Bytown Bobber on schedule!

You may have noticed that the postings are not as frequent or regular as they have been in seasons past. A large contingent of FNG-ers are NMRA - St Lawrence Division members, and are helping with the NMRA - Niagara Frontier Region convention, due to arrive in Ottawa on April 25, 2008.

Visit the convention website at www.bytownbobber.org

A number of layouts that have appeared here on the blog will be included in tours available through the convention, so you'll be able to meet some of the boys in person! In the meantime, the FNG will continue with a reduced operating schedule in favour of getting some of the layouts ready for visitors.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The LVN Meltdown

Well it was 14 December and the FNGers were over in force. From Left to right you have: John, Fred, Mike, Bob, Paul (From Montreal), Stan, Joel, Jim and Ron. By the smiles on their faces, it looks like they had a good time running trains and kabitzing.

An hour and a half into the session, we had a melt down and the loco net started to send out random signals. It got to the point that the five operations came to a halt and we went to digitrax diagnosis. We purged the system, Had to re-address half the power and reconsist everything.

By then the boys were into coffee, tea, pop, beer, cheese curds and cake. Conversations were enthusiastic about railroading in the Kettle Valley and I got unsolicited offers for a book of ink sketches from that area. Not for sale:)

After we got things up and running again, a few of the boys began to operate some more as the challenge of the Richmond yard time saver got them pack to the puzzle. And Jim had to get back to his local freight in Shelby.

Mike Hamer brought over a few of his new craftsman structures. Karl from Surrey Custom Models produced a great kit called "Morty's Market" . He placed it along with the Bar Mills Shackpack in among the scenes so we could all appreciate the work and learn from his mistakes...Ha Ha ...I mean his great work.

All in all it was a great learning experience and I gleaned a lot about digitrax issues. I had added four new plug in terminals since the last running session and I think it stretched the loconet power supply to the max. Ron had provided valuable insight into specific wiring upgrades to fix the problem and I will work with him over the holidays to improve the situation before the next full operating session.

Another Visit to the Sunny Southwest

A couple of inches of snow falling on Ottawa last evening made our visit to Bill Scobie's expanding Rio Grande Southern's layout that much more enjoyable. Bill had nine trains set up for us, and it took until 11 o'clock before the last freight pulled into Ridgeway.

Two of Bill's friends - Don from upstate New York and Joe from Pennsylvania - had made the trip for this operating session. Here we see Bill explaining a few of the changes since their last visit.


As well, Bill Meridith and his son Jason joined our Friday Night gang in enjoying this marvellous depiction of narrow gauge railroading.















Suspecting I might be the only one to think of it, I brought my camera to document some of the happy faces as they made their way through this great scenery; unfortunately, I forgot to bring the tripods, so some of the pictures may be a bit blurry. As I am just getting the scenic part of my own layout going (see the previous blog entry), I concentrated on that aspect of Bill's railroad.

Scenic details such as the dead trees and other litter oddly bring the layout to life. Remembering their effect, I have started to collect lots of modelling litter before the snow hides it entirely. The Spirea will be showing for the winter, but the two or three feet of snow covering the ground around it is likely to discourage foraging until the Spring. Leaves to be ground up in the blender are completely out of the question.

I've also remembered how good the track looked at Bill's with the ballast brought right up to the tops of the ties.












This curved switch appealed to me ...














As did this bucolic scene.

















My evening started with a train from the new trackage at Teluride to Vance Junction. You can see my train cooling down at the station after completing its run.










Here's the view in the opposite direction. Both are on the upper level.















It was hot in the cab, so I took a break before checking on the other activities.












Back out on the layout, David was pulling his train into Placerville ...











Mike and Bob were filling up the tender with a bit more water ...

Fred's train was escaping ...

Stanley was struggling up the grade ...











Ron was finishing up his run ...













and both Tom and Chris were having a serious discussion.











Here are a few more shots from a very satisfying
evening.

Back to the West Coast

This week was my first hosting session this season. Ten of us got together to see what the summer had wrought. Having had a mini-session on one of the alternate Fridays in October, most of the summer's bugs had been found, so the evening went fairly smoothly. Here you see first-time visitor Ron being guided by Stanley at the Victoria Lumber yard (names of the logging companies change from time to time as I try to decide whether to use real or fictional names) just north of Ladysmith.



Just a couple of miles away at the Ladysmith transfer wharf, Chris was pulling cars from the car barge, getting them ready for the first freight of the night. With a cast on my left foot, putting all the construction tools away before the session was just not something that happened.

You can just see the developing Comox logging extension at the mid level cutting across the wall above the wharf.


This view shows more of the extension as well as part of the new sky painted by my daughter Lynne. With tree-covered mountains added in plaster or paint, it will provide some great late-afternoon colour to the scene.

Meanwhile, Fred and Mike were having an active discussion with Joel and John. Perhaps Mike was debating just how much help he was going to have to give me on the fine points of preparing this week's blog entry. Not to worry, Mike; I just go back to your previous posts and follow your example, though not with nearly the panache.

Across the crew lounge, Joel and John listen intently to the words of the master.

Bob points out the developing Arbutus canyon he helped Jim to start framing. The steel trestle bridge seen often in Robert Turner's Vancouver Island books will one day appear right behind where Bob is standing. 210 feet of structural steel have been stacked nearby and are awaiting the arrival of a construction crew. Unfortunately the contract has not been let yet, so the existing plywood structure will have to suffice for another year.

Here we see a view of the Victoria/Nanaimo yard with the newly-levelled extension in place. Only four of the extension's track have been laid and already there's a suggestion for a design modification to build an escape track into it for the passenger engine. Bill and Mike work together on one train while Stanley and Ron handle another.

You can see that the overhead lighting uses reflectors rather than diffusers. The result is that the light stays pretty much concentrated on the layout, but it makes it harder to see our cheerful subjects switching the loads.

The latest interim turntable bridge, version two, was installed the day before on the layout. Based on the excellent article by Patrick Lawson on the turntable at the Russell roundhouse in Victoria, the bridge is approximately 70 feet long and still in use. You will be able to see more about it on my own blog in the near future. A pit has been dug just past the turntable for a curved ash pit - another item awaiting contract. To its left is a new water tower erected by Pierre Groulx, who travelled all the way from Lachine to install it.

Climax #2 pushes log cars out onto the Chemainus log dump ahead of an idler car, keeping most of the weight off the trestle. In the background and at water's edge, the developing rock faces can be seen. More experimentation with colouring the plaster is required before any shrubs can be allowed to grow. Trees will be planted once the nursery delivers them to the log dump.

John Mitchell’s Canada Southern Railway

The FNGers started the season with a visit to John's double deck empire.

Here is a description of his layout.

The Canada Southern is designed to represent the NYC high-speed double main track through South Western Ontario in the mid-fifties. The upper level models the Windsor yard and icing facilities, the Detroit passenger terminal, the Detroit River Tunnel and the branch to the Heinz cannery in Leamington. The lower level represents the small western Ontario town of West Lorne and the division point of St.Thomas.

The layout is prototypical and operation oriented. It features NYC luxury passenger trains and high speed through freights as well as local switching. Two other railroads are modeled. The Pere Marquette (C&O) is represented by symbol freights and locals running their own trackage from Detroit to St. Thomas, while CPR passenger trains use the Detroit River Tunnel during the course of their Toronto / Detroit / Chicago routes. Extensive staging is in place to handle this traffic.

The comprehensive fleet of locomotives, passenger & freight equipment are all painted accurately for the mid 50’s paint schemes and weathered extensively. The Detroit Passenger Terminal and area are well developed scenically, with most other areas under development with building or mockups in place.

Layout Characteristics

Scale: HO
Size: 20 X 40 feet
Prototype: CSR (NYC), C&O, CPR
Locale:Detroit to st. Thomas Ontario
Period:Mid 50's
Layout style:Double level shelf with helix
Layout height:40 to 58 inches
Benchwork: Cantilevered shelf
Roadbed:Cork on Homosote and plywood
Track:ME code 55, 70, 83; Atlas 100 in staging
Turnouts: ME code 70 and 83, Atlas 83, Peco 75 and 100
Minimum radius: 24 inches, most are substantially largerl
Length of main line:160 ft. visible, 50 ft in staging, 90 ft. in helix
Scenery: Carved styrofoam
Backdrop: Painted masonite, cut out paper flats
Power system: Digitrax DCC
Operations:Switch lists, dispatcher
Typical Operating Crew: 3 to 8


Fun was had by all as we tried out a new computerized waybill system. Flimsys were rolling off the printer as we matched the prototype ops.

A very enjoyable evening we chatted about and tried a new concept of looping the layout prior to doing the tasks to lengthen the run. I think it worked rather well and certainly would be something in full operation.

Summer in N Scale

Members of the Friday Night Group spent seven sessions over the summer building a coffee table layout for the CHEO hospital raffle. We posted the progress of this build on the Railroad Line Forum and there are just tons of pictures of our activities.

Here is the link to the story

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17503

Not to mention some photos below to wet your whistle. Thanks to Lisa (Mike's) wife for letting us use the house for the build as it was a great contribution to this charity.

Looking forward to the operating session that will be starting soon.

Final Session of the Season in Colorado!

Stan, Bill and I were a tad late arriving Bill's place on account of us momentarily stopping at Stanley's place of work. While Stan parked the car and scurried inside, I heard the distinctive sound of a train approaching. I quickly jumped out of the car to capture this shot of the northbound O-Train arriving the University station stop. Moments before, it had crossed the span over the Rideau River.



I knew that the Carleton University station stop was the only location along this north-south corridor where there is a passing siding. As I turned around to see the train pull to a stop, I realized that the southbound had been waiting in the station all this time. It was great getting the chance to capture a "meet" of these two trains!

As soon as Bill began offering up jobs on the railroad, Rob and I jumped at the opportunity to snap up a train. Two other crews were already well underway on the busier trains but that was okay. Kaz and I were assigned train 600/601, the turn from Telluride to Vance Jct. This was only a short hop, so we were afforded the opportunity to do some railfanning along the route! After bringing in some six cars to Vance Jct. our orders show that there is only a single lift on this day. The photo above indicates that we have run around our train and will shortly begin our climb up to Telluride located at 8756 feet above sea level.

We are well on our way out of Vance Jct. climbing the grade past Illium at 8120 feet. An ardent railfan managed to frame this image nicely between the tall timbers. Note too, the timbers on the trestle! Bill Sn3 Scobie's layout is a joy to behold. The track is all handlaid, the scenery is spectacular and now Bill is utilizing a computer software package which generates his work orders for each session saving him countless hours of work in the process! That must be why we always see Bill with a great big smile on his face!

The town of Ridgeway at 7002 feet above sea level is the lowest location Bill models and all other destination distances along the line are defined from this point of origin. With the immense station, water tower and expansive yard off in the distance, this can be a very busy location along the line.

Yes, that's one immense yard at Ridgeway. Bill tells me that there are just over 230 cars on the railroad. I would've imagined that on a layout some 60x25 or so you would think there would be more...but we have to remember that it's the operations that dictate the car numbers.

This wonderful scene is located at the end of the peninsula which houses the huge industry at Vanadium. We are near the location known as Deep Creek at an elevation 7723 feet and some 35 miles out of Ridgeway.





Stan and Bob are manning this train as they pass the station platform at Placerville. Bill's locomotives run like a charm and look magnificent!

This train is hugging the cliffs as it descends downgrade into Ophir. There is a long passing siding before the town and this train quite likely will have some switching to do when it reaches Ophir.

The roundhouse and turntable outside Ridgeway are a-buzz with activity providing railfans with numerous subjects for their shutters. Bill certainly has a wonderful stable of horses on the layout!

Well, one would think that perhaps a sighting of a Yeti or Sasquatch might be in order in the high hills of Colorado...so what might these creatures be, we ask?

Why, no need to worry...just two locals who have escaped incarceration. We are quite confident that the authorities will have them captured by nightfall and they'll once again prove no harm to society! (Happy Birthday Peter!)

You always meet great people at Bill's train sessions and his buddy (Dan or Don) from Rochester, New York is no different...a wonderful fellow. Thanks for sharing your fine stories with the boys of the Friday Night Group!

Here he is...the man of the house! Bill, you're looking great laddie! Thanks so much for sharing your truly remarkable layout with the Friday Nighters. We always look forward to a visit to your Sn3 layout!