Trackside Thursday

A bit of trackside motion for this fine Thursday!

@D500- Wonderful water front scenes!  Thanks for posting.

Well the Food Truck Guy may just be a little too enthusiastic about getting those burritos and sandwiches to the fellows over at General Door and Sash... He just may come to grief if the 1400 hr afternoon express to Macon is a wee bit early!!

Don

@trumpettrain posted:

A bit of trackside motion for this fine Thursday!

Patrick, I never noticed before that you have ‘wired’ your utility poles.  That must be because all of your scenes are so compelling.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Patrick, I never noticed before that you have ‘wired’ your utility poles.  That must be because all of your scenes are so compelling.

Thanks Mark!  Yes, I've wired all the poles.  I use a product called EZline which I find easy to use and allows a great amount of give ... as opposed to having tight line which causes excessive tension on the poles.  EZline allows for a lot horizontal give as well.

@trumpettrain posted:

Thanks Mark!  Yes, I've wired all the poles.  I use a product called EZline which I find easy to use and allows a lot of give ... as opposed to having tight line which cases excessive tension on the poles.  EZline allows for a lot horizontal give as well.

Thank you for the tip

Not sure this is trackside, but here's some switching and mainline action in Paradise, CA. Southern Pacific!

@WesternPacific2217, Scott, Those sure are beautiful Southern Pacific engines, Wow, especially the Fairbanks Morse…. I’m a day late but  I love this topic… Happy Railroading Everyone

@leapinlarry posted:

@WesternPacific2217, Scott, Those sure are beautiful Southern Pacific engines, Wow, especially the Fairbanks Morse…. I’m a day late but  I love this topic… Happy Railroading Everyone

Hi Larry, thanks, glad you enjoyed the SP photo. I just got the SP Fairbanks Morse from a fellow OGR forum member and it brings back memories of when I was a kid. SP used them on the Peninsula SF to San Jose, CA commuter service and I grew up along that line! Hoping to find some period correct Pullman SP bi-level passenger cars, but that could prove to be tough in O scale!

As always great pictures of your layout and trains. I always have to magnify the photos on OGR so I can see all the details!

What’s trackside in the photo you ask, the Sun! It’s been absent for the past week or more here in Silicon Valley. nice to see the morning sun on the layout. I guess it’s not going to last though, there are more Pacific storms stacking up of the coast!

Happy Thursday!!!

Switch engine service area:

Bulb test. Kinda alien spooky.

Trackside for this fine Thursday!  

The MOW gang's caboose and boxcar sit on Danlilu siding at MOW camp.  Shorty Loggins is hogging the bathroom inside the caboose.  O'l Jeater Farnsworth's strong cup of black coffee had just kicked in. He couldn't wait any longer for the caboose bathroom, so he had to use the double stall outhouse.  As he bee - lined it toward the structure his eyes zeroed in on the  second stall with the door afixed.  He thought " Door number two is just right for me."    He yanked on the door only to find six barrels of track spikes stored inside.  He quickly shut the door mumbling " That &$)*^ had to hog the caboose bathroom! Now I have to use this dang old outhouse where what's behind door number two is too heavy to lift, so here I am doing number two behind where door number one should be!"

Having just stepped down out of the caboose, Shorty Loggins wipes his brow.  

@trumpettrain posted:

Trackside for this fine Thursday!  

The MOW gang's caboose and boxcar sit on Danlilu siding at MOW camp.  Shorty Loggins is hogging the bathroom inside the caboose.  O'l Jeater Farnsworth's strong cup of black coffee had just kicked in. He couldn't wait any longer for the caboose bathroom, so he had to use the double stall outhouse.  As he bee - lined it toward the structure his eyes zeroed in on the  second stall with the door afixed.  He thought " Door number two is just right for me."    He yanked on the door only to find six barrels of track spikes stored inside.  He quickly shut the door mumbling " That &$)*^ had to hog the caboose bathroom! Now I have to use this dang old outhouse where what's behind door number two is too heavy to lift, so here I am doing number two behind where door number one should be!"

Having just stepped down out of the caboose, Shorty Loggins wipes his brow.  

Patrick, I must add; Jeater leaves a stench that engulfs the MOW yard, the guy pushing the barrel looks at Loggin's and says, "Oooowee, did something die around here recently"?

Okay, so maybe not appropriate for a children's railroad book! LMAO

Love your stories Patrick!!!

@trumpettrain posted:

Trackside for this fine Thursday!  

The MOW gang's caboose and boxcar sit on Danlilu siding at MOW camp.  Shorty Loggins is hogging the bathroom inside the caboose.  O'l Jeater Farnsworth's strong cup of black coffee had just kicked in. He couldn't wait any longer for the caboose bathroom, so he had to use the double stall outhouse.  As he bee - lined it toward the structure his eyes zeroed in on the  second stall with the door afixed.  He thought " Door number two is just right for me."    He yanked on the door only to find six barrels of track spikes stored inside.  He quickly shut the door mumbling " That &$)*^ had to hog the caboose bathroom! Now I have to use this dang old outhouse where what's behind door number two is too heavy to lift, so here I am doing number two behind where door number one should be!"

Having just stepped down out of the caboose, Shorty Loggins wipes his brow.  

Patrick, your double stall outhouse reminds me of the double stall brick outhouse at my boyhood home.  First, people couldn’t believe it was an outhouse.  Second, they laughed when told it was a double seater.  😄

The story goes, Great-grandpa Boyce asked his cousin to build an outhouse that the mischievous boys couldn’t push over the hill every Halloween.  So there it stood at the end of 2019 when my sister and I were forced to sell the place that was the family home for 131 years.

I built a model diorama of the homestead in N-scale over 30 years ago complete with brick outhouse.

Rounding the bend past the scrap yard.

The trackside lake.

Pier 1 is a busy place today

@Mark Boyce posted:

Patrick, your double stall outhouse reminds me of the double stall brick outhouse at my boyhood home.  First, people couldn’t believe it was an outhouse.  Second, they laughed when told it was a double seater.  😄

The story goes, Great-grandpa Boyce asked his cousin to build an outhouse that the mischievous boys couldn’t push over the hill every Halloween.  So there it stood at the end of 2019 when my sister and I were forced to sell the place that was the family home for 131 years.

I built a model diorama of the homestead in N-scale over 30 years ago complete with brick outhouse.

Mark - what a terrific story of your family history!  That outhouse is going nowhere for sure!!  I love your diorama!  Great work!!

@trumpettrain posted:

Mark - what a terrific story of your family history!  That outhouse is going nowhere for sure!!  I love your diorama!  Great work!!

Thank you, Pat!  Yes, it was obvious that G-Grandpa Cy got Harv to do a lot of other cement work around the place as well.  He even built a large concrete feed storage building that was rat proof.  That and the barn were too far to the right of the house, so I didn't include them in the diorama.

I actually find it hard to believe I ever built the diorama in N-scale.  I fumble around with O-scale modeling nowadays! 

@Mark Boyce posted:

Second, they laughed when told it was a double seater.  😄

Mark, you brought back an old memory for me.  Both sets of my grandparents had outhouses in their back yard, but one was also a double seater.  It was built at two levels such that one was for adults and one was for the kids and we used it often.   You also reminded me of the old saying, “That is built like a brick ****house!”  Haha!

@Bob Golfs posted:

Mark, you brought back an old memory for me.  Both sets of my grandparents had outhouses in their back yard, but one was also a double seater.  It was built at two levels such that one was for adults and one was for the kids and we used it often.   You also reminded me of the old saying, “That is built like a brick ****house!”  Haha!

Always glad to bring back good memories.  The outhouse was handy when outside working or playing.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Patrick, your double stall outhouse reminds me of the double stall brick outhouse at my boyhood home.  First, people couldn’t believe it was an outhouse.  Second, they laughed when told it was a double seater.  😄

The story goes, Great-grandpa Boyce asked his cousin to build an outhouse that the mischievous boys couldn’t push over the hill every Halloween.  So there it stood at the end of 2019 when my sister and I were forced to sell the place that was the family home for 131 years.

I built a model diorama of the homestead in N-scale over 30 years ago complete with brick outhouse

So Mark and Patrick .......this is where this thread has ended up.

@Dallas Joseph posted:

So Mark and Patrick .......this is where this thread has ended up.

Shameful, isn’t it.

It would be interesting to see how much space my diorama would take in O scale.

Railfans holding up freight trains.

Here is a little scene which might be more appropriate in the UK... the Brimtoy "Britania" locomotive waits in the yard with her consist while the new streamlined "Silver Streak" express gets ready to pass by.  All actions controlled by the Brimtoy switch box guarding the switches.

Best Wishes

Don

Trackside for this fine Thursday!

From one of my CHristmas layouts

walt

@walt rapp - Hey great picture, wanted to compliment you on that "Howard Johnsons" , I remember in the 50's that they dominated the "rest area's" of the NJ Turnpike.

For Trackside Thursday...here is a busy crossing in the industrial area in front of "General Door and Sash".

Best wishes

Don

Trackside for this fine Thursday!  ... Yard work

Nice messy picture Patrick!

While Patrick's guys are cleaning up the Yard (actually working), my guys are standing around doing too much nothin'! I'm pretty sure the trackside repair supervisor is just down the dirt road watching!!

Happy Thursday!

from one of my Christmas layouts.  Seems like a dangerous place for a playground.  And no fence as a barrier. Oh my!

- walt

@Don McErlean posted:

@walt rapp - Hey great picture, wanted to compliment you on that "Howard Johnsons" , I remember in the 50's that they dominated the "rest area's" of the NJ Turnpike.

For Trackside Thursday...here is a busy crossing in the industrial area in front of "General Door and Sash".

Best wishes

Don

Thanks Don.  I wish it was 'O' and not 'HO' though.  It was a gift from a friend so I felt I should use it no matter.

Now YOURS is truly nice trackside view!

walt

Couple Hobos having some rabbit stew and enjoying a beer or two?

The serenity of the lake area is disturbed by the pounding noise of these steamers coming past

walt

@walt rapp- Neat lake scene...and thank you for the nice compliment last week on my trackside photo (I admit I am a little behind in responding)  My Dad used to relate stories from his childhood (1920's) about the boys swimming in a pond (almost always sans swim suits) near the RR tracks...and anytime a passenger train approached, the cry would go out..."Bottoms Under!"

Here is my post for today...right into my "Rail Fan" cameral lens, the tiny Hornby type 20 steamer thunders out of the tunnel with a small consist of empties and sweeps past the suburban passenger platform.

Best wishes to all

Don

That is a really neat looking Hornby steam engine and car, Don!

This is my trackside photograph.  Just yesterday I finished adding LED lighting to this Western Maryland vista dome car that came in before Christmas to go with the other cars the Community Model Railroad Club of Frostburg Maryland had custom ordered from MTH over the years as fundraisers.  It really looks too bright in this photograph, but looks great in person.

@Mark Boyce - Thank you Mark.  One question on your passenger cars...who made the Western Md cars?  Did you customize them like your some of your other cars or are they factory?

Don

When my son was young, we built a very compact (4' X 5') layout in our basement.  We named it the WIHABL Railroad...which stood for Wish I Had A Bigger Layout.  I still can't believe how much action we packed into that tiny space!

With an inner siding for our operating milk, reefer and dump cars, infra-red controlled operating crossing gates with sound, an operating firehouse and gas station from MTH, streetlights, operating traffic lights, lighted yard and water towers, and the MTH "disappearing" passenger platform, it sure was a fun, whimsical little layout where my son and I logged many quality hours together.  You can see his little chair with a train-themed seat cushion in the 3rd photo!

Now that he is off to college, the layout has been dismantled and I've moved on to "3-rail scale", Kadees and weathering.  I figured this thread would be a great place to take a stroll down memory lane by sharing some "track-side" photos from time to time.  Thanks for reading!

@Don McErlean posted:

@Mark Boyce - Thank you Mark.  One question on your passenger cars...who made the Western Md cars?  Did you customize them like your some of your other cars or are they factory?

Don

Don, they are RailKing.  The Community Model Railroad Club of Frostburg Maryland had MTH do custom runs for fundraising.  The train is now 8 cars long.  Some years they offered 2 cars and other years they offered one car.  All I did to them was add LED lights.   I’ll have to get a video of the whole train for another Trackside Thursday.

Trackside for this fine Thursday!