Steam Arrives New England!

A couple of sessions back the boys visited my place. I was so busy that I hadn't gotten around to posting about the train operations, so I felt it time to do so now. This session was rather interesting in the fact that I was afforded the opportunity to host a steam excursion run following the actual session. My good friend, Andrew Batchelor, brought his CN steam locomotive equipped with sound over and boy did we have fun!

In the photograph to the left you can see her hauling a short local past the Lowell Jct. interlocking tower. This area of the layout is viewed from outside the train room in the crew lounge.

Another little surprise Andrew brought along for the evening was this interesting looking machine...a Mack rail car. It was posed at the same location on the tracks above the duckunder.

While Andrew is yet to build his home layout, he enjoys collecting railroad equipment and running it on the HOTrak modules of the local group here in the nation's capital.

The steamer drew out many railfans who were surprised to see the local railroad historical club import such a magnificent locomotive from across the border just for their annual fall "railfan's weekend".

To say the least, this timely visit has got me thinking. I recall the days when Trevor lived nearby and brought along his brass B&M 2-6-0 to some of my sessions. Man, if ever one of the companies comes out with a close enough version of a B&M Mogul in plastic...then I'm in!

The session began with a number of trains running throughout the evening including this lengthy passenger train with a lot of milk cars on the head-end.

Just thought I'd post this image as I've never posted a shot from this angle before. I am standing in one of the angled corner access areas with my camera looking down the tracks in staging. The area where the tower is found is located right above the duckunder entrance to the room. That portal opening to the right of the tower is where the Maine Central gains access to the scenicked portion of the layout.

Here's a similar shot taken from a slightly different angle. The doorway opening to the crew lounge is visible on the left wall.

The two short tracks to your immediate left are stub-end staging tracks. I used to "stage" two short locals on these tracks. Now, I use the tracks as an active yard where crews make up trains to head onto the layout.

I covered the masonite backdrop separating the scenicked portion of the layout from the staging areas with a polyfibre material that I coated with ground foam to add texture. By planting a few trees here and there, it makes the scene come alive!

Here we see the B&M passenger train from staging arriving the station platform in North Dover after piercing the tunnel under town and entering the visible section of the layout. Some milk traffic will be exchanged here with the aid of the North Dover yard crew and the train will be on its way to Portland, Maine.

That Sealtest truck is one of the latest Mini-Metals offerings. Man, has that company ever done a great service to the modellers of the 50's with their wonderful 1/87 scale vehicles!

In this image, we see the local crew giving the mainline train an "assist" with its traffic.

Getting milk to market was one of the important jobs held by the railroads of New England in the early to middle part of the last century and, I must say, it's fun recreating those events on the layout.

There have been some beautiful offerings from a number of manufacturers recently for we milk car enthusiasts.

As always, it's the fellows who come over for an evening of train ops who make it all worthwhile. There's always tons of great discussions and plenty of books and magazines to look through.

Here we see Stan doing some reading on the bench beside Peter who is in conversation with Bill. Nice to see Stanley wearing the red in support of the troops! Hey Stan and Peter, that bench you're sittin' on is my "workout with the weights" bench.

And this is Andrew showing Johnny boy some new kit he has recently purchased. Yes, the crew lounge is always a hive of activity!

Andrew and I sat down throughout the evening at my workbench and planned out a sequence of train orders for his small shelf layout he is starting in an area of his basement. I was able to get over to Andrew's place a few days later and we operated the lists and the whole thing ran beautifully!

These two lads are eagerly awaiting their turn in the layout room.

That's Fred to the left, always with a chuckle in his heart and a good joke in his head!

Rob is off to the right with train orders in hand...one of my many reliable train operators. And...who's that in the background working the outskirts of North Dover deep in the train room. Why, it's none other than Bob Hobbs!

Rob's now headed into the layout room and is beginning to work the North Dover assignment. Rob was kept busy with this job inside the train room, but I have to wonder what that look on his face indicates?

Oh, yes...I think I have the answer...he's looking back to the doorway entrance of the room where someone is standing...and that someone is none other than our fellow Friday Nighter, Chris!

And...by the looks of things, Chris is a busy man at the throttle. It appears to me that there is a "meet" between the two railroads at the interlocking. Yes, the Maine Central is holding the interlocking as a manifest B&M freight crosses by on the main!

So much more went on in the session with tons more trains run and jokes told, but I would be here all day writing about it...so...until next week...happy model railroading!

PS: Since this session, I was able to get over to Andrew's place and "run" the switchlists and train orders we made up on paper while the boys ran my B&M layout.

Here's a picture from that session. We're bringing a short five car local into the town. There is a runaround track and industries on either side of the main with multiple companies sharing the same siding, not unlike many rural Ontario locations.

Andrew and I had a blast bringing those sheets of paper to life...and once you got moving, you didn't mind that there was little scenery. I congratulate Andrew for setting this shelf layout up in time for my visit!