Session #13 Part Two

Session #13 Second Session

We continue with our overview of our thirteenth session of this operating season.

You will recall that Joel visited with his newfound friend, Terry.

We are also blessed with having Pete in from Nova Scotia for the month.

Bob's power for the ore train departs Craig Leigh bound for points west.

This Pontiac Pacific Junction locomotive toils at the end of the Cedar Rock Branch.

Pool Train 33 makes headway out from Wellington Lake along the main at Watkins Siding.

At the same location we find a meet between two IPP&W way freights. 

Sid's steam locomotive continues to reside on the outer track in Craig Leigh where it is still under examination.

Our rolling stock review has found these beauties on the interchange track at Bell.  They certainly brighten up our day!

How about this trio on the ice track in Craig Leigh?

Love them pickles!

Taste the Pabst!

Fruits for dessert!

And...speaking of rolling stock...check out this great image Seanna sent my way for a particular reason! 😃😄😃

Here is the story in Seanna's own words;

"On the way back from Toronto earlier this week, Steve and I happened upon a railfanning opportunity in Havelock.  See attached for a couple of B&M photos."

My response of appreciation to Seanna for thinking of me went something like this;  

"Wow!  Love that B&M covered hopper – so far away from its home road in both geographical distance and historical time!"

I went on to say;

"The B&M was swallowed up by Guilford Transportation Industries along with the Maine Central and the Delaware & Hudson."

Love the photo!

Seanna's e-mail included the following,  

"Regarding breadboards from last Wednesday - looks like the one in the photo is one of a few surplus ones that I have been passing out.  Let me know if you (or anyone else) would like more info about that, and I think I probably have some more to give away if you would like one."

Thanks for you caring Seanna.  Your kind message regarding the blog is very special to me.

(Seanna and Steve were able to check in on the happenings at the OVGRS via the blog while away on their trip to Toronto.)   

Here is what Seanna had to say that meant a lot to me.

"Just wanted to take this opportunity to let you know how much your diligent chronicling of the OVGRS operating sessions, workdays, and other events is appreciated."

Back to our session from this past Saturday.  We take another glance at Ralph's unique carrying case.

Pat & Paul arrive the property.

It's early still as Garry enjoys his beverage while his assistant, Robin, places the Drover's caboose on the caboose track in Nelson Yard.

Number 7 will enjoy running the rails on this morning.

Our "one of a kind" road switcher will find work in the big yard throughout the session in the careful control of Robin.

You've got to love the two-toned paint scheme on this rather colourful Denver & Rio Grande boxcar.

302's power is "at the ready" in Firgrove.

Len's number 48 will run between Firgrove and Bell throughout the duration of the session.

Ralph Yard has expectant cars on all tracks.

A look from the far end at Ralph.

Passenger 2 is typically the first train out in the morning but Mike was showing visitor Terry the "lay of the land" so the crew started a bit later on this day.  No worries as they caught up to schedule in due course!

Two cars are being handled at the Hamer facility on this day...the only "opposing" siding to all others in Rat Portage.

  Without this siding, RP&M crews would be finished their work a whole lot earlier than their IPP&W counterparts.

We have also added the sidings at Anderson for RP&M crews to switch out.  They are facing sidings, but with no runaround capability in the area those sidings are handled on the return journey to Nelson Yard.  They must be handled in a creative manner so as not to fowl the junction and not to rob the Nelson Crew of their western yard lead for too long.

Golding Grains, so named for Ric and Jan Golding, our very dear friends from the United States!

The ore dock in Firgrove is but a fraction of its counterpart in Craig Leigh, but it serves its purpose handily.  It can accommodate four ore cars which begin running at the start of a session.

And...here is "Ore Train Bob" with yet another wonderful locomotive he will utilize to run the ore.

Gerry and Grant are in discussion as out lady visitors check out the premises before the ops session gets going.

Doug and Sid have 301 on the ready track awaiting departure once the session gets under way.

Sid sets out the MT ore cars at Northland.  Once the loaded ore train arrives, loads are swapped for MT's.

D&RGW engine #455 will hold the honours on the ore train this day.

Another glance at Joel enjoying a chat with Gerry in the lounge while Terry in back holds the attention of Pete and Chris.

Here's Gerry, the vice-chair of OVAR.  Great first meeting of the year at our new digs, Gerry!

Bill oversees the action at the eastern end of Bell from outside his dispatch booth.  We spot Passenger 2 now underway.  The train will overtake 302 at Watkins Siding for a station stop at Wellington Lake.

Here is 302 taking the crossovers at Watkins Siding.

Our train exits the tunnel beneath the fabled Mount St. Helens to find dappled daylight in the morning hours.

Our arrival down in "The Pond" finds all the trackwork ours!  Well, I'll be!

Here's a cool meet of what I jokingly term as "Two Unit Trains"!  As mentioned in an earlier blog entry...one train's commodity is ore while the other train's is "The Paying Public"!

Paul and Ralph have Train 301 working in Spruce while Felicity and Steve are over in Ironwood with 304 while Terry checks out the various industries on the western fringe of Ironwood.

While this is going on we have two other crews nearby, Pat & Moe, up in Cedar Rock aboard 302 while Bob is spotted way off in the distance at St. Helens with the ore train.

"They've been working on the railroad - all the live long day!" as the old traditional train song we all remember goes.

In the meantime Passenger 2 surprises everyone as it makes its appearance in Spruce.

Following a brief two to three minute station stop we will be underway to Ironwood and points further to the east.

The "All Aboard" call is heard and we notch it up.

The way freight has protected itself as we accelerate by.

Felicity and Steve handle their trailing moves with ease.

As we conduct our station stop in St. Helens, 304 enters in on the passing siding which will line them up nicely for their trailing point moves.

We tackle the grade up to Craig Leigh out from St. Helens with a bit of sand to assist the crew.

Bob and Doug await our arrival.

Having wyed our train, we proceed to back into the terminal area.  Our train is spotted passing Douglas Yard.

Still a ways to go.

Doug, Sid and Terry enjoy the shade as much as I do!

In this snippet we find Terry backing our headend equipment onto our passenger cars to round out the consist of Pool Train 33.

Video efforts in Craig Leigh where we thank Doug and Sid for assembling the headend gear for the Pool Train.

I've pulled out my CN Road Switcher to run Pool Train 33.

My neighbour and friend, Richard Thornton, has made it out for a short visit.  He is an active member and leader in the NTRAK community here in Ottawa.  

Here we are joking that this visit takes him to the "opposite end of the spectrum" when it comes to scale size!

Terry drives the train as Richard railfans.

I know that only a portion of the batteries in my RS3 work...so we'll see just how far we get!

Pool Train 33's departure as captured by Mike on video.

Most of the videos in this entry are of our passenger run where Terry and I are in discussion about numerous topics.  

I'm also explaining to him the workings of the railroad as we run our trains  throughout the session.

What's this - a diesel imposing its power over the steamers!  No worries steam...this particular road switcher will have to be rescued at some point!

The Pool Train, Number 33, meets opposing Train 301 in "The Mount".

Train 33's length is most impressive on this day!

Terry loved running the road switcher with its distinctive Alco sound and its great paint and lettering job done by our very own Bill 'Sn3' Scobie.

Speaking of Mr. Scobie, in this shot of Train 33 he appears as an apparition walking through the fence onto Fred's property!

33 slows for its required station stop on the big curve to the west of Ironwood.

We have arrived Spruce and have had to run around our train to switch out the facing siding.

Note the opposing train holding at Clarke Grade just behind the garden stones above my engine.  This is Train 312 waiting for us to finish our facing move.  

It is for this reason I would switch out the Spruce House Track on my return run through town when the siding is trailing instead.

Conducting our swap on video at Spruce.

Moe and Pat can now get their assigned work in Spruce seeing as we have departed the area and are on the downward slide of the grade.  

Note two things; our diesel locomotive having been removed requiring rescuing with my steamer (now isn't that irony!) and we have lost the tail end of our train.  

Yes, we will have to look at the couplers on the cars to determine why the same car keeps uncoupling.

Video out from Spruce.

Chris and Pete haul 324 into Spruce on their third trick of the morning.

At the same time our passenger service works "The Corners" in behind the Railfans' Cabin.

Video views of these scenes.

Engine number 7 works for the RP&M on this morning on RP&M Train 74..

We find the RP&M crew departing the area around Stuart destined for Rat Portage.  Grant and Gerry are on board the train.  In the distance, Paul is returning to Bell with IPP&W Train 322.

In the meantime, Terry and I work Len's new industry located adjacent to the depot at Bell.

Bell & Stuart plus two railroads are captured on video tape.

322 enters the yard.

Typically they would come in on Track 3 but dispatch had other reasons to bring them in on Track 4.

We switch out Bernicky Forwarders.

More video from the same neighbourhood.

With our work complete we can now depart IPP&W rails for RP&M iron.

With our headend on the RP&M and our parlour car still on IPP&W tracks, we make our way to the summit of the downgrade movement into Rat Portage.

Pool Train 33's departure as captured on video.

We find daylight exiting the tunnel at Rat Portage.

The crew of 74 is protected on the main so we will have the siding for our pass.

Station arrival in Rat as caught on video.

Upon our departure we take the switch and run past 74.

Our exit from Rat as captured on video camera.

Terry steers our train into the Glen and Bernie and Robin look on.

Garry joins the viewership of our train!

We share the Glen with RP&M Train Rat 63, about to depart town.

We amble up to the station in the Glen.  We typically have work to conduct here on the house track where you see the yellow baggage car.

Views on video of our arrival in Glen Hammond.

Off in the distance we find Steve & Felicity working the sidings at Spruce.

We have summited the grade and slow for our station stop.

More Spruce videos.

Having backed our train into Craig Leigh, the Pool Train is terminated.

Our final run of the morning is aboard westbound Passenger 1.

Water stop!

Water stop video footage.

Earlier, Bernie had returned with Train 72, the RP&M's second half of its 71-72 Nelson Yard-Bell Turn.  He may have some work to conduct at Anderson.

Enjoy your trip to Europe, Bernie!  We're certainly going to miss you at the next few sessions.  Perhaps you'll bump into Malcolm who is also oversees and who we miss dearly as well!

We spot a wayfreight in the distance streaming into Ironwood as its power passes the station.

Train 33's last stop before heading over to Rat Portage & Mattawa iron is at Bell.

Another crew works the interchange track here as a pair of twins reside on the Brunt's Brewery spur in back.

Train 33 is nearing the home stretch on the Spruce Sub conducting its station stop at the sub's namesake town.

We don't have to exchange any equipment hear as our crew decided to challenge itself and swap out the headend power on our first run through Spruce where the exchange was of the "facing" nature.  This move was actually written in our train orders.

We did hold up an IPP&W train for a few minutes when we did the swap...so in future I would conduct the exchange on the homeward journey of Pool Train 33...train orders aside.

Billy Boy takes a much needed rest.

Another view of Steve & Felicity with their IPP&W Train (313) working Spruce on their second trick of the day.

Terry and I appreciate these pair of twins found on one of the western sidings at Ironwood.

With the session complete, Fred entertains his friends!

You'll recall from my first blog posting from Session #13 that my family caught up with a friend who was kayaking the entire Rideau River system from Kingston to Ottawa.  

That Saturday afternoon following train operations we met up with him and his friend at the Long Island Locks.  The image above, rural and pastoral in nature, is located only six kms from Dow's Lake in the heart of Ottawa!  

This image was taken the following morning.

My family decided to catch up with the two kayakers here at the Black Rapids Lockstation close to Ottawa following their night's sleep by the lock station at Long Island south of this point.

Nature is found in abundance at this secluded location.

The fishing is excellent as well!

The station is a single lock one.

Located on a bend in the Rideau River, the lock forms an island with the spillway located out of sight to the right of the image.

The Black Rapids Lock is one of only three on the entire canal system that is hydraulic.

When Ottawa had a recent storm causing severe power outages, the lock was closed for the duration of the event.

Lisa chats with the two lock employees as my daughter, Karen, talks with two canoeists from British Columbia who have been travelling the canal for the past few weeks.

It's amazing how the building looks like a railroad station!

It certainly does!

The north gates to the lock.

Rather imposing!

We look over the water area south of the lock with this image taken from the island in the middle of the river.

One of the three sluice gates along the spillway dam to the east of the island...comprised of three spillway sections and three piers.

Video at the sluice gates.

A look back west to the main structure.

A smooth looking bollard.

The remnants of the winch system.  The winch is known as a "crab".

Tethered ropes called "drop cables" hang over the sides of the canal for the patrons on the vessels to take hold of when the water levels raise or lower.

Here come the lads!

David paddles by...

...followed by Allan.

Their arrival caught on video.

The gates are opened.

David has entered the lock with a smile offered up to this photographer!

His buddy, Allan, has made it through as well.

Lisa chats the two up as they are lowered to the level of the Rideau north of Black Rapids.

Another glance at the controls for the hydraulics.  

Black Rapids, Smith's Falls and Newboro are the only three locks run in this manner on the entire system.

Our two employees are very engaging with the public.

The valves are opened to drain the lock.

Water action on video.

Once the water levels match the main gates are then opened.

Main gates open in this video.

With the water level now lowered, our friends are able to let go of the drop lines and continue their journey.

But they will pay a visit to the "little boys' room first and have a short visit with Lisa, Karen and me.

This image looks back at the lock they have just exited.

Same location further down the ramp with the doors closing.

Now with the doors closed.

"Look David!" Allan points out, "Our final destination is but a few wee hours ahead in the nation's capital!"

Allan rejoices in reaching "Terra Firma" once more!

On behalf of Joel and Terry, our two visitors to the layout this week, we wish to thank you for checking in on this blog entry.  This image of Joel and me was snapped during an operating session at Ron Newby's narrow gauge layout many years ago when I looked more like a chipmunk!  Heheheh!

As always, we thank Father Fred for the weekly "open" invites to run trains in the great outdoors at his home.

Here's to a great day tomorrow with a fine forecast for train running!

All the best from the OVGRS clan

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada