This week, I decided to pull up another one from the PacNW. Portland's Steel Bridge hosts a local Eastbound Max train Next stop Rose Garden. While underneath, the Eastbound Empire Builder has just left Portland Union Station for Vancouver Wa, the Gorge and all points east. Meanwhile I recreational boater heads south down the Willamette.
The GP40-2 and the slug were smoking bad to get this loaded coal train going.About 30 hoppers.While CSX came under the bridge a NS train came by.On a layout you cold have both NS and CSX running. Curtis
It happens quite fast in the salty air in Galveston. Add in an occasional hurricane storm surge, and nothing lasts long. Not a good place for a railroad museum. My buddy Steve is documenting the roof appliances of a Santa Fe business car. As web master for the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society he puts a lot of it on line for research purposes.
As John has shared a notable bridge, thought I would as well. Several years ago, this is BNSF Railway Bridge 4 in Ballard (Seattle), Washington. Built by the Great Northern RY, the counterweight on its north end used to have a brightly painted "Rocky" logo, which I recall well from my childhood. Somewhere I have/had a picture... (Wish I'd not been so generous in loaning out materials years ago.) Beneath is the west end of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Behind me are the Hiram Chittenden Locks. Visible beyond the bridge is Shilshole Bay in Puget Sound. Taken while I was waiting to catch a photo of Amtrak Cascades Train 506 outbound Seattle to Everett.
A Crummy Gift Look what I got as a gift on October 17th from a good friend of mine at the office. Steve knows that I am into trains and he decided to pull an office prank on me by taking an old cardboard box from his new lawnmower and some scrap-wood and build a caboose. He then hauled it to the office along with tools to make final adjustments and hook it up to my hitch that is an imitation railroad coupler. Once he had it attached he let the rest of the office in on it and then sprung it on me. What a laugh! I truly enjoyed it and would pack it up inside the 4×4 and take it home to get it set back up in the driveway before Lisa knew I was home. When she saw it she started laughing wondering where the heck I got it at. She insisted on taking a photo of me with my new train car and she says we should at least keep it until X-Mas to put out with the rest of the display. So, from Steve’s garage to mine the Caboose goes. Thanks Steve; it brought a smile and a fun laugh!!!!!!! My new Yellow Crummy all hitched up and ready to head down the Right-of-Way behind our 4×4… –
Sorry guys, I'll be off topic as these shots were taken 3 months 1/2 ago, in the beginning of last July. The area: Clewiston, FL, just off Lake Okeechobee, 90 miles northeast of Miami. 2 entities: -USSC: US Sugar Company, a big conglomerate that owns and crops huges sugarcane fields in the area. This company's main caracteristic: owing to a dense railroad network serving many locations within the neighbouring canefields, 100% of the crop is delivered to the area's sugarmills by rail service. -SCFE: South Central Florida Express. This is a shortline that runs between Sebring (with an interchange with CSX) and Fort Piece, close to Palm Beach, where it interchanges with Florida East Coast. This shortline was born in 1990 from a split from CSX, and is now a full subsidiary of USSC. That day I caught a 2-train operation, consisting of a first local run by an USSC GP38-2 working a chemical plant close to Clewiston, followed by a second local, very light with only 2 cars in tow behind a SCFE GP11 (we're at the opposite of the 10000' 165-car train I was reading about in another 1:1 scale topic I was reading about this afternoon!). What was interresting was the process of 2 trains slowly running one behind the other, with no other regulation than "visually monitor and avoid"! (To be cont'd shortly) Dom
In summary, a very interresting shortline operation with many spots to take good shots. Unfortunately weather was very stormy that day..... Dom
Dom- There is no off-topic. No time line. As long as it's prototype, anywhere in the world, we have fun sharing it.