Noelle's Pictures From Barry's Recent Session

Noelle's Pics From Barry's Session

Noelle and Johnny visited Barry's and Bonnie's home earlier this past week where Noelle snapped some great looking images from the train operating session.

Barry's friends, Robin and Ted ran the system out from Ottawa and back.  Noelle railfanned their excursion.

Barry tells us:

Of course, this being the last day of an extended season, the garden was not as tidy as it was at the end of August.  The flowers and gardens were fading as nature does, and many leaves had to be cleared off the tracks along the north fence.

Here you can see Bonnie and me trying to get things ready.  We were expecting a beautiful day, and it was certainly that.

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Those attending on August 24th would recognize Robin (in black) from Yarker, between Kingston and Napanee.  The weekend before, he brought his neighbour, Ted, who immediately liked what he saw and did, and I hope he will be part of our small group of regulars next year, among three or four others who had come in the last few weeks. 

As usual, each train crew had to act as yardmasters, and they are shown here making up their consist for the first train out of Ottawa Station.

I was excited to see Johnny Chuff Chuff and Noelle arrive at the gate.  Neither we nor they knew for sure that Johnny would be able to make the trip, but he did make it.  

Noelle came with her camera, and took this set of pictures.

  After the session ended they agreed to stay for supper, and we had a nice visit.

Derailments from falling leaves - the stems are the villains -  and Ted learned all about that under the careful supervision of Robin, who of course did his share in getting trains back on track - literally!

Here they are at Orleans, and it was obvious that Ted, as conductor at that point, was quickly catching on.  He was learning first-hand about facing and trailing points, and they were through that (intentionally) tricky station faster than most experienced operators.

 It was a real blessing to have such a beautiful day for our last session

This e-mail is being written to Mike only three days later, and the difference is amazing!  For one thing, it is raining right now,  but much of the green has turned brown, or red (leaves)!

The lads opted to leave the caboose at Ottawa Station.  

At the tail end on the journey from Cumberland to Hayes Fuels you can spot my new "Union 76" tank car, obtained at the Napanee train show a week before, when I had attended Roger Ciazza's open house with our friend Eric Belusar from Oneida, NY.

Robin, Ted and I are planning to attend the Syracuse Train Show again which will be held this year on Nov. 4th.

Here they are at Hayes Fuels, switching out tank cars of course.  

The building and tank farm facilities were built by our good friend Tom Legel in Morgantown, PA.  

 Tom wanted to be here for our August event, but some health issues led to doctors' orders not to travel far this season.

Johnny and Noelle had brought an apple pie and ice cream, so we had to take an enjoyable break and enjoy them.

Anyone who has ever been to our home in Belleville knows that Bonnie is an amazing hostess...

...and those awesome cookies you can see on the table in the distance quickly disappeared.

Notice the yellow plate that held those cookies in front of Ted?

Bonnie took this picture so we could include Noelle in the blog entry.  She is such an amazing person.

Robin and Ted tore themselves away from the goodies and conversation to finish their run.  

Here they are in Shaanenville doing some serious switching, before heading to their final destination of Belleville/Quinte West.

Kurt Vollenwyder, a member of the Kingston Railroaders group, has been a faithful supporter of our Belleville operations, so I asked him if he would make a building flat for a new siding with his name on it.  He chose a "Cheese Factory."  I gave him the flat on the left as an example, and he built this beautiful building flat for the new "Vollenwyder Cheese Factory.

The original lettering didn't survive the first rainstorm, and Bonnie made the new sign with stick-on letters, to be permanently attached next spring.

I believe those of you involved in the programming for OVAR might want to talk with Kurt about having him give his presentation on the Swiss Railways.  Kurt was an electrical engineer on the team designing their locomotives, and has a prototypical section of that railway modeled in his house, which is incredible.

He gave that presentation to ARK just before the summer break, and I found it to be an awesome presentation by a brilliant professional electrical engineer.

The cheese factory is located on the approach into Belleville Station, and when it is part of a consist leaving Belleville the yardmaster or departing train must go out and bring the reefer back to add to the consist.

I hope you enjoyed this brief record of our last session for 2023.  The results of the last two months are very encouraging as we look forward to next year!

Cheers, Barry

Thanks so much for hosting the session, Barry!

To see pictures and stories from our OVGRS trip to Barry's in Belleville simply copy and paste the three links below into your computer's browser.  

The links appear in white font.

Part One

https://gardenrailroadottawa.blogspot.com/2023/08/bravo-barry-bonnie-from-belleville.html

Part Two

https://gardenrailroadottawa.blogspot.com/2023/08/belleville-train-running-part-two.html

Part Three

https://gardenrailroadottawa.blogspot.com/2023/08/third-viewing-from-belleville.html

Thanks, Barry for writing up the captions for Noelle's wonderful pictures from a very successful day!

Thanks to Noelle for taking these amazing pics!

Here's to next year when our group descends on your home in beautiful Belleville!

All the best, Mike, Barry, Bonnie, Noelle, Johnny and the entire OVGRS gang

From Belleville, Ontario, Canada on this day!