Friday Night Group

He-e-e-r-e's Bill, the proud owner of the Ontario L'Orignal Railway...well...in HO version at least.

Bill hosted the Friday Night Group for his first session in quite awhile. He has been quite busy revamping the layout...well, more on that later.

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I've asked the crews aboard the mainline and the short line trains if I can be a bit of a bother and railfan their moves. With an "Okay" from both cabs, here we go! We spot the CN train arriving Glen Robertson. They departed Coteau Junction earlier in the day. They will exchange their consist with the OLOR which has come down to the Glen from Hawkesbury to meet them.

This shot taken from a previous railfan trip showcases the big bridge on the outskirts of the Glen.

From left to right, Jim and Joel form the OLOR crew while Chris and Bob run the CN train.

In order to make the exchange, the CN cab has uncoupled from its train and parks itself in one of the sidings near the wye.

Indeed, there is a wye in Glen Robertson, but Bill has insufficient real estate to create the full wye, so he and Trevor Marshall designed a clever alternate arrangement of tracks to suffice. You've gotta love that sheepish grin on Jim's face. He knows his crew is handling the exchange as per plan!

The OLOR crew has now uncoupled from its train and heads out onto the main to retrieve the consist left by the CN gang.

They gather up their lifts on the bridge.

And...return to the wye.

They take the other track beside the CN cab. Those flatbeds with billets are "full loads" due to the extreme heavy nature of each billet.

The crew is all smiles as they know they've conducted the exchange with the deftness of a heart surgeon.

They head back to OLOR trackage.

Uncouple their van from their drops.

Soon they will have backed onto the van and will be heading up to Dalkieth and into Hawkesbury.

Bob commandeers his locomotive onto the consist the OLOR has left for him. He will soon be ready to head back to Coteau Junction east of Montreal.

We follow the OLOR crew through the beautiful eastern Ontario landscape.

Thanks to Jim for the assist with the tree planting, Bill mentions.

Over the culvert.

This "going away" shot has the crew nearing the farmstead.

Under the 417 overpass.

The beautiful OLOR van heads up the rear.

This railfan has asked the crews to pose for this shot. Typically, these trains would not meet in such a manner as CN would have been well on its way back to Coteau by now.

The CN crew arrives Coteau Junction.

Which is staging on Bill's railroad.

Back with the OLOR crew up in Hawkesbury.

The train passes between the Fib-Pak plant to the left and the IKO plant to the right.

Both of these industries will be worked by the crew.

The job is simple as both facilities are trailing sidings.

Heading into the IKO plant. The numbered switch stands certainly aid in the operations.

Pulling the cut from the spur.

Joel's a happy camper at the throttle.

Looking across the peninsula.

There are many nice viewing angles on Bill's masterpiece of a layout.

We spot the rest of the OLOR train residing on the lengthy siding up in Hawkesbury.

A shot from a drone finds the tail end of the train resting on the overpass.

While the front end of the train pierces the rock cut at the other end of town.

This is a new location on Bill's railroad.

It was a blank shelf for many years...more on these developments later.

Another view of the tail end of their train.

The crew will eventually have to run around their train to serve the other "facing" Hawkesbury industries in the newly scenicked area, but the large IVACO plant in L'Orignal has indicated that it is ready for their train. Joel deftly backs his train the 4 1/2 miles into the rolling mill.

He will drop traffic on track 5 and lift traffic from track 6 on this day.

Later on, Joel and Jim will service these facing industries at the other end of Hawkesbury. Yes, this is the newly developed location on the model railroad.

While all these switching maneuvers are taking place, the rest of the gang are out in the crew lounge playing trains in a different scale!

Ah! Yes. I get to run a train! I'm here with Chris and we'll switch out the tracks in the large rolling mill at L'Orignal. Chris and I must agree that these are two handsome looking lads!

Number 60, the IVACO switcher is our "go to" locomotive for these moves. Michel Boucher custom painted this unit as a surprise for Bill many years ago.

Every railroad should have one of these cars on the layout!

Let's check out some great looking scenes on Bill's layout.

Here we see the farmstead.

With the barns.

A newly developing scene on the layout. Scenery around this barn has yet to be completed.

Meanwhile, back in the crew lounge, post ops, the lads enjoy food and drink.

That's Norm in the red shirt.

Camaraderie as well. That's John in the white shorts.

We see Stan in the green shirt and Fred sitting on the stairs in the distance.

Here is what the layout looked like a couple of months ago while new construction was taking place. Much of the rolling stock and vehicles found themselves on the IVACO property.

The reason for the influx of rolling stock and vehicles into the mill was so Bill could work on the newly developing scene. I had the week off for March Break and enjoyed spending many a morning and afternoon with Bill watching this area of the layout develop.