Final Dress Rehearsal Session - Part Three
What follows is the third version of events from our "dress rehearsal" from this past weekend's train running session.
It was pure joy to be able to run trains once again in the great outdoors. I will continue to have more unused images from this past Saturday which I am sure you will see sometime this season if we have an inevitable rain-out at some point.
Hopefully the sun will shine brightly each Saturday morning of the summer on our railroad here in Ottawa and on Barry's in Belleville!
Train Extra #73 has navigated the big bend at Lilly...
...and targets the Fred Mills Trestle in the near distance.
It has found the span in the orbit of Brennan's Gap.
Yet another successful navigation across the gut.
Onward #73 soldiers taking the bypass at Nelson Yard on a heading into Glen Hammond.
The scene captured on video.
Moments earlier...
...Train #73 was spotted streaming down...
...the canyon...
...which separates Spruce from Blockhouse.
This is where we met the Jolly Green Giant...or is that the Jolly Blue Giant!
Let's check it out on the video footage once again!
We spot Andrew, a proud papa...
...with one of his latest offspring!
This Soo Line train has found Peter's Pond on this day...
Our Soo Line train has taken the crossing "sans permission" in this train running exercise.
Within the confines of an ops session, however, the crew would have to seek permission from dispatch to "make" the crossing.
With permission granted, the crew would then radio dispatch with notification of their tail end clearing the crossing.
Two trains nearby without it being a true meet.
Andrew and Paul stand on one of the rare green patches of grass found on the property.
Pat looks on from a distance.
We referee the video review!
We thank Pat for these next few images sent his way. Here he has captured Robin with the unit coal train departing Glen Hammond.
Andrew is waiting his turn to depart Nelson Yard.
Andrew's train in the big yard.
He is underway bound for Blockhouse and Spruce to the east.
A railfan has found his way into the gut to captures the runby of Andrew's train.
Paul navigates the passenger run through the big trestle.
While the locomotive is already rounding the big curve at Lilly, passengers in the Park Car gaze at the passing scenery from atop the trestle.
Robin conducts some switching moves at the far end of the Brennan Gap.
With Pat's final picture at Spruce we thank him for the images he has sent our way. Thanks a ton, Pat!
It's free sailing down the slope...
...into "The Corners"...
...for our unit train.
The railroad is doing a brisk business in coal on this day.
Unit train video action.
Our Canadian National road unit exits the tunnel at Hayes Falls...
...and pushes through the canyon walls...
...on approach to Peter's Pond.
The fishery in the pond...on borrowed days, we wonder?
Will this marker be around one thousand years from now when future civilizations encounter the area conducting historical research?
Who to tell, perhaps this video footage will be all that remains found somewhere in netherspace.
Our local switch engine is playing "peekaboo" with us.
After setting out a couple of coal cars, the train is about to traverse the opening atop the newly reconstructed Lawrence Watkins Trestle.
Short hood forward.
An aerial view.
On by the blockhouse.
Indeed, while its purpose as sentinel is no longer required, the blockhouse is an historical structure that must be preserved.
Heading around the Fallentree Mine.
Let's investigate the video at this location.
It's a "double header" with two trains in one frame.
Passing the Bellamy depot.
Taking the turnout at the junction.
Passing the tower.
Through the pedestrian crossing.
Robin follows his train righthand running through Mercer.
The video footage captures the dual nature of the scene.
Bernie takes a seat outside the dispatch booth while Robin works Glen Hammond.
The nose of Paul's general purpose locomotive makes its appearance below the verdant foliage.
Both ends of the passenger train are captured nicely in this scene.
The horn blows the approach to the bridge.
And, again...the horn sounds for the big bend.
Heading eastbound at Lilly.
Paul's GP35 is earning her keep on this fine morning.
She passes the old abandoned flag stop before once again crossing the gut.
Passenger video action in a big way.
The second trestle crossing in minutes of the first.
It's a dry gulley for now...
...but during rainstorms, it will surely fill with water!
An artistic view of the Park Car.
We leave you with this interesting video of our passenger train.
But before I go, I'd like to share these two images our family unearthed of me and a friend with Luba Goy from the CBC program Air Farce. That's Luba with a young Mike in his mid-twenties. She invited my friend, Bob, and I backstage following one of their shows in downtown Toronto. Then we went out for drinks in a nearby pub.
That's my buddy, Bob, on the right. He lived up on the Lower North Shore where I spent my first eight years teaching in a remote fishing village near the Labrador. Bob and I were both big fans of The Air Farce on CBC radio. When Luba learned that he had come from so far away to see the show, she was thrilled. It was a blast of an evening, for sure!
Finally, this other image I snapped of the 1201 steaming down the Gatineau River is meant to remind everybody...
...that our upcoming session this Saturday will be of the "narrow minded" variety!
Thanks for checking in on the blog!
Here's to the next time, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario,Canada
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