Session #2 Standard Gauge June 2nd

Session Two of the season is standard gauge.

I must thank Malcolm for sending along these images as I was unable to attend this session due to a city wide event...more on that later.

Being standard gauge, that means the railroad takes on a "rainbow of colours" appearance with all those brightly painted diesels roaming the line.

Brian's diesel, the Helm Financial Corporation leased unit has arrived Peter's Pond eastbound.  The unit is a GP40u and is ex L&N 3019.

Remember that you can enlarge the image simply by clicking on it and you can return to the default look of the page by clicking outside the image.

Malcolm's Conrail 2236 is a GP30 EMD product.  The GP30's were common secondary power during the early years of Consolidated Rail.

Not sure who brought out this beautiful TH&B GP9.  I do know that our regular operator, Bernie, has a TH&B unit, but his is weathered.  Research tells me that this unit was eventually rebuilt as CPRail GP9u at Montreal's Angus Shops.

Garry's handsome Canadian National GP9u is in its original numbers.  It was later renumbered into the 4400 series and later still the 7000 series.

I see that Lawrence has his B&O RS3 plying the rails on this sunny Saturday morning.

Paul has brought out his CN Alco FA1.  Only eight of these units were produced in 1950 and all were retired by 1968.  It's nice to see the 9407 all refurbished and earning its keep along the IPP&W.

Skipper Fred attending to some minor issue while Stu looks on.

One of our visitors, Richard, checks out the scene at Nelson Yard.  Note the umbrellas are up doing their job protecting the operators from the shade.

Pat is an RP&M employee on this day.  He is assisting Henk, the Nelson Yardmaster,  classifying the cars in the yard.

Henk oversees the action as our other visitor, Raymond (from Courtenay, BC) looks on.

Pat is appreciative of the resident umbrellas.

So great to see George back up in the saddle!

George and Doug are running 301/311/328 on this day.  

Seeing as they are working the yard tracks in Bell with their locomotive facing eastbound, they are now aboard Train 328.

Another view of this image of their diesel at the "fenceless" edge of the property.

Paul is crewing aboard 302/312/319.

Lawrence is his conductor on this segment of their run.

They are eastbound at Spruce.

Aboard 312.

We spot Malcolm's Conrail unit easbound out of Glen Hammond aboard 318 bound for Craig Leigh.

Bill checks his orders to determine their moves in the next town.

318 climbs the grade our of Mount St. Helens for their destination at Craig Leigh.

Earlier in Ironwood.

Bill is a retired OC bus driver...more on that later.

Malcolm's unit now is hauling 313.  We find them in the hole at Watkins.  They will have work to do at Bell before they reach their final destination in Ralph Yard at Firgrove.

Early in the morning Henk was busy setting out cars in Nelson Yard.

Barry has driven all the way from Belleville, Ontario for the session.  He is the conductor on 304 with Brian at the throttle.  They had earlier taken the siding at Watkins and have now been cleared to Peter's Pond.  Barry grabs his refreshment before the train rolls too far.
Note Train westbound 303 on the siding track in Ironwood to the extreme right of the image.

This previously viewed shot of Train 304 in Peter's Pond.

Barry and Brian check out the situation in "the Pond."

A "going away" shot of Brian's unit.

We spot CN 1707 near the interchange at Bell.

This means that Garry must be in the vicinity with his RP&M run up to Bell.

His crew mate is our visitor, Richard.

Down in the hollers at Rat Portage.

Judging by the big smile, Richard is enjoying the sunny Saturday combined with some great weather conditions...read..."not raining" and "not humid."

Thanks to Malcolm we get this great low angle shot of the richly filled Nelson Yard.

The TH&B unit seen earlier helps assemble traffic in the yard.

Here's Moe!

Bill and Pat enjoy some respite from the sun.

Love the cap Bill.

Now...the reason I was not in attendance for the session was because I was visiting some sites on the tour of Ottawa's "Door's Open" weekend.  Bill (in the red shirt above this image) drove for OCTranspo...and he has even taken the wheel of this bus.

We celebrated Earl Robert's retirement (or birthday...so long ago) and Bill drove the entire party through the streets of Ottawa aboard the 5931.  The 59 denotes that the bus went into service in 1959.  It was built in 1958, the year I was born.

We toured other vehicles such as this double decker.

I spoke with a driver who enjoys driving the ParaTranspo buses.

I was thrilled to head into the simulator for our new Light Rail trains.

The images in the simulator are "bang on" down to the actual houses you may see passing by en route.

Here is the control console the instructor sits at where he/she monitors the driver in the simulator.  The instructor can throw a lot of interesting curve balls the driver's way such as changing weather conditions to name one.

While I have fun playing the Rickenbacker guitar with my bandmates...I really don't like when I have to miss a train ops session in the garden.  I'll be back next week.

Until then, we'll say good-bye to Doug in the dispatcher's booth and Fred in the skipper's chair.  Thanks a ton to Malcolm for sending these images along.  Bernie took some as well and when I receive them, I'll be sure to add them to this posting.

Until next week, all the best!  

Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada