Railfanning the L'Orignal Line - Not For the "Meek" of Mind!

Seeing as how it was a gorgeous Friday in Ottawa with temperatures finally rising above the zero threshold, a bunch of the Friday Nighters decided to "steal away" from work and railfan the L'Orignal Line, an hour and a bit east of the nation's capital. Rumour had it that the "L'Orignal Railroad Preservation Society" had finally finished reconstruction of the wooden overpass outside the town of Staid-Jing...not far from the famous wye at Glen Robertson. The bridge was a prominent railroad structure and a favourite railfanning spot among locals. It had burned to the ground sometime in the late seventies. An errant cigarette butt deposited from a so-called railfan was the determined cause, or so the story goes. Apparently the knucklehead who destroyed the bridge was never seen in these parts again.

Rounding the bend in the Glen, the bridge quickly came into view. Mike hollered to Bill to stop the Hylander. He jumped out and snapped the picture you see. "Wow!" exclaimed Stanley. "It's an exact replica of the original! They did a superb job in the reconstruction."

"Well, wouldn't you know," the Hamer lad was heard to say. "Marty must be with us in spirit today...because I hear a train-a-coming and we haven't been here two minutes!" Sure enough, Mike was able to lens a short Ottawa Central local on its approach to Glen Robertson from the town of Staid-Jing.
Staid-Jing was named after a philanthropic Chinese railroad tycoon who had settled in these parts well over a century ago. After making his money on the railroad he went into the "furnace" business of all things!

Just then, as in years past, a group of railfans pulled up on the wooden bridge in a red pickup and a green van.

"Hey Mike!" shouted Gerry, "Look-ee there would'ja! It's a Boston and Maine car directly behind the locomotive!"

"Wow!" Mike grinned, "Marty must be somewhere around because we've had horseshoes up our respective arses all day!" And...no sooner had these words been out of Hamer's mouth when the boys heard the L'Orignal Job coming down from Hawksbury.

"Hop in the Hylander!" Bill shouted with a smile on his face. Hamer didn't hear Bill as he ran over to the tracks where the OC train had just passed. As quick as a TGV passenger train, Hamer focussed his camera and captured this shot of the local crew proceeding down from Hawksbury to the Glen. "Wow...the boys'll like that orange Sclair car in the consist!" Hamer thought to himself.


Bill and the boys headed trackside at Glen Robertson to watch the exchange and Mike headed over to the newly reconstructed bridge.

"Fancy meeting you here, Mike!" called a familiar voice. "Hey, Peter! How's it going?" Mike responded. It was Peter Cunningham with paintbrush in hand grinning from ear to ear as if he'd been painting a gorgeous "nude" instead of his renowned railroad subjects.
"Great!" replied Peter..."Wally, Rick, Mike and I came out to see what all the fuss was about with this here bridge...and now we know !"

"Hey, why don't you join us for lunch in the Glen?" Mike offered.

So all the boys chowed down to a hearty meal with everything you could aspire to eat except one item...Mary's cookies! "We miss Mary so much," we all sighed in unison. "Marty wasn't too bad either!" Stan replied and we all grinned.

After lunch, both vehicles decided to follow the train up to the outskirts of Hawksbury. There wouldn't be time today to railfan Hawksbury or the plant...but that just gives us another excuse to come out again!

Soon the group arrived at another favourite railfanning location...the farmhouse just south of the major highway. Hamer was outta the vehicle in no time and shinnied up the nearest tree. Who should he meet sitting on the limb of the tree to his left but the renowned rail photographer, Chris Lyon. "What in the dickens are you doing here!" shouted Mike over to Chris. "I was about to ask you the very same question." Chris replied. Well, between the pair of them they managed to capture the OLOR running behind the farmstead.

A short while later, Mike captured the train as it passed beneath the major highway overpass. Fortunately for him he managed to get an 18-wheeler in the scene at the same time. Did we mention "horseshoes!"

Mike's last attempt at a shot on this day was of the famed stone house with ivy walls, a structure located just north of the highway. Nestled in the crotch of an evergreen, he once again found his friend, Chris Lyon. The both of them busted a gut laughing over the length the two would go to to capture a shot of a train! From their precarious perches, they chuckled to themselves as Chris hollered over to Mike, "The way you and I go about railfanning is certainly not for the 'meek' of mind, is it?"
Mike smiled in agreement!

And, thus ends another fabulous day of railfanning with the boys of the Friday Night Group!
Cheers, Mike

PS. Let's meet some of the boys from the story!

That's Stanley to the left and Gerry to the right. Stan runs all our SLD meetings of the NMRA. Gerry, like Hamer himself wants to be the next Jimi Hendrix but would settle on being Mark Knofler or Eric Clapton.

You can spot Glen Robertson right in front of these two handsome gentlemen.

That's Peter, the renowned artist of the group. Peter's works of art adorn the halls of many a railroader across the continent! Peter is a masterful modeller who owns three layouts, an HO B&M version of the Peterboro Branch in steam days, a British O scale layout and a "live steam" setup in his back yard! Now that's diverse modelling if you ask me!

Await later posts where you can meet some of the other fellas in the group!

Bill, it was great running your railroad last night. The new scenery is fabulous! Can't wait to see more developments in this department by the time the next session comes around at your place!

Cheers, Mike

St. Paddy's Day Operations - A "Frank" Meeting of the Minds

St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday this year and did this prevent the boys of the Friday Night Group from running trains? "Not in the least!" they were all heard to announce. In fact the FNG'ers went outside the round robin group this week to visit a finely crafted layout, Frank Milotte's CP line depicting Ottawa-Hull and environs.

Indeed, Frank was "Frank" in telling us, "The layout may be over 30 years old and some of the scenery may look it...but the trains run as well as any of the modern era ones of recent design!" Frank is "right on" with his proud assessment of the hand-laid track...for it is beautiful to behold. Every turnout and crossover is a wonderful example of his handiwork in this department. Like St. Paddy himself, we all turned "green" with envy as we sited down the right of way! He's even begun to "modernize" the scenery and judging by a certain cliffside area, the layout is in good scenic hands for future renovation.

Let's take you along on a photo essay thanks to Chris Lyon's expertise behind the lens.

That's the Hamer lad himself in charge of the controls at the dispatcher's desk! Mike's chuckling to himself as he overhears the crew of an Ottawa bound train discussing the brands of "green beer" they'll be ordering at the local watering hole once they tie their train up in the vast Ottawa yard!

Frank opened the dispatch board for the fellas to have a peek at all the electronics involved in creating such a masterpiece. As "the man" proudly stated, he's never had a problem with it since its' design well over 30 years ago!


Mike certainly had fun at the dispatcher's board, but what he really wanted to do was run a few trains seeing as he had never visited this layout before.

Bill signed on for crewmate with the Hamer lad and they began making their train up in the sprawling Ottawa yard. Mike had a blast operating the "realistic" throttle Frank designed many years back. You can see his left hand at the throttle of a yard switcher as Bill checks all waybills and switching orders.


This is the engine facility at Ottawa yards on Frank Milotte's model railroad. Those CP locos in the handsome maroon and grey livery are what keeps his layout in business hauling traffic across the region. His dozen or so classification tracks (just out of this image to the left) house many a freight and passenger car. While Frank's layout is not DCC, some of his locomotives are sound equipped. You can bet which locomotive Bill asked me to select to make our train with...yes, one that we could see...and hear!


The Hilton Iron Mine is the largest of many online shippers and receivers of business for the railroad. The lads who operated the mine job indicated their pleasure at having taken on the assignment...lots of fun switching moves.

The complex is certainly the showcase industry along the line. The smokestack alone puts the one near "The Big Nickel" in Sudbury to shame!


This is another of Frank's online industries...one that helps keep commerce alive in the "capital region".

He has carefully designed the busy switching areas in his 20'x30' layout room to allow for plenty of operator room.

Note, also, the inclusion of sufficient sidings in hectic locations to enable mainline trains to run unimpeded while the switching of industries takes place. Yes, that Frank is certainly a clever fella!

Here we are at the other terminus of the railroad - Hull, in the province of Quebec. Trains departing the yard from Ottawa traverse the mainline along the 30' section of the basement "three times" before heading into the yard here in Hull. Frank has very cleverly designed the railroad to give the operators the "feel" that they are going through new territory for the entire length of the mainline run even though they are doubling back across the 30' section. A run from Ottawa to Hull takes you over a mainline distance well in excess of 100 feet!

Who are those two handsome train operators, anyway! :-) They were busy making up their Hull-Ottawa train at the same time Bill and Mike made up the counterpart train from Ottawa-Hull. Of course, a meet was held between the two trains somewhere out on the mainline!

Meet the man himself! We introduce Frank Milotte who was gracious enough to invite the boys of the Friday Night Group over for a fantastic evening of train operations, green beer...and general train camaraderie.

It would appear that the photographer here had indulged in one too many of the "green ones!" (He can be excused seeing how it was St. Paddy's Day!)

Thanks, Frank. We'll have to get back for another session next season!

Cheers, Mike

March Madness Strikes

So there I was on the Tuesday of my March Break with the sole train activities being the OVAR dinner that night. The telephone rings and it's Chris Lyon. "Hey, Mike...do you wanna come over and run trains?" I think to myself..."Well, I could correct a few of my students' notebooks or help Lisa with the vacuuming or prepare dinner for the family seeing as how I'll be chowin' down to an OVAR veal meal..."Yeah, I'll be over!"

Wow! Two train activities in one day. My brain is gettin' overloaded! Well, Chris and I had a blast taking his ever-developing layout through the paces of an ops session while all the other boys in the group were hard at work in their day jobs. It's a tough life, but someone's gotta do it...right Chris?

These pics are some railfanning shots we took of the diesels along the line. Enjoy! Gotta love the paint scheme on the BNSF units and, Chris, what do ya call that BCRail scheme? Oh..the "blue scheme"...I don't know why? (big grin)

Hey, boys...check out the cabless B-unit in this mix! Man is that ever cool! These two units are haulin' a grain train, one of the many commodities Chris's layout handles. That's a mixed freight on the track over and a long cut of coal cars on the far track.

The large container facility is depicted in the foreground here.

I don't think Chris'll be a-weatherin' that BC Rail locomotive anytime soon...looks too good as it is! There's never a bad train picture taken when you've got a CN locomotive in the famed sergeant striped scheme.

One thing's not in doubt, Chris...you've certainly got yourself one heckuva colourful layout there!

Cheers, Mike

Major Power Outage on Vancouver Island

"Oh no! Not another earthquake!" operators of the E&N were heard to mutter Friday night as yet another disruption brought train operations to a sudden halt.

This latest interruption rekindled memories of a spate of incidents which have occurred during previous operating sessions with rumblings of "operational" earthquakes and "actual" earthquakes making the recent Friday Night Group headlines!

Alas, Vancouver Island was not "shaking in the waves" due to siesmic tremors. Instead...a power outage of major proportions struck the island at 8:43 PM Friday evening.

As the first photo attests, operations were in full swing at Jim McSherry's quickly developing Esquimalt and Nanaimo RR with operators abuzz with activity. That's Bob and Carl in the foreground with Bill and Fred in behind and John and Jim watching the action...moments before everything was brought to a complete and utter standstill.

Indeed, mere seconds after this picture was taken all rail activity ceased. The hunt was on for the culprit(s) who would allow such an interruption to occur.

First reports were rumours of an "errant crew" spotted around the E&N premises, former employees of the C&C RR from down east. In fact, two "easterners" were observed behaving in a furtive manner on company property. Surveillence and careful monitoring of all E&N traffic ferreted out two hobos discovered residing in an "old-style" boxcar of unknown origin. Stories "flew" that the two had ambitions of playing "chicken" with the E&N RR as they believed there happened to be some (Friday Night) connections between the owner of their former employee (C&C RR) and the owner of the western based E&N. The story that surfaced around the property was of the two migrants wanting to wreak havoc with the E&N line as payback for what they considered "unfair and unusual punishment" for "unfounded reports" of missing cars and unthrown switches on their (former) railroad the week before. Closer examination of the contents of their adopted boxcar revealed sufficient "hot" electrical equipment...enough to black out the entire population of Vancouver Island. Authorities also noted a certain "fowl" odour lingering in the air as the boxcar doors were opened.

Chief superintendent of the line, Jim "10 000 questions" McSherry and his operational officer, Bob "this is how it's done" Hobbs immediately had the "now identified" crewmen from the C&C, Tarry Bhomas and Hike Mamer arrested and returned to the the "chicken coup" in Claremont where they will be serving time for their misdeeds. Their punishment is simple. They must watch all episodes of Thomas the Tank and Shining Time Station and speak to all local kindergarten classes about the virtues of reading with great care for improved comprehension and understanding, especially charts and train orders.

Barry, I couldn't resist winding a story together at our expense and tying it in with the happenings of last week! (Big grin! - Mike H.)

For those not in attendance at Jim's, there are a few lessons to be learned from the "blackout". Yes, an electrical short brought all rail activity to a halt except for the peninsula area that acts as both terminus points for the rail line...Esquimalt (Victoria) and Nanaimo.

Lesson #1. Even with DCC, it is advisable to "block" your layout so a "short" can be isolated rather quickly.
Lesson #2. Ensure all rolling stock that will reside on the layout passes a rudimentary test in order to meet the standards you set out for your layout.

Yes, fellas, it was a "borrowed" piece of rolling stock that caused the damage...an old Athearn 40' boxcar that had the standard exposed metal weight on the underframe. This car had been re-equipped with metal wheels and trucks with working springs. The car was sitting stationary on the layout minding its own business. Only after it was moved did the metal wheels contact the metal weight causing a connection between both rails...thus a "short". And, after trying all other avenues of approach for over a half an hour or so did we finally decide to begin removing all cars from the layout, one at a time.

As a follow-up, this car was one of a few that had been "bad-ordered" and put aside by Bob the night before when he and Jim ran a mock session before the group was to visit. How it got back on the layout was a mystery to Bob! (Can you spell J-i-m?)


I've included the following pictures to show the development of Jim's line. In the image to the right you see the elevated area for the coal mine with the track behind climbing further upwards and around toward the lumber camp. The track and spur lines near the mine are on the level. This enables crews to spot cars on the line momentarily for shunting purposes without the fear of the entire consist running down the hill. That's the yard at Chemainus on the lower level to the right.


These next two shots show a "before and after" of the same location.

Before:
In the first picture you recall Stan working the log area near the yard at Chemainus from a previous operating session. The walls are still beige and there is a hint of tracks rising above the yard. That's Bill with a contemplative look in the background.

After:
The second shot shows how this area appears now. The walls are blue (to be painted with mountainous scenery later) and the lumber line is in and climbing around the coal yard on what will be a cliffside above the yard at Chemainus. Hope the images are a help for those to visualize how the layout is evolving.

Jim, it was a fun evening at your ever-developing layout. It's a great one and a blast to operate. Bill and Mike M. enjoyed running the first train up the grade to the coal mine and on beyond to the lumber camp.

A great big thank you to Marty and Ed from Vancouver Island for shipping us the slide carousel. The slides were awesome! As Ed mentioned to me in a later e-mail...the slides are like wine...they seem ho-hum when new, but outstanding after 30 years in the cellar!

Well Jim, your layout may be relatively new...but it ain't ho-hum...it'll be a great one!
Cheers, Mike H.

Report of the Discipline Committee

Prolog

As a result of several angry calls from customers and the resulting responses by the railroad to provide customer satisfaction to those calls, a number of events have come to our attention; all related to the actions of one of the previous day’s operating crews. This report is the result of the investigation into those events as detailed below.

Sequence of events

A crew was called for the regular turn from the main yard to Claremont, via Abbot Junction and return. The crew consisted of Conductor Mike H. and Engineer Barry. There where no special orders or operating notices in effect.

The train left the yard on time but later investigation determined that the train arrived after considerable delay into Abbot Junction. Technically it was not late as there is no requirement for a time stop at Abbot Junction, running under extra orders. Subsequent discussion with the train crew and line side observers revealed that several unsuccessful attempts where made to climb the grade into Abbot Junction, before the crew doubled the hill. The train then continued on to Claremont without further incident.

Another crew was called for the regular turn to Newport. The conductor and engineer was Bill and Stan for this train. While preparing to depart, the crew was unable to locate the single car for the consist, a Milwaukee road box with an expedited load of live chickens. Following standard procedure the crew left the yard as a caboose hop to Newport, and later returned with three pickups. This train ran without incident, other than the missing box car.

The turn to Claremont returned to the yard and tied up, the crew leaving the property.

The first angry phone call was from the Newport Chicken Growers Co-operative when their load of live chickens failed to materialize, knowing from contact with their suppliers that the shipment had reached Claremont Junction earlier that day. A quick check of the waybills at the yard revealed that a Milwaukee box car had been transferred from the junction to the yard, and had been marshalled for Newport. A phone discussion with the conductor for the Newport turn indicated that the box car was not in the yard when the train left for Newport.

The yard crew contacted the operator in Claremont on the chance that the Claremont turn had taken the car in error. He reported that ‘there were complaints of an “odour” downwind from his location’. His call back revealed that the missing car was indeed in Claremont, and as a result of the cool temperatures the chickens were still alive, although making their displeasure known, water could and would be supplied.

The second angry phone call was from the Monson Slate company, who made it known that they were not appreciative of not having the last shipment of a special order transferred to the Claremont Junction and as a result payment to them from the customer would be delayed and possibly reduced.

With all regular crews off the property by now, management crewed a caboose hop to retrieve the car and move it to Newport with as much haste as possible. During this exercise a number of events occurred that will result in discipline to the crew of the Claremont turn. When entering Claremont, the management crew traversed a switch that had been left in the incorrect position; this nearly resulted in the impact with a propane car on the siding (this is an especially sad situation as the engineer of the Claremont turn is a principle on the Safety Committee!) Although there were no further near misses as the management crew completed the job of delivering the chickens to their correct location and transferring the load of slate to the junction they did encounter a number of incorrectly positioned switches.

An examination of the locomotive used on the Claremont turn has revealed some excessive wear on the tires which may result in an early shopping for the unit, an investigation of the track at mile post 1.98 has revealed that approximately 200 yards of rail will have to be removed and replaced as a result of the wear of the running surface.

Discipline Recommendation

The Committee has decided as a result of the day’s events that the crew of the Claremont turn will be disciplined as follows;

1) a literacy test will be taken by both members, to determine if they can read the train orders and waybills.

2) each member will have to show that they can count to 10, higher is ok but since train lengths are rarely higher than that, 10 will be considered enough.

3) each member will be required to record the position of each switch prior to and after moving it, and will present the record to the shift boss at the end of the next ten trips.

4) each member will re-profile one length of the rail removed from milepost 1.89. An eight inch bastard file will be provided. The work will occur on personal time.

Committee members

Mike ‘it’s my railroad.’ M.
Sandy ‘Is Chocolate Ok?’ M.

Secretary

Stan ‘How does this blog thing work?’ C.

70 tonners in New England

This report was originally provided by Mike H via email, posted here by Stan for completeness.

"Incredible, Wow, Awesome, Gob-Stopping!!!" All these words were overheard in the layout room and new crew lounge environs. What can I say, Mike! Your layout has been considered one of the great ones around...and, yet, you've found ways to make it even better!

Eight operators were kept rather busy as Mike developed some "new ways" of running trains simultaneously in the layout room. For instance, Barry and I brought a "beauty of a passenger train" into Claremont from the short stub-staging track in the far right corner of the room, the scenicked staging portion of the layout. This train was hauled by a B&M steam locomotive and contained a milk car which would be exchanged for another "milky" from a train we awaited. (which was being assembled at the junction) Having two trains play the exchange (similar to what happens in North Dover) really added to our feel of the railroad doing something. (not that it hasn't before!)

Barry and I later brought a freight into Claremont across the huge lift bridge. This train was in care of an AB set of F-units painted in the "shall we say...interesting" McGinnis black, white and blue scheme. Yes boys, McGinnis attempted to leave his mark on the venerable F's as well! This train, though, was a colourful one...a railfan's delight!

...and these were only the first few moves of the evening!

Let's get back to all those superlatives. Well, Mike has been a busy lad in the last two months. You recall the location where his narrow gauge interchanged with the standard gauge...at the very far end of the layout room looking left from the doorway. This was the location where the narrow gauge track swung back around in the direction of the door entrance past the farm fields and through the nice cut under the wooden bridge. Well, in the very far corner to the left, Mike has created Abbott Jct. There is a country road with a number of brand new scratchbuilt buildings which are phenomenal. "Gus's Gen'Ral Store" is the showpiece here...a building named after Mike and Sandi's cat showcasing many beautiful side and front elevations, an aluminum roof, a cool television antenna, a gorgeous front veranda with hanging plants and a big storefront display window allowing the viewer to see all the merchandise inside the store. Fabulous! My second favourite structure in this area is a smaller garage/gas station scratchbuilt out of wood. Mike tells us that all of the new building (six or seven of them created since Christmas time) are wooden scratchbuilds but one. The location in this corner of the room is called Abbott Jct and there are plenty of industries for your train to work.

Well, the jokes were flying last night. As you recall, the M Man was out of commission for a while...as we say he was "on the shelf"...and speaking of shelves, Mike has spent this time "on the shelf"...creating a new shelf...yes, a shelf layout, not unlike the Howie Man's. Indeed, Mike pierced a hole in the wall at the very far left end of his layout room at Abbott Jct. where he ran track through to the crew lounge.

To mask the opening, he created a truncated version of a covered bridge at both ends. Train crews pass through Abbott Jct. then through the wall where they find themselves on a lengthy shelf layout depicting parts of Claremont proper. The shelf runs some ten or twelve feet and there is a couple of run-around tracks, some trailing and facing sidings, some sidings leading off others and a turntable at the end of the line.

While this new area in the lounge is unscenicked, Barry and I had a blast switching out all the industries while the guys in the lounge bantered about and read books. With all our work done here, we headed back through the wall into the layout room where we switched out the trailing sidings at Abbott Jct. before heading back to the (big) yard at Claremont Jct to put our buggy and 70-tonner to bed!