Garden Railroading: Session #12 Part Two

Session #12 Part Two

We continue with our examination of our twelfth session of this season's train operations.

Seeing as we rotate from Standard to Narrow Gauge on alternate weekends, this session saw us running the "more" modern equipment.

I enjoyed running trains 301/311/322 with one of our newer members, Dilip.

Firgrove awakens as the sun rises to shed its rays on this silver beauty.

She's a long way from home in New England but is happy to be put back to work carrying the paying faithful of the IPP&W.

The freight house track, team track and the Larabie spur are fully occupied as Ironwood offers up much business for the railroad.

The brakes are set on this trio of cars...for if not, they would roll down into Spruce as the spur siding here is located on an incline.

Likewise at the Ironwood Brick facility with its short slope upwards leveling off perfectly in front of the first loading dock.

Towns along the IPP&W evolve and change. Such is the case here in Ironwood with the recent relocation of the depot on the curve leading out of town.

Speaking of Ironwood, Pat sent along this image from his travels around Niagara Falls. Hmmm...perhaps we could create a new industry in Ironwood offering up this tasty beverage!

Having worked the industries here, 301 heads westward to Spruce.

The train makes its appearance in Spruce and will take the siding before setting out a large number of cars and lifting a few.

Some video footage captured by a trackside railfan.

To engage any videos, simply click on the white arrow in the center of the video once and then again a second time.

Dilip has everything under control

301 is "two cars out" from Spruce and destined for Nelson Yard.

The home and the diesel called each other in the wee morning hours indicating what colour of clothing they would wear. They decided to match perfectly on this day!

With the CPRail car on a siding back up in Spruce, 301 follows the contours of the land and descends Clarke Grade with no worries about braking with only two cars in their consist.

We follow the flow of 301 on video taken by railfan Mike.

Traffic is always moving on the IPP&W and Grant's second trick of the morning is evidence of this.

Indeed, 314 is downgrade at "The Ledges" out from Firgrove.

While across the canyon aisle 301 finds daylight out from under the "Henk's Chair Tunnel"!

They lean into the curve at Lilly.

Some video footage of two trains!

Is it because of (A) the cookie, (B) because of being in close proximity to Uncle Fred, (C) because of playing trains...or simply (D) because he is Bill...that a great big smile adorns his face. We know the answer...it's (E) "All of the Above"! Big smile!

Whoa! Get a load of Nelson Yard! She's chock-a-block full!

No worries though...the Nelson Crew including their compatriots on the RP&M will begin sorting traffic for all points along both railroads in short order!

Glen Hammond becomes a staging yard for the centrally departing trains in both directions. At times, one or both of the trains will have work to contend with here before departing.

Pre-ops we find cars in Anderson at the Cote Bottling and Bernie's Metal Works spurs in the foreground and at Lyon Supply in the distance. The RP&M turns will switch out Lyon Supply on their way up to Rat Portage and the two foreground industries on their return trip from Rat Portage.

Andrew's SOO LINE diesel gets on with its chores as the session begins.

Garry handles the car assignments with acumen...

..as he blocks traffic for the many trains that will depart the yard.

He, along with his yardmaster, Andrew, will also break down traffic. Some cars will go to local industries while others will be transferred to further outgoing trains.

"Simple as pie!" Garry tells us.

Some video action from Nelson Yard.

301 has been cleared into the yard.

We come in on Track One.

Andrew continues working the far tracks as our train enters the yard.

Aha! We meet the ore train coming in on the Arrival/Departure track!

In the distance, Garry uncouples from the block of cars he has assemble. These cars will make up our outgoing train, 311.

More Nelson Yard video reels.

We are guided onto our next train with the simply throwing of a few turnouts.

"On the pin!"

Nelson Yardmaster Andrew delivers us our caboose.

Video of the process at Nelson Yard.

Andrew has an audience. Two of our three friends from upstate New York study the action carefully in the distance.

Here comes our tail end car!

Garry assists his yardmaster from his perch on the far side of the yard.

With our train now made up, video tells us we will be ready to depart once we gain clearance from the dispatcher to take the junction crossing and head over to Peter's Pond.

The depot in Rat Portage enjoys the isolation this location offers at most times of the day.

The Hamer Manufacturing facility finds two cars on its siding at the moment.

The power for Ralph Yard.

George is pretty proud of his diminutive switcher.

Golding Grains seems to be overflowing with traffic proving it to be a healthy business.

Garry lovely CN Geep holds the honours at the western end of Nelson Yard.

An array of coloured chits is used as markers for the crew at Nelson.

A lovely CP unit in an earlier livery.

Henk follows the progress of his train through the junction.

302 departed Firgrove in the early hours of the morning and with work in Bell and the greater Peter's Pond area, the crew is on final approach to Nelson Yard.

This CP GP30 is in charge of their train.

Arriving the western throat of the yard.

Let's investigate their arrival on video tape...with some fun banter among train crews regarding who had clearance.

302 takes to the A/D track while 311 holds the third siding over.

With 302 safely tucked into the yard, 311 is clear to depart.

Climbing down the western ladder...

...311 departs as the Nelson Crew begins work on 302's recently arrived consist.

Still more great video camera work in Nelson Yard.

311 has completed its work in the lower Peter's Pond area...

...and takes to the pedestrian crossing to the west (geographical east) of town.

The crew aims for the tunnel entrance which will take them beneath Mount St. Helens...

...and then they will find daylight in "The Corners" before passing through Wellington Lake and on up the hill into Bell.

Some video work of 311 on its departure out from "The Pond".

Glen Hammond is busiest in the early morning hours of the day.

This is when the town witnesses the departure of both 303 (westerly) and 304 (easterly).

Now...what's brought about Bill's great smile this time?

It's because he is in the company of great friends like Malcolm and Doug!

Or is it simply because he is wearing one of his favourite shirts!

Or is it because he's happy to be standing beside Grant with who is adorned with this wonderful insignia on his shirt?

Great folks on a great morning!

A relaxed bunch of lads pre-ops.

We are "Knights of the Crew Lounge Table!"

Pat and Mark enjoy each other's company as Gerry looks on in the background with Robin checking his train orders to the right in behind.

Skipper Bob has arrived meaning ore will reach customers once again on this day!

This great overall view of the railroad's southeast quadrant finds 312 working Spruce while 313 is found over in Ironwood.

While the IPP&W retains its independence, it is not shy from borrowing locomotives from railroads far and near and this D&H unit is a prime example of the far reaching tentacles of railroading.

This image reminds us of the mystique of railroading as this railfan wonders where the various railcars in this train will eventually find themselves.

Passing behind the Ironwood Brick facility, 311 begins its ascent out from "The Corners" with its sights set on Bell far off in the distance.

With no work at Wellington Lake, the crew highballs past the flagstop here.

Various locations are illustrated in this video footage.

Our train takes the crossovers to the east of Bell in order to align our final approach into Stuart Yard.

We snake through the various traffic at Bell...

...and come to a stop on Track 3 in the large yard.

More video segments of the run of 311.

My crewmate, Dilip, works the far end of our cut of cars as I drive the engine.

The crew of 314 works alongside us in Stuart Yard.

They head out to Watkins Siding to conduct their moves to the east.

Their CP caboose pulls up the rear of their train.

Bell video work.

Earlier in the day, the crew of 302 runs around their train in order to work the spur at Wellington Lake.

Twins!

Blue seems to be the predominant colour in this image as 302 flows downgrade off in the distance while 301 drills its facing sidings pushing hard on its caboose in the foreground.

Marcel's smile tells us that he is up to something!

Our power lifting a car at Larabie Fuels in Ironwood.

Some more views from Stuart Yard finds the RP&M crew traveling along the main.

RP&M Train 61 has a great deal of work to conduct here alongside our train.

The eastern end of Stuart Yard.

More video scenes from Bell.

While we drill the eastern spurs, our train momentarily parallels its RP&M cousin.

With our work complete, we take the crossovers to return to the big yard.

While off in the distance crews work both Ironwood and Spruce.

Cool video from Bell, Ironwood and Spruce!

Oh Oh!

I was actually called over this way and instructed to bring my camera along with me!

It would appear that we have two CP engines (a passenger and a freight) who haven't seen each other in a long while engaged in a celebratory kiss!

While a rare event, the lads asked me to put it on video on the blog! Yes, we emulated reality...as this sometimes occurs on the real railroad as well!

And...what have we here...wink, wink, nudge, nudge?! Indeed, a vestige from the past comes "back to the future" to rescue an RP&M train from a wonky diesel! She holds back a fair distance along RP&M iron to allow here counterpart a long enough lead for switching.

And...here we find her counterpart in action.

Rare RP&M video footage.

Fred hauls a patio chair over to Spruce to take in the action.

Garry locomotive...but where's Garry?

Ah, there he is!

Watkins Siding offers up a great deal of versatility to the railroad. It acts as the mainline between Wellington Lake and Spruce as well as a prime remote location where trains can meet. It also acts as a "runaround" when switching out both Wellington Lake and the eastern sector of Bell. Finally, it acts as a lengthy yard lead for the crews in Stuart Yard at Bell.

Mark handles the throttle on RP&M 71 with its new (old) locomotive added to the train back down in Rat Portage.

311 hovers above RP&M rails as it takes IPP&W iron up to Firgrove.

The ore train has already made its stop here as Len throws a turnout at the yard throat.

Our train returns to Bell this time as 322, our third run of the day. We have a lift at Brunt's so we head straight into the siding with our entire train in tow before reaching Stuart Yard at all!

The power for the ore train is this CN lovely brought out by Bob. Eric Gagnon, in his blog tells us that CN introduce its "CN North America" paint scheme in mid 1992. Intended to trumpet CN's continental reach by way of its Alaska-Prince Rupert barge and BN-FNM partnership into Mexico, the signature element of the scheme was CN's "wet noodle" superimposed on a stylized map of North America.

Holding court by the engine house, the crew awaits the ship to continue to handle the ore cars at the Northland Ore Dock before retrieving the MT's and returning them to their respective mines along the route of the IPP&W.

She certainly is a real "looker" Bob!

Parallel trains on parallel tracks.

Parallel video tape!

Black is Black!

We expand the boundaries of operations with an early generation diesel and a late lasting steam locomotive.

Our "Ironwood Road" road switcher gets down to work.

Great video of the two trains.

Bell can become quite congested at times but the crews learn to work around each other.

The main is cleared for the westbound ore train.

Bob steers his train through the yard along the main.

My locomotive runs around its train.

Bell is "Alive and Well" on video!

Mark peers to his left in order to follow his train as the ore train runs by.

Still more Bell video footage.

The ore train fights its way uphill...

...with a consist of empties (MT's)

Dilip and I are hot on Bob's tail but we do manage to keep a safe distance behind...just in case!

"The Ledges" as found on video.

Some lads have finished their runs and assemble in the shade on the patio.

A gander over to Mount St. Helens.

Another gander over to Wellington Lake with four cars filling up the spur siding.

Pat's little diesel is always up to the task finding itself sandwiched between two cars in Ironwood.

My wife Lisa and daughter Alison visited Upper Canada Village on Labour Day Monday. Doug and I wanted a couple more questions answered. We were wondering how they lit the interior of the sawmill seeing as it can be quite dark in those big wooden buildings. We weren't certain if the few windows we saw did the trick properly, but here we see the sun shining through quite well.

Kerosene lanterns like the one in the distance on the table also helped to light the interior of the mill.

Another question we had was how exactly were the logs brought into the sawmill, seeing as we hadn't thought to take notice of this fact on our earlier visit this summer. Off in the distance by the mill pond you will see a pile of logs. They are loaded on a carriage wagon with runs along the two wooden rails you see in this lengthy gangway ramp. They would most likely be winched up the slope.

Note the "reversed" flanges on the wheels which help to keep the carriage on the wooden rails. The sawyer told Lisa and Alison that the wheels had been reversed with the flanges sent to the outside as a way of overcoming "wear and tear". Interesting, for sure.

Once the carriage wagon reaches the mill, the logs are rolled off the wagon and onto the stage where they will make their way down to the cradle to be pulled along as the sawing takes place.

Note the squared timber on the cradle (or crib) off in the distance.

Remember that it is water movement that powers the saw. Quite the process, for sure.

I shared this image with you last week. My friend, Professor David Gardner, asked me to build this kit for him, a kit that comes in those renowned yellow boxes. Indeed, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to build one of the FSM kits from George Sellios. (FSM stands for his famous railroad, the Franklin & South Manchester)

Here is where I am at with the build after about 30 hours into the project. There are still many outer buildings that are attached to this main building to construct.

A large billboard still remains to be constructed and placed atop the roof.

The clock tower still requires its peaked top which rests atop four corner pillars with railings. To attain that heavily weathered seaside look where the salt air gets into the wood I have already worked five main washes atop the side walls of the building. I'll keep you posted with the build in next week's blog entries.