Scenes From Session #11

Scenes From Session #11

The heat dissipated the day before our 11th session.

Indeed, the heat dome left the region and we enjoyed cooler temps at least for the AM hours.

The thermometer would rise to 33 degrees Celsius by late afternoon after which time our session would be long finished.

The white walled tires of Paul's steam locomotive are as cool as the morning's atmosphere.

And...here is Paul after setting out the cars in Douglas Yard at Craig Leigh where he acts as yardmaster.

While not many in abundance, these freight cars will find themselves on westbound trains later in the morning.

Smiles abound as we will be running trains in short order following the pre-ops safety briefing.

Claire will be running RP&M trains with Pat today and I'll be working for the IPP&W with Dilip.

Gerry looks great with that new haircut as he drains a beverage before taking on the tasks aboard IPP&W Train 301 with Felicity.

Fred admires the haircut from his seat in the crew lounge.

Speaking of Felicity, she comes dressed for the occasion to keep the sun at bay and attached to her belt is the outside pocket she makes use of to carry uncoupling tools!

We ask Claire to do the honours and "Ring the Bell" to get the pre-ops safety briefing underway.

Fred & Paul are already in the lounge...

...while, at the sound of the bell the lads come running like a flock of sheep to the trough!

Yessirree...one after another they arrive.

We wonder which one is the 'black sheep of the family'! 💘💘😎💘💘

Bell ringing video!

We are all smiles in the crew lounge before the main event.

We listen in as Bernie details all of the safety issues to consider.

Then it is time to get down to action running the railroad.

In this image taken later in the morning's session Henk & Bill have things under control in Nelson Yard.

In the lower left you can spot my locomotive having hauled IPP&W Train 302 into the yard.

We will soon depart with IPP&W Train 312.

We start off the action with these snippets from my first video of the day.

I am currently running alone with Train 302 out from Firgrove as I pass the ore siding at the (imaginary) Firgrove Ore Mine.

I am '5 cars out' from Firgrove as I stroll down the slope at 'The Ledges' in an eastbound direction.

Off in the distance is my destined location of Bell where I will be setting out a car at the Watkin's Co-operative facility with its landmark tall grain elevator dominating the landscape.

This will be a facing move for my train so I will make use of the 'double ladder' to the west of Bell to run around my train.

To the left we spot Grant working the sidings in Glen Hammond aboard westbound IPP&W Train 303.

Mike's Train 302 stars in the first video effort of this entry.

I rush past the cars nestled in the town of Stuart as I take to the curve leading into Bell.

Short Bell entry video.

My locomotive is now on the rear of the train having pulled the consist back to access the required facing siding.

The 'setout' car happened to be placed at the head of my train meaning I had to bring the entire consist with me.

Ideally the lone facing setout would be blocked in ahead of the caboose for ease of switching.

No worries though as the requested car is now residing in the lee of the grain elevator.

Note the two sets of turnouts located below the 'boxcar red' car.  

They both lead to the 'double ladder' which made this move much easier for me rather than having to use the entire length of the long yard at Bell to run around my train using Tracks 3 & 4!

Switching video at the far western end of Bell.

As with the sheep seen earlier in this posting the 'herding' of trains through Bell continues with the ore train now on the move!

Following my depositing of the grain car at the elevator, I reset the turnout to the main.

Robin's A&O engine #2 holds the honours on this day.

 I have protected my train in along Track 3 as ore moves quickly through Bell in an eastbound direction.

Across a vast theoretical distance from Bell we witness the activities of IPP&W Trains 303 and 304 at Glen Hammond.

Henk sits in the shade offered by the umbrellas at Nelson Yard as Bill directs a chipmunk off the rails after giving him a decent scolding for trespassing! 😎👀😎

Here we find highly active video work in and around Bell, Glen Hammond & Nelson Yard.

Paul's power in Douglas Yard with those gorgeous white walls!

A couple of end cars lay about at Douglas.

Chris enjoys a cuppa Java before he runs 'The Route of the RP&M'!

Ralph Yard, named after the late Ralph Dipple hosts a variety of traffic.

Later in the session I spot a meet of my Train 302 with opposing Train 303 down in Peter's Pond.

The 'double siding' trackwork here allows the two crews to work around each other with minimal delays.

My crewmate, Dilip, has arrived as we rumble up the Cedar Rock Branch.

Dilip & I have already set out the black tankcar off in the distance at Chandler's Sludge.

 We have exchanged the brown boxcar from the Cedar Rock Supply spur for the yellow and the green reefers which are now spotted at the facility.

We pass the office for the Sludge Works.

Everyone...meet Dean.

He lives on the same street as Fred and he has always wondered why so many cars park outside Fred's home each Saturday morning.

Now he knows why!

Boy...was he surprised and dutifully impressed when he walked into Fred's backyard!  😀😁😀

Here I am at Watkins Siding having lifted the yellow reefer off the facing spur at Wellington Lake.

Because I am alone at the moment I uncouple the lift 'on the fly' with my hand as my locomotive continues to reverse.

I have to take the crossover first to lift my caboose in order to tuck the reefer in ahead of it.

Switching video at Watkins Siding.

I have been granted clearance from dispatch to depart Wellington Lake bound for Peter's Pond where I will take the Cedar Rock siding in anticipation of heading up the branch.

The Hosta plants I brought from home last year are doing very well at this woodlawn location.

There is the yellow reefer my train gained at Wellington Lake being well cared for ahead of the caboose.

Video footage of Train 302's progression along the Bell Subdivision.

We now head up the long Cedar Rock Branch with the cars you saw in some of the earlier images.

Dilip is all smiles as we spot Dean as he investigates the Craig Leigh area of the railway.

Video of our climb up to Cedar Rock.

Dilip & I have completed our run of 302 and are held up in Nelson Yard with 312 awaiting a crew to finish up in Spruce before departing.

This provides me with 15 'free' minutes to railfan the greater system as you find me here in Craig Leigh.

I have spotted Robin pulling empties off the ore dock in anticipation of his run west to replenish the mines with cars for loading.

Northland Ore Dock video work.

I then head over to the west end of the line where I find Grant & Mark having terminated their first train of the morning, IPP&W Train 303.

Grant has turned his locomotive and runs forward to the head of his new train, IPP&W Train 314.

He passes the depot at Firgrove.

His Denver, South Park & Pacific steamer is up for the task!

Video finds on the west end.

In the meantime, Robin has reached Ironwood where he set out four cars at the Ironwood Brick Mine off in the distance.

His goal now is the 'double' Fallentree Mine outside of Nelson Yard.

He must first exit Ironwood...

...and take the big curve into Spruce before hauling the MT cars across the landscape to Nelson Yard.

Ore video moments.

The ore train meets 301 in Spruce.

The train then descends Clarke Grade as 301 continues its work above at Spruce and 304 hustles around Ironwood to the right.

Video footage of three trains at work.

Here we see me re-railing my locomotive as a turnout was loose and the power derailed.

This and the next handful of photos come from the lens of Pat Brennan.

This was an easy maintenance fix on the spot as I went to the lounge to get a screwdriver to tighten the turnout throw.

Typically the Workday Wednesday crews handle these issues, but every now and then a little 'touch' of maintenance can be carried out during an actual operating session.

In this photograph from Pat we find the two RP&M crews toiling away in the distance; Chris in Glen Hammond and Pat Brewer up in Bell/Stuart.

Pat Brennan tells us that he and Bernie are proceeding out of Nelson Yard en route to Peter's Pond as witnessed in the foreground.

Pat also found the area around Rat Portage and Firgrove appealing.

Pat tells us that the image was taken pre-ops when he assisted George with the setout of equipment and saw the perspective of Ralph yard, looking south.

Every now and then Freebee items appear on the crew lounge table and Pat had brought out some magazines to give away along with this lovely B&W photo of a gorgeous steam locomotive.

Okay...not trains...but a well-'trained' kitty cat named Jemma.

Pat wrote the following caption for us...on Friday one of our three cats, Jemma, crawled into my bass drum when I brought it into the living room before packing the drums into the van for our gig at Stittsville Main Street pub that evening. 

Thanks Pat for these great pics!

Chris sent along this image with this caption...The IPP&W in Hamilton?

Chris wrote...last week (the 9th of August) I was out of town and unable to make it to the IPP&W for operations, but while driving through Hamilton Ontario I spotted this sign for Stuart yard - and yes, just like the IPP&W - they were running standard gauge diesels that weekend.
Chris tells us that he wasn't able to get a photo, but here's a screen grab from Google street view he found.

Thanks Chris for the great story!

As for me, when I'm not operating at Fred's place I can simply walk downstairs to my crew lounge and enter my model railroad room located in an addition on my house.

Here I am switching out the south siding in the town of North Dover.

This B&M switcher is a staple in town.

North Dover video on the Boston & Maine.

Thanks for checking in on this blog entry.

Picture of Mike having a mud bath beside the Dead Sea.

And...before the mud bath was taken I was simply 'hanging out' or should I say 'floating about' in the Dead Sea some 15 or so years ago.

Yuppers...ya can't sink here...but don't dare put your face in the water!!!

Thanks to Father Fred for looking after the paperwork with the cars each Saturday morning and thanks to Dilip and Steve for organizing said paperwork each week!

Also, thank you to Chris & Pat for sending along some pics for us to enjoy...always appreciate the views from others!

The temperatures have come down considerably so here is hoping for a cooler Saturday when we gather next.

We are the OVGRS of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada