Garden Railroading: Session #7 Second Section

Session #7 Second Session

We continue with our images, videos and stories from our recent operating session at Fred's place, session #7.

Dilip has sent along an interesting trio of photos showcasing a "service interruption" on the outskirts of Nelson Yard near the Fallentree Mine. We will most likely refer to the location on this day as the "Fallentrain Mine"!

Bernie also snapped a handful of pics from the session showcasing the trains he ran with Garry as well as other crews he met along the way.

Chris and son, Jonah, were "ore haulers" on this day and we spot Chris's newly lettered steam locomotive resting in Firgrove in eager anticipation of its eastward run!

You can enlarge images by clicking on them.

Shrink them by clicking outside them.

Hamer keeps having strong business interests down in Rat Portage. He is even thinking of expanding his empire to all towns along the route of the RP&M and the IPP&W with a huge factory to be set up in adjacent to Nelson Yard.

(If you believe this tall tale...then I'll sell you ice cubes this coming winter! Hehehe!)

I just love this turntable custom built by the Lawrence Watkins Shops of Ottawa.

The silhouette of this railfan is in evidence in the wee hours of the morning at Glenn Hammond.

The lads are busy setting out the equipment for the morning's session.

Lawrence and Bernie handle the trays in the eastern shade.

This photographer can't get enough of this D&RGW 40 footer!

It's nice to see the new tracks conducting business as usual!

The depot's new residing place!

An aerial view of the new location with its labels in place.

A couple of reefers rest beside the ice track.

Another passenger train readied, willing and able!

Andrew's steam power beside the engine house in Craig Leigh.

A lovely loco on the turntable track approach.

From another angle.

Nelson Yard with identified cars on the various sidings.

Henk and Doug man the yard.

Our lovely Drovers Caboose.

Another steamer is found in Craig Leigh.

The yardmaster and his assistant.

It's a busy morning.

Hi Grant!

The interchange area at Bell where IPP&W and RP&M crews exchange traffic.

Steve and Seanna's steam locomotive.

Their "little guy" is the one in charge!

Seanna and Steve will crew the RP&M trains on this day.

Oops...we have a serious "service interruption" at the Fallentree Mine!

Dilip snapped this image and the next two of the incident.

It would appear a train ran a switch.

Pat comes to the rescue! Thanks Dilip for the three photos.

Bernie tells us that this first photo shows a tray with no tag.

Bernie sent along the next handful of images.

The second one has a NELSON YARD tag, but the tray was for GLENN HAMMOND.

Indeed, we will have to tighten up our procedure when packing up at the end of a session.

Henk and Doug twiddling their thumbs!

The "other" photo...this time Bernie has snapped an image of me snapping an image of him with his crewmate, Garry, caught in the middle!

Steve and Seanna work the interchange aboard RP&M 61.

Garry backs 314 into Track 3 at Bell as Pool Train 33 enters town along the main line.

Passenger 33 rests on the station track before departing for RP&M rails.

Mercer Siding hosts the meet between 311 and 314.

Our RP&M crew are back atop the rails as they work in the environs of the Blockhouse.

Paul aligns the turnouts for a meet between an arriving and a departing train in Craig Leigh.

The Northland area bears witness to the meet.

Thanks for this batch of photos, Bernie!

Here we catch Sid and me starting out on our second run of the morning.

We began our day aboard 304 in Glen Hammond and reached Craig Leigh.

We not depart as Train 313 bound for Nelson Yard.

When we reach Nelson Yard we will board train 323 with a final destination in Firgrove.

Paul, the Craig Leigh yardmaster shuffles down to Mount St. Helens aboard Train 41.

Paul's steam locomotive.

Some video of Paul's run.

Doug's locomotive deals with traffic on the eastern front of Nelson Yard.

Our passenger train has reached Glenn Hammond.

The lads are kept busy at this moment.

Some video footage of the Nelson Yard/Glen Hammond action.

Grant's locomotive hangs on to the passenger consist.

The train is bound for Blockhouse and Spruce.

Having reached Ironwood, Grant finds himself on the upper level climbing into St. Helens.

Arrival at St. Helens.

More video work.

Andrew and Mark have reached Peter's Pond aboard Train 322.

This is their third run of the morning.

We catch them performing a task on the new team track.

Let's review the video from Peter's Pond.

A lone flatcar keeps company with the Cooperage down in Peter's Pond.

Paul's power!

Doug and Paul.

Moe and Henk.

The crew focuses in on the message of the morning.

Jonah works the ore train downgrade to Bell.

Robin and Moe are found in Cedar Rock.

Here's the Nelson crew with George just hanging around!

301 switches out Larabie Fuels in Ironwood.

Robin reaches Nelson Yard aboard 302 and will depart with 312.

Pat and Dilip shuffle cars in Rat Portage.

Their locomotive has returned to Glen Hammond as their train, Rat 62, has terminated. This was the turn to Rat Portage and back.

The tail end of one of the trains in Spruce.

Glen Hammond is given further attention from Pat.

RP&M Train 72 returns to Nelson Yard. The crew had reached Bell earlier in the AM hours as Train 61.

George begins his run from Firgrove aboard Train 41.

41 will run down to Bell and conduct business on the two house tracks down there.

Golding Grains is witness to a handful of cars down in Rat Portage.

Lawrence surveys the eastern side of the railroad while taking advantage of the cooler temperatures found here.

301 departs Spruce and rounds the big curve before sliding down Clarke Grade.

Chris relaxes as he awaits entry into Spruce with the ore train.

312's crew deals with the cars on the far track at Spruce.

311 has reached Mercer and awaits clearance into Peter's Pond.

They have arrived the Pond and have veered off the main to one of the two open sidings available as a result of the recent relocation of the team track.

The crew runs around their train in order to attack the facing sidings at the team track and the fishery.

Speaking of those two tracks...here they are!

Train 313 approaches Spruce from the east.

Opposing Train 312 has held the main to offer us the siding track which is greatly appreciated.

With our arrival, 312 will be cleared out from Spruce for Ironwood.

They are now underway.

Some video from Spruce.

313 has met the curve at Lilly and tiptoes onto the Fred Mills Trestle.

Through the iron.

We roll to a stop to await permission to enter Nelson Yard.

Let's watch the video of our approach.

We have been lined into the big yard.

We run along the arrival/departure track.

Henk explains his philosophy with regard to approaching trains.

Doug's #3 will remove our caboose from our train and place it on the our next assignment, Train 323.

We've captured video around the yard.

With the opening of the lower team track to be used by train crews only, two crews are afforded space in Peter's Pond as evidenced here. Sid and I have split 323 and begin our work running back along the main while 322 has just completed its assignment here and will seek clearance to Glen Hammond.

With the caboose aboard 322 ready to depart we realize that the system caught up with itself. 322's crew started their day rather late aboard 301 while we were a full assignment ahead of them. This resulted in us having to wait a considerable amount of time at another location and their train was able to complete its three runs just a few minutes ahead of us! While the RailOps program and our program managers make every attempt to balance out the operations we look at delays as things that occur naturally on the real railroad as well.

Let's follow the video work.

323 is underway below 324 working St. Helens.

Garry controls the throttle while Bernie conducts the switching.

We find daylight in short order.

We admire the beautiful foliage found in "The Corners".

Let's check that out on video.

With our work completed in Bell we seek clearance to Firgrove.

Sid is all smiles as he runs the train.

We are in the other corner of the railroad.

Meanwhile down in Rat Portage we encounter Dilip with RP&M 82 on the final leg of its run.

Earlier he and Pat had been up in Bell aboard Train 71.

They run around their train in order to shove some cars into the team track.

We managed to capture some of that action on video down in Rat Portage.

Doug's #3 is occupied blocking traffic for outgoing trains.

The Spruce spur has a number of cars on its rails as an eastbound cruises through town.

Moe takes a breather as does Pat, but the heat means nothing to the youngster, Jonah! (Big grin!)

Some MT's at Ironwood Brick.

Jonah has pulled the ore train into Nelson Yard where the crew here will bring them their cars from the Fallentree Mine.

We have an RP&M train travelling out from Glen Hammond.

Pat is at the throttle.

He tucks his train into the yard at Nelson.

311 reaches Bell to find three reefers occupying the Henk's Stores siding.

Andrew's locomotive runs up the main to handle some traffic at Brunt's Brewery.

Of course, any set-outs of pick-ups will be of the reefer variety.

Nelson Yard continues to evolve throughout the session.

A number of crews could fill a small area in a very short amount of time!

Up and Over!

My locomotive hauls 313 in front of "The Rockery".

Lots of variety in the big yard!

A cool angled shot!

The two crews of the RP&M gather in Nelson.

It's a busy place.

Looking good!

Grant and Dispatcher Bill chat it up as Seanna deals with her train.

Pat conducts a runby inspection.

That brace of hopper cars sure looks nice!

Henk shows Seanna a bit of leg...but she pays him no attention! (Big grin!)

322 find Bell "all to themselves"!

Andrew and Mark are happy to have Stuart Yard to their own as they have caught up following a late departure out from Craig Leigh earlier in the morning.

Pat and Dilip deal with the puzzle that is Rat Portage.

Grant wheels into Peter's Pond with his passenger consist. With the relocated station his consist runs further along the track.

Sid and I are aboard 323, our final run of the day as we claim a tankcar as our own up in Cedar Rock.

Our Firgrove yardmaster, George.

A lovely shot of the head and the rear of the train!

If you look closely you will spot the lighthouse in amongst the foliage. Thanks to Steve and Seanna we have a working light!

Another small statue claims the garden as her own.

Well...almost...as she must share the ferns with this tall lad!

Post-ops the lads enjoy some camaraderie.

Fred entertains Gerry in the crew lounge.

Yet another look at the newly located tracks in Peter's Pond.

As promised, I will share a few more pics from my trip this past Monday to Upper Canada Village with Doug.

Here we are in the flour mill. Take note of the overhead drive shaft.

One of the cutting stones.

Mike's a sucker for detail items and these barrels fit the bill nicely.

Love all those bags of flour stacked up in the corner.

One of the many workers at Upper Canada Village who enjoy sharing their knowledge and expertise with the visitors.

Let's watch the video.

Yet another affable employee of the park.

Grinding flour.

The different grades found at various times in the process.

Still more video in the mill.

The young lady explains this apparatus which helps sift the flour.

Doug and I spot two belt shifters similar to the ones I built from scratch when I built the machine shop.

The belt shifters in the machine shop were painted red near the bottom of the paddle as a safety measure.

A closer examination of the belt shifters I made for the model.

Let's watch the video from this area of the mill.

The poles containing the belts actually run through the floor to the lower level on the basement floor below.

More belting.

Let's check that video out!

This belt has bee twisted on purpose to allow the pulley to spin in the opposing direction which allows the entire drive to spin in the opposite direction.