Post Season Happenings At Mark's Home

Fun In Mark's Backyard

Mark  has kindly sent along these photographs, videos and captions for our perusal seeing as some of us may be suffering withdrawal already from having this Saturday's final session of the season cancelled due to inclement weather.  Here is Mark's message to me.

Hi Mike!  Because we had to scrub our last operating session tomorrow at Fred's, I thought I would share some pics and video of a short session Matthew, Ollie and I had in our backyard this evening - the weather was perfect. I don’t know if you were planning a “Halloween” blog or something like that for everyone’s reading enjoyment, but here is some material you could work with, though it is not very “scary” LOL. The videos will come in a separate email shortly.

I never did end up rebuilding my full railroad after installing the pool this summer (you can see the empty fenced enclosure because the pool has been put away for winter) but I did set up a short line around the raised deck, which I hope will even survive throughout winter if I manage to keep the snow plowed off the tracks and avoid throwing the switches when they get iced over. It is kind of a double “roundy-roundy” with a small yard just to show the children some operating possibilities.

Ollie and Matthew had lots of fun running a train around in circles a few times and then switching a number of moves into the yard.

Ollie, controls in hand.

You can have all the powerful locos in the world, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing like “Ollie Power”.

Still, it sure feels good to have the remote in your hand, no Ollie?

Here is the train Ollie assembled for the occasion. Never mind the mix of standard and narrow gauge rolling stock pulled by this C-19… after all, never question the excellent taste of a two year old. “Out of the mouth of babes…” I believe the saying goes.

Earlier in the operating session, Ollie tested the track with the small-but-mighty 0-4-0 Porter.

Intrigued by the commotion outdoors, out comes Matthew to help out.

Here is the train in all its glory… but wait, something is missing!

Matthew “hand-assembling” a load of not-quite-ripe tomatoes that never did finish off the growing season. Quite an interesting load for an ore car.

It was a bit chilly as you can tell by Matthew’s hands up his sleeves.

Focusing intently as we execute a switching move in the small yard.

Lining up the train for a pushback maneuver into the yard.

Every good “yardie" learns (sometimes the hard way) by throwing switches.

Ollie the “man-made” bridge.

A very satisfactory day indeed.

Next up...the videos Mark sent our way along with some snippits Mike took from the video footage.

Close the door!

Looking great!

Copy and paste the video link below into your browser.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5hfqpyeadfcxdu/CloseDoor.MOV?dl=0

Hand loading.

That's precious cargo, for sure!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/brl9o7xxcc9o537/HandLoading.MOV?dl=0

During our time outside we were joined by a low flying helicopter.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t0h5cck8077dtai/Helicopter.MOV?dl=0

Matthew the human bridge.

Choo!  Choo!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3mpbwltcgmzo6mj/MatthewBridge2.MOV?dl=0

Ollie the human bridge.

In the twilight hours!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r27uq1a14scj26g/OllieBridge.MOV?dl=0

Porter solo.

In close.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/unws05tvun8olru/Porter.MOV?dl=0

Whistle.

Whistle while we work!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d5m1mrqzx5tvvik/Whistle.MOV?dl=0

Whistle again.

So much fun!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eopz7r5eg9a3dfw/Whistle2.MOV?dl=0

Backing up through the yard.

Great satisfaction!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2l7sgg54d581ec9/BackUp.MOV?dl=0

Thanks so much, Mark, for sending these great pics and vids along!

Also, for any readers of the blog outside our region, you may visit a clinic on craftsman structures I gave to the St. Lawrence Division of the NMRA this past Saturday.  The theme of my clinic was "Working With Walls" in preparation for the construction of your craftsman structure offering ideas to take your model "to the next level".  It was a joy for me to offer the clinic.  Feel free to check it out at my Craftsman Structures Blog at the address below.  

Simply copy and paste the link into your computer's browser.

https://craftsmanstructures.blogspot.com/2021/10/clinic-on-wall-preparation.html

All the best, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada