Garden Railroading: Session #14

Part Two Views From Session #14

With so many photos and videos taken from each session, I am able to create two full-length blog entries each week.

Even with this amount of material, there is enough 'leftovers' to create blogs throughout the off-season to keep our large scale juices flowing while the snow begins to fly!

Sit back and enjoy this next posting from the great fun we have in the outdoors running trains.

In the habitat of Nelson Yard, diesel locomotives congregate as the morning sun ascends in the sky.

Bill lends a smile our way as Doug and he are found in conversation in the misty appearance of the sun's rays.

One of our newer cars, this Pittsburgh & Lake Erie gondola awaits its role in the greater scheme of the session.

Cars reside on the interchange track awaiting pickup by the Northland Railway.

These cars will eventually find their way traveling across the length and breadth of the province of Ontario.

Gerry & Phil listen in as Pat has a few words to share with the group.

We spot Father Fred in the lower righthand corner of the photo.

These somewhat 'shadowy' characters are found in the penalty box.

Bill adds a few words of wisdom to the proceedings.

Another look at the lads who are serving time in the penalty box.

Pat and Bill run Nelson Yard like a Swiss watch as crews in back begin to get underway with their trains.

Rat Portage is a town located on our secondary line, the Rat Portage & Mattawa.

The town is home to a number of industries and a decent sized yard.

Steve & Seanna work RP&M Train 71 at this location as found in this video.

Newly leased power from the TH&B works the yard and industries down in Rat.

With the addition of the Hamer Manufacturing facility, there are now both trailing and facing sidings at this location.

Earlier, switching out Rat Portage was similar to switching out St. Helens where all sidings run the same way.

Video work down in Rat Portage.

George's endcab switcher in early CN clothing handles all the work in Ralph Yard at Firgrove.

Claire runs IPP&W Train 314 out from Firgrove on the left as Seanna works RP&M Train 71 down in Rat Portage to the right.

The golden lightning strike separating the blue roofline from the grey flanks on my D&H GP38-2 always manages to grab my attention!

A host of video views from the west end of the property are portrayed here.

This CN switcher struggles at the base of the grade into Rat Portage.

Marcel realizes that he must change out the batteries in his throttle - which solved the issue.

George & Len control traffic at Ralph Yard.

Continued west end video scenes.

Claire offers a 'pat on the back' of the D&H locomotive as she has found it more responsive than the CN RS3 we ran during our earlier run aboard 303.

Yup, she is in agreement with me that the Delaware & Hudson livery is one great looking one!

Seven cars and a caboose are hauled into Bell aboard Train 314.

A video look at 314's progress down grade by the wall of foliage at 'The Ledges'.

Train 314 greets Bell as the crew sashays over to Track 3.

The interchange business is strong as the designated track for said cars is full to the brim.

Claire rolls 314 to a slow stop as an RP&M train follows us into the yard in the distance.

Arrival video reels at Bell.

In earlier years, this unit originated as a Lehigh Valley locomotive.

This image by Robert Farkas shows the unit shortly after it was purchased from the Lehigh Valley RR.

Claire acts as both engineer and conductor.

Video taken near the easternmost point at Bell.

Seanna works the sidings in Stuart as Claire pulls 314's consist back westward using the main line as a lead to drill the interchange track at Bell.

The parallel ladders for both railroads (as conceived by Henk) certainly offer great flexibility in switching as two trains work in close proximity to each other independently.

In this previously shared video from a couple of days ago we see just how the double ladders work so efficiently!

Claire runs back to the front of our train along the mainline.

Video of the run back - but ignore the end of the footage! 🙈

The yard is all Steve & Seanna's following our departure from the scene.

While off in Ironwood I spot the ore train making advances west.

Chris films his own train.

Video from Bell, Watkins Siding and Ironwood.

In the distance, second trick Train 311 reaches Wellington Lake.

With no work for them assigned to this location, they breeze through town and reach Watkins Siding where they will meet our train.

They certainly have a colourful consist on this day.

311's progress is found in this video effort.

It's now our turn to take to the trackage through Wellington Lake.

We bisect the buildings at Ironwood Brick.

The forested environs offer up a nice backdrop for our train.

Video followings of Train 314 through 'The Corners'.

Pat keeps an eye over things in Nelson Yard where two switch engines man the lines.

His mate in the yard, Bill, keeps a handle on things as well.

Dara pays us a visit keeping Father Fred company in the outdoor lounge.

It was at this time I began to notice the angled appearance of the freight cars on the inner siding track near the foundation of Fred's house at Mercer Siding.

We take another glance at the cow & calf tandem now residing beside the engine house at Craig Leigh.

We spot Dilip & Gerry working the yard at Spruce.

The crew navigates the ladder without incident as there have been issues here before.

Train 321 requests clearance to Glen Hammond now that their work is complete at Spruce.

Much earlier in the session Train 314 reaches Peter's Pond and takes the Cedar Rock siding for a meet with the passenger train.

Peter's Pond arrival video.

From high above we spot Pool Train 33 being pulled by a Mikado!

This is the story of "The old meeting the new!"

In the video you will see how we had snuck out on the main thinking we had sufficient time to run around our train before thinking better of it!

It's a curiosity to see two steam generator cars behind a steam locomotive that can generate its own steam! 😎😎😎

Curious video down in 'The Pond'.

We use the far 'Peter's Pond' siding momentarily as we had to clear the main for the incoming ore train.

We have two cars on our headpin which we must first run around as they will be deposited in the trailing sidings at the end of the branch in the town of Cedar Rock after we climb the branch.

All is well trackside as the meet is held.

More meets in Peter's Pond are captured on video.

We have now been able to run around our setouts for Cedar Rock and we now proceed up the branch.

We pass by Culham Coal on our way into Cedar Rock.

The climb up the branch is seen on video.

We have reached our trailing sidings up in Cedar Rock.

Our two setouts that you saw us bring up the branch will be set out and we will have to deal with three lifts from industries up this way.

Note the 'canted' angle of the entire yard in the distance.

This was corrected as you saw in our Workday Wednesday entry previous to this posting.

Video work up in Cedar Rock.

A short while later Train 313 makes advances on Nelson Yard as spotted at Lilly.

The Fred Mills Trestle plays host to 313.

While across the great divide, our train, 314, has been held at Mercer Siding for some 15 minutes as Nelson Yard is somewhat congested.

The ore train meets us here and gains entry immediately into the big yard as the crew must lift their own cars from the Fallentree Mine.

My 15 minute 'hold' at Mercer allowed me to float around the property and snap pics and vids of other trains!

It's a misty Ontario morning.

Off in the distance we find the ore train being diverted along a lower track in Nelson Yard.

Chris has uncoupled from his ore cars and he will be the one heading over to the mine to pick up the empties.

On other days, if time allows, the Nelson Yard team would go into the mine and retrieve the ore cars and return them to the yard for ease of pickup by the ore crew.

Video of the ore train's arrival.

In the audio, I am explaining how my band will be performing at the Dementia Society's annual fundraising Walkathon the following morning.

This image of the colourful characters in my band, 'The Mystics', was taken by professional photographer Hamza Bennani.

From left to right: Mike Hamer, Gerry Yemensky, Corinne Friessen, Mark Peters, Jerome Lalonde.

On another note, OVGRS member Al Trask has sent me a number of images he took at the Victoria, BC 35th Annual Model Railroad Show he attended recently.

Hey Al, thanks so much for sending these images along...including this diorama of a small sawmill!

Let's kick off Al's images with this single video he snapped of a Lego built rotary coal dump that is most impressive.

Oops...a disaster has just occurred!

Yes, British modelers reside on Vancouver Island.

Lovely looking layout!

The following scenes are of the Victoria Model Railroad Club.

Lovely modeling tying in the gorgeous landscape with the wonderfully painted backdrop.

Little scenes like this help to draw the viewer in.

Industries encourage operations! Yeah!

Such a wonderful logging camp.

Nice rock forms as well.

It would be interesting to see an aerial view of the full setup seeing as the layout continues off to the right and off into the distance.

This looks like a lovely switching model in a smaller scale.

Hey...a garden railway club!

Interesting setup.

At ground level.

More layouts.

Al mentioned this one as being N-scale...and it certainly appears as such!

For our CP fans.

A great looking photo backdrop.

Love the round diorama!

We check in on the CFB Esquimalt Model Railroad Club.

Lovely!

Here's Al in the Canada shirt standing alongside Doug.

Thanks once again for the pics and video, Al!

Back in Fred's backyard, the operating session has drawn to a close as Bill begins packing up the cars into their trays and placing them into their shed.