Engine No. 5762 and had it hauled back to his small manufacturing shop off Western Turnpike, where it sat for more than a decade.
During that time, Merli’s vision for the Canal Street Historical Society began to manifest itself.
He first thought about building a replica rail station around the engine as a tribute to early-20th century American industrialism. Then Schenectady’s Wallace Armer hardware store closed in 1997 and Merli’s vision grew.
“I always wanted to do something,” he explained last week. “But the engine really inspired me.”
Over time, a pole barn by his shop was transformed into an authentic, late-19th century general store featuring many of the old shelves pulled from the Armer building.
A small drainage ditch was dug out and extended to make it look like a smaller replica of the old Erie Canal basin. And the diesel engine was painstakingly restored to bear the gray-and-white lightning stripes that were the trademark of the New York Central Railroad.
After 14 years, Merli has fully restored the exterior of the locomotive, which now awaits its new purpose as a soda fountain and malt shop attached to Merli’s growing complex of period buildings.
The original 12-cylinder diesel engine and twin-steam generators have been removed from the locomotive, leaving a cavernous space on the interior. Over the next few years, Merli plans to install a countertop for the malt shop and connect it to a replica 1880s Victorian-era train station he plans to build between the locomotive and general store.
“We’ll have a full image in here of a 1950s soda shop,” he said, surveying the locomotive’s interior.
When completed, the complex of buildings will be Merli’s personal tribute to a bygone era in the United States: a time when American ingenuity laid tracks that spanned the countryside and brought seemingly boundless prosperity to the nation. It’s a period that Merli holds with deep reverence as its monuments get chopped up by scrap metal hunters.
Years ago, the former autobody specialist started building replicas of carriages and other historic vehicles. He now operates the Merli Manufacturing Co., a 60-year-old, family-run business that has since produced period push carts and carriages for businesses across the United States, including Disneyland, Busch Gardens and Paramount Studios.
Merli’s project to build the Canal Street Historical Society is aimed at protecting a snapshot of the time period. Merli eventually wants to transfer the property and buildings over to a nonprofit organization that will act as caretaker for the historical attraction. “It’s to remind us of what we had and how proud we were of the monuments we built,” he said.
Stepping into the general store is like stepping back in time.
Through hundreds of donations and his own seemingly endless hunt for authentic period memorabilia, Merli has even stocked the shelves with rivets and bolts and assorted other supplies still wrapped in their turn-of-the century packaging. Merli has installed a track ladder that slides among the shelves as it once did in Wallace Armer more than a decade ago. He also plans to re-create the cable car that once zipped through the building to deliver change to Armer customers.
But the real showpiece is the beautifully restored locomotive. It’s the centerpiece Merli plans to use as a draw for curious passersby as they trek down Route 20.
Merli has always had a steady procession of curious travelers stopping to inspect the engine, which was once parked next to his small manufacturing shop. Those visitors have multiplied since he moved the train last week to its permanent location on a more visible stretch of tracks he built perpendicular to the road.
“People just stop and look at the train,” he said. “All week, there have been people coming out and taking pictures.”
There was even a greater spectacle during the actual move. He had the help of Ric Lucia and Mike Becker, operators of the Duanesburg-based Pro-Motion Recovery and Towing, who lifted the body with a pair of cranes, placed its rear on a set of wheels and then towed the hulking structure several hundred feet to its current location.
Becker downplayed the difficulty of moving the mammoth engine. He said the only difficulty came with maneuvering the train from its spot by Merli’s shop.
“It’s all in a day’s work,” he said.
Prior to the move, Merli was helped by Auto Body of Schenectady, which supplied him with the volumes of special primer needed to coat the body. Passono Paints of Watervliet and Art Trans Graphics of DeWitt provided him with a final coat of paint and detailing at little cost.
“If it wasn’t for these friends of mine that helped me out, this wouldn’t be here,” Merli said of the engine.
(This item appeared Sept. 29, 2008, in the Daily Gazette.)

Article from Chris and pics by Deano!!!!!

Summer Vacation Series-John Camerota

We often overlook the work that goes into keeping a railroad running. John spent his summer helping rebuild the tourist and freight line, Arcade & Attica, with your tax dollars. Money well spent as far as I'm concerned! The dramatic night shot above is the night time replacement of the main street crossing in Arcade, NY.

The"bread and butter" of the A&A sit outside the Arcade shops, getting ready for a new day.

Summer Vacation Series- Bob Chase

I did a little railfanning over at Bob Chase's B&A last week. Above shiny new C-Liners wait by an interlocking.

An old workhorse is spotting a car at the freight house.

A couple of Alco's chug up hill above the little town of Roberts Bank.

A long freight headed by a Geep 30, glides downhill under tale tails near the town of Onderdonk.

Onto to the new stuff, above the work bench, a new industrial area will be built.

Wrapping around the walls 18" deep above the work benches a main and passing siding will head to hidden and open staging.

In the east corner tracks will pass through the wall into hidden staging and branch off to the open staging yard to the left.

We see the open staging yard, behind the door to the train room. Bob moved the display cabinets under the bench work.

Summer Vacation Series- Rob Dennis

Well my summer looked a lot like the photo above. Waiting for Montreal bound Amtrak 69 to pass at Rockland, CPC 150. The engineer gives a friendly wave in the cool shade on a humid August day in the middle the of the beautiful Adirondack mountains.

I did however find time to start preparing the new train room. First I had to find out what I had and inventory it! I have a plan and maybe we can start to build this fall!

Summer Vacation Series- Chris and Rich

For all his hard work and dedication Chris Rittner has had a locomotive named after him by the Mohawk Central! Richard Eriksen had the model done by John Bezuyen of Southern Tier Modelworks. Pretty Sharp!

A nice matching trailer for the fleet too!

Summer Vacation Series- Randy Epstein

Randy says he been keeping the trains running over the summer, and added a few additions to the locomotive fleet......here are a few shots!

Summer Vacation Series- John "Cully" Cullinan

Channel 13 hires freelance mobile TV cameraman ( Tony Bucca) at the east portal last Friday, chasing the Pan Am slurry train. Cully says,"I didn't mean to wake him up, he was "oogling" the female kayakers and rafters. He claims the van has all the comforts of home, but it seems to be missing a "bidet". Caught him fluffing his pillow and warned him about the approaching slurry train!".

VRS 301-303 at North Hoosick Bridge with slurry train

. Pan Am 380 with the slurry train through Zoar, MA.

Summer Vacation Series- Mark Oliviere

We have been very busy over the summer working on my layout. Every Tuesday night we meet between 6:00 and 9:00 PM. The first picture is the beginning of the railroad yard that will be located under a mountain. We used the same technique for the roadbed that we used on the first yard. A piece of 1/4" plywood with a cork border.

The Second shows the yard nearly completed. Once completed the tracks will be adjusted so they are all straight. If you look closely you can see the jumper wires for the tracks.

The third is the beginning of the logging line that will run through the mountain When the initial logging line is built it will have 4 switchbacks.

The fourth is a close up of the approximate location of the trestle bridge for the logging line. The bridge was on my previous layout for the logging line. This bridge was built from a 2x4. The 2x4 was cut down on a large table saw then cut to size on my hobby table saw. The ties on the bridge were leftovers from the large trestle bridge that I built on my previous layout.

This is part of the mountain that is located over the second railroad yard. You can see the location of some of the switchbacks for the logging line and a small river bed next to the 2 main lines. Each section of the mountain is constructed to be modular, with sections overlapping at the joints of each module. Plastic is placed between the overlapping sections so they do not stick together.

Both main lines are up and running. Each has been tested with up to an 80 car freight. The main lines have been wired for half of the layout. On the section that is wires the train runs at a steady pace. Jumpers are places approximately every 6 foot. On the section that is not wired yet the trains slow down due to voltage drop. The section that is wired has been calculated to have a voltage drop of only 1/4 volt with 4 diesel locomotives drawing 1/2 amp each. The wire size I used to achieve this is #10 AWG. That is the same size of wire used for household dryers. The jumpers to the track are #16 AWG stranded wire (speaker wire).The DCC power pack has an output of 3.5 amps at 18 volts AC. We have had up to 5 power units running at the same time without any speed lose on the wired half of the layout. I will send you more photos later. We should have the logging line up and running by October.

Mark

Nighttime Detour

Please enjoy the attached photo. August continues to be a most enjoyable month this year! First the TRAINS magazine article, now NECR detours over VRS powered by solid sets of blue & yellow GP 38's! It's been "a long time" since I have seen a solid set of NECR power on anything. So with thanks to Scott Whitney for the original heads up on Monday evening, I had my plans for week changed. Thankfully, I was in a position to drop everything for this event. The detours lasted three days/nights into Thursday morning. The first two nights became recon patrols, visiting favourite photo locations ahead of the detour, only to notice "something's wrong here"......the scene had changed for the worse, LOL! Knowing I had a third chance Wednesday night I was laughing it off when I arrived well ahead of NECR 324 at Bartonsville Covered Bridge Tuesday evening only to find one of those refrigerated box trucks parked alongside the tracks smack dab in the scene facing me! What else can you do? Wednesday evening came and armed with the knowledge that NECR 323 (the final detour) would be arriving in Bellows Falls around 18:00, I drove down to East Wallingford to where my friend Helen Fox has lived since she was eight. After knocking at the door and reaquainting ourselves at dusk, ( thankfully I remembered her name.....) I proceeded to set up and wait. With plenty of time to time to get the lighting to my satisfaction it was a couple hours before I broke out the thermos of green tea, as this is a deceiving location to light up a train at night. We're deep in Vermont here, quiet descends after dark in hill farm country, one of which is located above the tree line to the right of the photo, contributing wafts of manure odors on breezes through the night. Note the tire swing up in the tree. While I set up a family comes down to the end of their driveway behind me here to watch, hoping to see the train, one of the kids asks a parent..........."he's gonna park his car there"? Little does she realize, having delivered me here, now the "cah" is the least of my concerns, LOL! Another car arrives and conversations ensue. By eleven p.m. my tired audience disperses, disappointed. Most of the neighbors lights stay on though, as they've seen my act here before enough to stay up for the train. When I shot the P&W Johnson City coal train here, I met Mrs. Fox and told her of my plans, only to be admonished that "there are no trains here at night". On any other night Helen would have been correct! To her credit she allowed me to set-up around her house anyway that night. It was after eleven p.m. when the VRS dispatcher in Rutland broke the silence, calling the NECR 3849! Bringing a wide grin to Gary's face! A half hour later I hear an airhorn towards Mount Holly, the NECR GP 38's ARE NOT equipped with dynamic brakes, so you cannot hear them coming downgrade that well. Almost another half hour goes by as the head end closes in. It's just before midnight, as the moment is savored, NECR 3849 leads three sisters around the curve and past me at 10 mph, making it easy to pick the spot I want the head end in. A sight I have'nt seen in years, four NECR GP 38's together! WOW! Worth waiting hours for. Before departing in a glow, I shared the photo with Helen Fox, thanking her for her hospitality. What a location. eh!? Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed. Shot on August 13, 2008 at 23:59 with the 5D and Zeiss ZF 28/2 (Nikon) set at f2. Flash units erased in photoshop behind the pilot of 3849 and in front of the tree.

All The Best In 2008;
Gary

Rich's Mohawk Central Summer 08

Richie Eriksen and Chris Rittner have been busy working on the Mohawk Central over the summer, enjoy the pics! MCRR SD90MAC's!

STRR C425m's.

"The lower end" and west end of the staging yard.


The lower end inustrial area facing west.

MCRR Dash 9's in patriotic colors.

MCRR RS32's, alive and well!

Pow-Wow in Rotterdam Junction

Well, folks, here's my contribution from about noontime on Saturday. I was on the way to the Pow-Wow in Rotterdam Junction, had to take a ten-minute diversion to appreciate that the Pan Am paint is actually blue, and not too bad to look at when fresh, either.Here's 307 switching across Rt. 5S in difficult sun.BTW, the Pow-Wow was pretty good, too... (I'm the token German in the Indian organization) ...........Bill Mischler

D&H Cohoes In N

From Bob Platel, "Here is some new pictures of my layout." RS-3 4107 preparing to switch Cohoes Wertime trestle while U23B 2316 passing thru with 2 flat & a tank car of lube oil for GE.

Cohoes swicher switching trestle.

Leased B & M RDC stopping at Cohoes passenger station.

Cohoes switcher pushing 3 boxcars of pulp to Mohawk papermill.
I am working on a model of the Cohoes freight house and will send some pictures soon. Hope to see you soon! Bob

The C.R.O.C.K.S.

Here's some shots of on-going progress on the caboose- the C.R.O.C.K.S. (Citizens Restoring Our Caboose at King's Station) have been putting in a lot of hours. The siding is all up,and 4 windows have been built in place on the long sides.


I've been grinding scale rust away from the metal parts, and hope to get the cupola windows operational this month. The red is just a primer.

I'll be going to the Cooperstown and Charlotteville to get stencils saved from the Oneonta roundhouse for the logos.

Fern' Power Night At Port Henry

Please enjoy the attached photo! Returning to the compound in Hinesburg after a few nights "ovah" visiting the Saint Lawrence & Atlantic, my timing was good, as I heard D&H North End Dispatcher Gordy Smith announce the new lead unit on CP 930 to be the CN 5610! YES! I get another chance at this shot! The night before I left for the SLR the 5610 ran on 930 but a car was parked here in front of the station, acceptable for sure, I shot it but.......I'd rather not see the auto! LOL! I actually pulled off sleeping well in daylight at an abandoned fly fishermans camp, now a State Park, near the SLR on the Upper Connecticut. Tent camping, on the ground, no electricity, a great swimming hole! After putting up the tent, I unrolled the new "sleeping pad" then noticed the tag....."30 min. to inflate, inflate and deflate several times before actual use". OH. Ha,ha,ha! It's safe to say I have a new appreciation for the waterbed here at the compound! BUT I now have a place from which to roam on the SLR half the distance from Hinesburg. Much more enjoyable! A word of caution for anyone who feels they must drive in Northern New Hampshire after dark......drive slow enough so you can stop well within the distance you can see. I looked up at two moose on the road ahead of me during the same night recently. The males can weigh in at a ton! They are no problem as long as you drive slow. It's one thing when you come upon moose ahead of you in the road, and it's quite another thing when moose come upon you in the road! They appear at the last second out of your side vision up close, towering! So we enjoy a rare moment back here at Port Henry, as CN 5610 makes an encore appearance. Grass mowed to enhance this view from the stepladder, thanks guys! A timeless scene with the ex-LC&M G.O.B. illuminated up on the hill, the adrenaline rush arrives as the head end slowly passes the station moving into position for the photo. Shot on July 6, 2008 at 01:41, with the 5D and Zeiss ZF 28/2 set at f2. Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed!

All The Best In 2008;
Gary

Last night I celebrated!

Please enjoy the attached photo. Last night I celebrated! CP contributed to the festivities by running 252 out of Rouses Point after one thirty a.m. Knowing the lakeside bar in Plattsburgh was closed on Wed., I happily set up within the friendly confines of the station here to record 252s appearance. Translated into; no college kids under the influence walking past the lighting and making a scene. The celebration? What happened? Long time list members will recall the night photo shoot and interview of me by the highly acclaimed railroading journalist Karl Zimmerman, back in mid-October last fall. We were up at "the castle" in Lacolle. I mentioned to the list members to be looking for the resulting article in an upcoming issue of TRAINS. Karls write-up from that night will be published featuring my night photos in the Sept. TRAINS! Wait till you folks see the grand treatment my night photos received! And the writing of Karl Zimmerman! Ever want to go out with me and do one of these set-ups at night? Karls writing brings you that experience, he's the best! Shooting the last of steam in Quebec at night in the late fifties and early sixties, Karl is certainly no stranger to the night photo. Get this issue! For the few who do not have a subscription: https://secure.kalmbach.com/Offer/default.aspx?c=ITRN08

So join a glowing Gary here at Plattsburgh, after I've exchanged e-mails with TRAINS associate editor Kathi Kube and viewed the feature article earlier in the evening. It's t shirt weather, (rare) no wind, the lighting all set-up as the talking detector perhaps seven miles north of town announces the passage of 252. The Zeiss ZF 100/2 lens prefocused manually, on the 5D, in the familiar position on tripod with me atop the stepladder waiting. With a backdrop such as Plattsburghs ex-D&H Station, well........let's agree I have a lot to be grateful for these days! Even the NS power appearring on the 930/931 trains looks "good" here! But CP comes through with one of their own tonight, and as many times as I have shot this scene, it's still easy to underestimate 252s closing speed, there's no hesitating when the moment comes tonight! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed. Please enjoy Karls article in the Sept. issue of TRAINS, you all will recognize moments we have shared in the past!

All The Best In 2008;
Gary

This photo, shot on Sept. 10, 2006, benefits from being reprocessed with the new software from NIK. See what you think. It is difficult to believe it's been a year and three quarters since I visited this spot. As you might imagine I remember the two nights spent here well. Approaching westbounds headlights cause the abandoned bore to the left to glow with a ghostly yellowish light, adding to the pitch dark atmosphere in here during the middle of the night! The curved tunnel is long enough to amplify the roar of the locomotives inside before their headlights are seen as well. "Many" eastbounds had passed by me earlier in the evening here, and I suspect any westbounds they encountered later were made aware of my being set-up here awaiting their appearance at the west portal. Another very dramatic location at night, I have to get back down here this year! For those list members who are stangers to this area, State Line Tunnel is located in New York, close to the Massachusetts state line, with Canaan Center, NY being the closest town. Roughly forty five miles east of Albany. Shot at 01:58 on Sept. 10. 2006 with the 5D and Canons 100/1 lens set at f2.8. Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

All The Best in 2008;
Gary

Lighting Stripe on the B&M

D&H 7312 heading out of the Battenkill RR interchange onto the B&M, on a rare daylight run!

The blue and grey beauty ducks under the highway bridge in Valley Falls, NY.

Thanks Cully!

New ork Cent a

Picture was taken recently of a maintenance shed on the CSXT right of way in Batavia, NY. Any info on the art deco New York Central? Was it a transplant from some "modern" station? Seems like a waste to put stainless steel letters on a shed.
Armand