Second Installment From Belleville
This entry acts as the "second section" of our train running experience this past week in Belleville at the home of "Bonnie and Barry Birkett (born in Brantford) on Boyce in Belleville." Thanks for that additional alliteration, Barry
We arrived Barry and Bonnie's at 9:30 AM enabling the crew to get a good start on operations.
Barry had all crew lists predetermined based on his communication with folks who indicated their attendance.
These images and videos are in no particular order...so enjoy the fun!
Eric rolls out of Cumberland in charge of Train 42 behind leased Ottawa Central power.
We relive the glory days of steam as we witness Train 64 on its departure on a nine station journey across the system.
Ottawa yard holds down a vast array of cars at any given moment.
Our Ottawa friend, Bernie, would love to see that pair of TH&B 40-footers make their way up to the IPP&W and the RP&M!
Is this a computer simulation game with all those "Pac-Man" cars in the mix?
Hey Joe...where're you going with that train of yours!
I remember that Jimi Hendrix song!
Robin is wondering the same thing! Check out the museum piece in behind Robin, that glorious steamer from days gone by!
Pre-ops finds folks assembling around the crew lounge area while Joe & Robin work the yard at Belleville in the distance!
Grant, Eric and Roger hang out in the lounge.
Grant's badge of honour!
Pat and Steve await their turn to get their power travelling over top the steel rails down in Belleville.
Is it the Kingston Trio? No silly...it's the Belleville Trio!
Barry and Moe pose for this ardent railfan.
Barry is also a member of the ARK even though he lives in Belleville.
We spot a train traveling west from Kamaryn City toward Shaanenville after crossing the river bed upon finding daylight out from the tunnel.
Shaanenville East houses the ground level ore facility.
More of Bonnie's many and diverse plantings.
Later in the session Randy and I find ourselves at Trista Centre where we appreciate the assist Steve and Pat gave us with our lifts here.
Seeing as they were already occupied in the yard, the crew lifted our required cars for us...a wonderful example of how cooperation and collaboration assist in keeping traffic flowing along the line.
Silence is broken at the Hayes Fuel dealer as Train 46 rumbles past.
46 takes the turnout that will guide their train through the Sandra Bypass and on into Cumberland. In behind 46, Train 64 makes use of the main as a yard lead to drill the sidings at Kamaryn City.
We meet an opposing train in the bypass as we proceed east toward Ottawa.
We will have stops in Cumberland, Orleans and West Ben before terminating our train at the big yard in the nation's capital.
Video evidence of our train's movements.
After assisting 42 at Cumberland with a facing move, we sashay into town on the main to allow 42 an opening to exit westbound (geo east).
42 is on the roll as we come to a stop.
The Ottawa Central began operations in late 1988. Now, in the year 2023, the unit pictured above continues to earn its keep between Belleville and Ottawa.
Off she goes towards the bypass and points west.
42's progress as captured on video.
Train 42 traverses the pedestrian crossing out from Cumberland.
With his locomotive now on the Sandra Bypass, Eric's conductor along with caboose waves farewell to the station master in Cumberland.
42 and 62 hold a meet at the bypass track. Once 42 clears, the crew aboard 62 will have a setout and perhaps a lift at the lower siding trailing off the inner bypass track.
Roger performs a runby inspection of Train 42's wheels and gives the signal that all is copacetic with Eric's train.
Video meet at the Sandra Bypass.
With 42 long gone, the crew of 46 gets down to work at Cumberland.
Our videographer is also the conductor/brakeman on the train and must halt the video rather quickly to get the turnout for the specified siding!
Video moments at Cumberland.
In a delicate balancing act, Barry has managed to create an operations scheme that allows for a large number to trains to traverse the steel rails in an efficient and timely manner.
With our setouts complete at Cumberland, we have a single lift to pull from the yard and then we'll be on our way to Orleans.
Oh Christmas Tree...oh Christmas Tree...
The main acts as our yard lead.
Further Cumberland video footage.
Train 46 has blown the crossing as it sneaks onto the trestle with Orleans as its destination.
Pedestrians must wait until the entire length of the train clears the crossing before walking on by.
All clear!
Here's Father Fred!
And...here's my engineer, Randy!
Video of our journey between Cumberland and Orleans.
Train #44 reaches Shaanenville out from Kamaryn City.
With six cars on the head pin plus caboose, the crew may very well have work to do at this location.
Grant and Moe are in charge of 44.
In the video Moe is asking how my dentist is doing as Moe had heard that he was suffering nerve damage in his neck from constantly looking down at the same angle into our mouths over the years! Yikes! (And I thought dentists caused us pain - not the other way around!) 👀😝
(Of course...we're just kidding around as it is our dentists who regularly relieve us of our pain!)
We catch up with Eric and Barry back in Kamaryn City.
Their entry into the city brings them past the small depot governing the double bypass tracks you see off to the right in the above image.
Barry instructs Eric to pull to a stop where he must break the train for switching.
Kamaryn City video with Train 42.
Let's conduct another rolling stock review! In Cora's Corners we spot these two CN stockcars.
That sure is a nice load on that bulkhead flat, Barry!
Looks like a train is getting ready to depart seeing as the van is already spotted at the rear.
Roger handles the cars located at the newly installed siding Barry has managed to fit into the railroad.
Here's Pat's favourite car, we presume!
And...yet another gorgeous flatcar load of high-end vehicles destined for market!
Now that's a bright looking stock car if I've ever seen one!
Indeed, the real thing. Research tells us that the first glass of coke ever poured occurred on May 8th, 1886.
A lovely orange reefer.
These shorty tank cars continue to impress this railfan!
You can't beat the appearance of graphic billboard reefers and this one would make the top of my list any day!
Yet another billboard reefer with a lighter touch and smaller graphic.
That new siding manages to hold some very interesting equipment.
Love it! Say Fred...you should get a canopy roof for your tractor! Hehehe! 👍👌👍
Check out this old and weathered British American Oil Company tank car in front of yet another billboard reefer.
There are always interesting flatcar loads to find on Barry's railroad...and I like it!
Some interesting rolling stock reside along the Aardvark Meats siding.
Bright white with a splash of red and black provide for a high visibility freight car...and the SOO LINE does it right!
We head back into Mr. Peabody's time capsule and backtrack in time a tad to the pre-ops gathering. Here we see Steve (Ottawa) and Joe & Randy (Kingston) assembling for the briefing.
Barry offers up a few brief and clear instructions that puts everyone at ease seeing as this is a railroad we visit on the rare occasion of our annual pilgrimage to Belleville!
Pat relaxes before taking on Train 62 and crewing with Steve.
Barry shares with the group how he organizes the sessions.
From left to right: Barry, Moe, Robin, Pat and Grant.
Joe and Robin have completed assembling their train and they have their train 48 meeting train 64 in Shaanenville in the early morning hours.
Another shot of Mike and Randy who acted as Belleville yardmasters before crewing Train 46.
Say Bonnie, this is great tasting coffee you've got on the go!
Fred and Roger solve a handful of the world's problems as Pat deals with his train in the distance at Ottawa's yard.
It's Moe and our "other" Pat!
It seems Moe has an affinity to birds of any stripes.
(More on that in a moment!) 😎👀😎
Just what is the "Flying Crow" you must be asking? I was wondering the same thing...so I did a bit of investigating.
My internet search revealed the answer.
The "Flying Crow" was one of the two flagship passenger trains of the Kansas City Southern Railway with the "Southern Belle" being the other.
In the images above shared by a Mr. Ridge on his blog entry we see the "Southern Belle" under steam in the top picture and the "Flying Crow" in care of a lovely diesel passenger unit in the bottom two images.
This is not the end of the story as Barry's smile foreshadows the humour of what I am about to write.
Here we are two days later on the Saturday morning back home in Ottawa as 25 of us assemble in the crew lounge at Fred's large scale railroad before our weekly operations.
The red arrow points to Moe who is in the process of cleaning his glasses.
Moe tells the assembled crowd that on the way home from Belleville he was robbed while eating dinner at a Fish'n'Chips restaurant in Brockville!
As we listen intently, Moe tells the gang that a seagull swooped down and stole his fillet of fish while he wasn't looking!
What Moe failed to do was tell the "whole" story. This eagle-eyed gull realized Moe wasn't looking and took advantage of the situation.
Why wasn't Moe watching over his food?
Because he was too busy feeding the seagulls on the ground nearby where he was sitting!!! 😡😡😡
Well, at least one creature's mouth appreciated Moe's gesture! 😋😋😋
I'll finish off this particular blog entry with miscellaneous photo shots from our Barry's railroad.
We have an American and a Canadian car sharing the siding just as we both share much of our continent!
Bonnie's hydrangea shrub is in full bloom!
Another glance at Trista Centre.
Ottawa Yard plays host to the old and the new!
Train 48 passes by the parking lot located to the east of Belleville.
62 shuffles along on the inner bypass track at Kamaryn City,
Train 46 drills the far siding track at the same location.
Past the midpoint in their journey, the crew aboard 46 enjoy the verdant and colourful landscape located in the area of the Sandra bypass.
Mike's D&H GP38-2 holds the honours on 46 this day and railfans from all over were glad the unit was leased to Barry Birkett's railroad!
Another glance at an interesting load found in Cumberland.
With our work here a mere memory we depart Cumberland with our sights set on Orleans.
Near the end of our run, we have one final move.
We have a lift at the stockyards at West Ben.
Here's Grant!
44 finds itself entering Shaanenville.
A lovely TH&B van brings up the rear of the train.
Our Rutland car has found it way over to Ottawa where it shares a siding track with a CP Rail car.
This car made for an interesting image.
Love the waterfalls Barry has managed to create in his backyard! More on that in the next blog entry!
Here's an interesting sight!
Love that trailer!
And, as mentioned before...I particularly appreciate this shorty caboose!
Another glance at this Ottawa Central unit.
Some of the surrounding farms near Kamaryn City.
Recent storms have done some damage here, Barry tells me.
Still more variety down in Trista Centre.
We wonder which three distinct liquids this SP triple dome tank car is carrying.
Love this ornament in Bonnie's garden.
A closer view.
And...a closer view of those hydrangea flowers.
Along with false spirea, I make use of these flowers once their blooms have gone for my HO trees on my B&M layout.
The tree on the righthand side of this image was made from the same hydrangea plant pictured above from Bonnie's garden.
Click on the image to enlarge in order to see better.
Click outside the image to return to the default look of the page.
Likewise the two trees towering above my RS2 came from this same shrub.
Also...the tree pictured towering above the Maine Central F-unit near the edge of the red brick building.
The tree growing up against the Phillips Furniture Factory is fabricated from the hydrangea flower.
The light green tree towering above the "lighter" green specimen to the left came from the same plant.
Note the woodpecker in the tree!
Wow...I wonder how Barry and Bonnie can grow these silvery-green evergreens in amongst the timbers!
Some of the urban flavour Barry has created.
The tower oversees the yard in Belleville.
Well, that's all from me for the moment. I'll be creating a third and final blog entry from our wonderful visit to Belleville over the next few days...so be sure to check in then!
Indeed, Barry has come a long way with his railroad in a relative short amount of time!
If ever you are in the area of Belleville, Barry would be thrilled to host you for a visit to see the trains. He can easily prepare a run for a single visitor or a group of visitors.
As we see Fred and Robin sandwiching Barry, we say a great big "thank you" to both Barry and Bonnie for hosting us at their home, their gardens and their railroad.
To a person, we were thrilled to be able to run trains in a highly prototypical manner in Belleville.
We can't wait until next summer's event, Barry!
Until next time...we are Barry, Bonnie and the gang from ARK, the OVGRS and friends from south of the border!
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