Car Cards on the E&N

Jim has been keeping himself busy with Bob's assistance as he has recently developed a fine car card system for his train ops sessions with the boys of the Friday Night Round. Let's examine what Jim has on the go!

The photograph to the right shows a car card for CN 40' boxcar number 520176. It indicates that the CN car is currently residing in Chemainus yard and needs to be lifted for its destination point at Nanaimo. This is event 2 with event 1 sharing the bottom of the card in an upside-down fashion. Of course, events 3 and 4 are on the backside of the card.

Jim found the logo for the various railroads on the Internet and they certainly dress up the card nicely. The colour and length of each freightcar is indicated on the cards as well. The system worked admirably last evening and the boys caught on very quickly with many already experienced in the use of this carcard method.

We had a very interesting visitor amongst our midst for the session. Chris, on the right, was in town on business from his home in British Columbia. Like many model railroaders, he checked out the local hobby shops. Well, Chris lives in a remote location of BC so he depends upon mail order business for his hobby demands and he orders frequently from Jeff's Lark Spur Line. He met John Friday afternoon while visiting the store and John invited him along to Jim's. Chris is a pilot and he's been flying since 1974. He also worked as a train operator for the real railroads in BC and Alberta for ten years and spent another year on the train as crewman. Chris really enjoyed the session at Jim's and he visited my place this morning to run trains on the B&M.

This photo depicts a minor change to Jim's layout which has made a major impact as far as operations go. Jim has lengthened the peninsula which shares both terminal yards on the layout. By adding about 16 or so inches across seven classification tracks, there is room for between fifteen and twenty additional freight cars. This has added immensely to the switching at both terminuses of the railroad. At the time of the photo, the ballasting was still settling and Jim will line up the added shelf after all trackwork has settled.


We see Bob working the yard at Chemainus while Chris looks on. Notice the mountain formations beginning to develop. Ah, Jim...all that scenery should be done in time for the big convention! (Big smile) Chemainus, along with Ladysmith, are the two locations along the line where train meets can take place...and Bob, acting as crewmate to me and overall dispatcher craftily arranged train times to ensure these meets would occur. Good job Bobby!


Yes, Jim's layout is a work in progress, for sure...and we don't ask him to clean up for the session! We wouldn't want to stop his progress for too long, after all. That being said, the trackwork is clean and all Jim's track is handlaid...a beautiful sight to see. Take a look at the track curving out of the yard as it crosses over two parallel tracks. You can't find that in storebought track packages!

While the plaster may still be white and the styrofoam pink, that does not hinder the FNG from operating a layout! Here we see a close-up view of the yard in Chemainus...a rather busy location. Mike M. and Rick worked the log dump while mainline trains came and went dropping and lifting sundry traffic.


Now, this is what I call two happy campers...and why wouldn't they be? They're in a model railroad room with a bunch of great friends! That's Fred on the left and Chris with a big grin on his face to the right. Chris's smile is extra big on this night as he just found out that he is the proud grandpa to a tiny little granddaughter, Alison Lela Sandra! Indeed, the skies are always blue around these two lads...or is that the air that is blue! (smile)
Remember that classic movie, "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum!" Well, a funny thing happened on the way to our ops session. After picking up Stan, I convinced Bill that the quicker way at that time of night to get to Jim's would be to head south to Walkley and east to the 417. Lo and behold, we spot black belches of air beyond the trees to starboard. I snapped this shot quickly from the moving vehicle. Didn't get a chance to shoot the three Alcos that were stopped at a signal as they were too far away! Oh well, that one got away. I wonder if they had their car cards with them?