Barry Runs a Train At Home

Barry's Account of a Train Run on His Layout

Barry sent me a number of photographs and captions from a train running session he held solo this past weekend.  We'll let Barry tell the story of the day in his own words.

Saturday was a very good operating day, so I ran two trains - out and back - of course, by myself.  The following pictures are from the return trip to Belleville from Ottawa.

It was the first time using the rebuilt double curve at "Cherry Hill" and it worked beautifully.  Two of my umbrellas had to be repaired, as one tried to climb the fence behind Belleville, and the other actually landed in our neighbour's yard, 40' away.  It didn't damage anything, so it must have flown over.

The train chosen for the run was my DRG "Annie," which pulled quite a few cars without incident.

Our train awaits clearance out from Ottawa bound for Orleans.

Another view of the train having been assembled, ready to leave Ottawa Station.  Cherry Hill is straight ahead.

Our train crosses the trestle on approach to Orleans.

Lots of work has to be done at Orleans, as demonstrated in the next three pics.   

A lovely aerial view of track arrangement in Orleans.  The gondola with scrap aboard has been pulled out of the facing point siding, and the locomotive is now ready to position it at the front of the consist against the retaining wall.  You can see the broken arm from the "flying" umbrella on the wall.  Later in the day, I had found a spare frame, and put the canopy on it.

Train #214 awaits clearance to Cumberland for a single pickup at Eric's Recycling.

Our train covers a great deal of territory en route to Hayes Fuels out from Cumberland.

The exchange of tanker traffic is the typical move observed at Hayes Fuels.

With our moves complete, our next destination will be Shaanenville.

The crew enjoys the challenge of switching out the spur tracks found in Shaanenville.

The sun is shining on the outskirts of Belleville as our train will arrive the yard in short order.

Our train terminates in Belleville.

We thank Barry for sending along these great shots of a single train run along the rails of his magnificent railroad!

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