Mark's Views From Saturday's Session
We thank Mark for sending along some amazing pictures and videos from Saturday's train operating session.
The theme was standard gauge and the diesels did not disappoint.
All captions are in Mark's words. Thank you Mark for sending these along for our enjoyment!
A “big red beauty” who unfortunately couldn’t run today due to an
over-discharged battery pack. Battery has now been replaced and I look forward
to trying again (though she will be limited to running on the mainline only).
Who’s got more class, Bill or CP 9167?
Here is the loco that will do the trick for us today, trusty CN 8152. Pulling
out of Nelson Yard over to the RP&M to do some work.
Local switching at Rat Portage. Love that Maersk shipping container.
Mike the “mobile photographer, er, I mean dispatch, man…” A railfanner through
and through (and a talented musician and great friend to boot).
Very heavy switching over in Bell with all yard leads occupied. We need to use
the main as our runaround track. Beautiful loco and BC boxcar.
Yep, Nelson Yard and its two faithful yardmasters… busy as usual.
Grant planning out some really tricky switching moves. Gosh that’s a long train!
We have our inbound train on the tail end of the loco while we are assembling
our outbound train on the head end. Who says an S4 switcher can’t multitask? And
there’s a special bulkhead flatcar I will tell you all about in the next
picture.
We were very honoured to see our train included a special new addition to the
IPP&W rolling stock - the one-and-only Fred Mills Happy 80th Birthday ONR
flatcar, a special run from Winona Garden Railway.
Grant, the skilled trainmaster “surgeon” at work.
A nice view of shunting to disassemble our old train while picking up the new
one.
Yes, this CN switcher, dwarfed by two trains, can really push and pull!
Forget “where’s Waldo”. It’s more like “where’s Mike?” 10 points if you spot
him, railfanning… :-)
The highlight of the day was probably the three-train meet at Rat Portage,
documented so eloquently by Mike in his original blog posting for the day.
Whoever said the RP&M was a quiet branchline…?
All Canadian road names in an all Canadian forest...
The special moves required to accommodate the three-train meet meant that...
… our S4 had to cozy up under the canopy… A unique switching move
Henk is all smiles as he skillfully “orchestrates” the action at Nelson Yard.
Railfanning at Bellamy junction. I love the nautical theme on that “buoy”
flatcar.
I think Malcolm loves that special flatcar too.
Grant takes over the throttle...
…to help us with shunting in Rat Portage.
A nice shot of the farmhouse near the close of the session as we return “tail
first” to Nelson Yard…with the eager yardmasters already having their trays out to
receive the cars for safekeeping until next time…!
Great pics and stories, Mark!
These next few images were "snipped" from Mark's videos.
We are down in Rat Portage passing the Hamer Manufacturing facility.
Out front we find Train 65 taking the big curve...
...in amongst the ferns.
Mike is spotted railfanning 65 on its ascent up to Bell from Pratt's Bottom.
Mike heads back over to the interchange area much later to find Train 66 on its return journey back to Rat Portage and Nelson Yard.
Total concentration!
Some more views of the wonderful triple play that took place in Rat Portage!
With Pool Train 15 making its progress back to Glen Hammond, the triple meet has been a huge success!
Copy and paste the link below into your computer's browser to view Mark's fine videos of all this action.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pckiemvapnehajy/AAA6Sf4bWRvp0ajzzixsSZQFa?dl=0
Thanks to Mark for all these great pics and videos!
All the best, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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