Western Roads Wednesday

You think this is enough power? 😁 Rumor has it that the containers on the first car have new O gauge trains in them.

Fortunately at the next crew change point, another engine was available to add to the train, now we for sure have enough power to get over the continental divide going east bound 😁

These are scenes taken of a 2-rail O scale layout during the 2015 NMRA national convention in Portland, OR.  The layout was in a dark basement so some of the photos of moving trains are blurred.  NH Joe

It's Wednesday and ATSF Hudson 3464 is at the head of the Fast Mail Express heading eastbound towards Chicago at 70 MPH.

New Haven Joe posted:

These are scenes taken of a 2-rail O scale layout during the 2015 NMRA national convention in Portland, OR.  The layout was in a dark basement so some of the photos of moving trains are blurred.  NH Joe

Very nice pics Joe 

New Haven Joe posted:

These are scenes taken of a 2-rail O scale layout during the 2015 NMRA national convention in Portland, OR.  The layout was in a dark basement so some of the photos of moving trains are blurred.  NH Joe

                         Joe, wow from what I can see it is spectacular! Thanks for posting.

The Spokane Portland & Seattle passenger consist

Santa Fe Hotshot Train 1-991 is ready for cross country run

                                                    Atlas Trainman Cotton Belt RSD5s

Randy, I am going to have to quit looking at and posting in this thread. Not sure which version of the trainmaster you are showing but I have the Lionel MPC version from around 1980 and when I sold almost all of the MPC stuff, I just couldn’t part with the Southern Pacific version. Now it is off to the basement. 😊 Really enjoying the pictures in this thread.

Dudley:

The Southern Pacific Trainmaster that I posted was a modern era Lionel with TMCC.

Randy, thanks for the info. I just ran mine for about 10 minutes and it still runs great. I purchased my version in 1979, so 40 years later it still work well.

This is one of my favorite pics.

All taken on the Puget Sound & Pacific in the last week

Here are photos that I took of the New Mexico Rail Runner in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the TCA national convention in June 2019.  This train provides commuter service between Albuquerque and Santa Fe - about 60 miles.  Rail Runner also runs south from Albuquerque to Belen.  I have a HO model of this train.  I wish that either MTH or Lionel made this train O gauge.  NH Joe

Here are photos of a HO model running on a modular layout at the convention center.

Rusty

Just for New Have Joe, here is my O gauge Railrunner.  No, it was never made in O scale, I made it from KLine loco and cars, stripped and repainted with decals a friend and I put together.

A recent MTH acquisition...

I know, the SP never had any Sharks, but they sure wear the "Daylight" paint scheme well!

PeterA posted:

Just for New Have Joe, here is my O gauge Railrunner.  No, it was never made in O scale, I made it from KLine loco and cars, stripped and repainted with decals a friend and I put together.

Peter,

That is a great train.  You and your friend did an outstanding job repainting a K-Line set into the Rail Runner scheme.  I hope that one of the manufactures will offer this train sometime in the future.  Thanks for sharing.  

Here are more Rail Runner photos.  These were taken in Santa Fe.  NH Joe

Ready for a hard day's work in the yards.

                                                                       S.P. Alco S2

Some Western roads boxcars and a CN&W  flat car loaded with farm equipment.

Local headed out of yard to spot grain hoppers

The Santa Fe "borrowed" this C-30 many moons ago. It finally got back to the SP shops to get repainted along with the proper lettering.

Pete

PAs on The Chief and a 3460 class Hudson on the Fast Mail Express.

El Capitan getting ready to leave the Yard;

Northern Pacific

Here are the Chief and the ElCapitan ready to leave Union Station an the Chief on the road.  The El Cap consists of KLine 20" cars and the Chief consists of  the new Lionel 20" cars.

                           MTH S.P. "Black Widow" F7 A-B-B-A on the Green Line at NJ Hirailers.

My wife and I visited the Tehachapi Loop and the town of Tehachapi in 2011.  We didn't see any trains at the loop although we waited about an hour at the viewing area.  It was a hot day so we drove to the town of Tehachapi where we toured the rebuilt SP Depot and the museum.  The Depot burned to ground several years before our visit.  It had been completely rebuilt in the original style but to modern standards including a sprinkler system.  The museum has many interesting exhibits about the loop, the town and the surrounding area.

A couple of trains came through town while we were there.  This is a mountain area with steep grades and many curves and tunnels.  NH Joe

This is my wife and me at the marker overlooking the loop.

This is the marker.

This what you see from the overlook.  You can just see the track.

The Tehachapi Depot.

Below is the street side.

Below is the track side.

The Union Pacific (ex SP) mainline adjacent to the Depot.  Note the yellow track markings.

The following photos are some of the exhibits inside the Depot.

Exhibit outside the Depot.

End of the Depot.

Here comes a westbound train.  This train had five units up front to get up the hill from Mojave and to provide braking going down the hill to Bakersfield.  This train will arrive at the loop in about 30 minutes if it continues without stopping.  

Santa Fe Warhorse out on a spin

New Haven Joe, thanks for posting pictures of historic Tehachapi Loop and museum!

The Northern Pacific

Here is some western smaller stuff (O Scale).

A general merchandise train and coal train.

                                        BN ex- Northern Pacific GP9 w/road specific details.

Northern Pacific

ATSF and SP, can't get much more western than that.

Last week I posted actual photos taken at the Tehachapi loop and in the town of Tehachapi.  The following photos were taken at the San Diego railroad museum in Balboa Park.  The museum members model the actual loop and the loop's approaches in HO.  They also operate the loop in a prototypical manner.  This one of the five layouts at the San Diego Railroad Museum.  It is well worth the visit.  NH Joe

@ New Haven Joe- thanks for posting San Diego Model Railroad Museum pictures they look spectacular. I can just imagine how wonderful the museum must look in person. 

American Flyer  GREAT NORTHERN 4 4 2 with Presidential  cars  by Lionel/MTH

The AT&SF passing through on the S&Y RR

                                             MTH F3 B unit I repainted w/ road specific details.

Here are more photos that I took in the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in 2018 just before Halloween.  These photos are of the club's 3-rail O scale layout.  It is decorated for Halloween.  This is one of the finest 3-rail O scale displays in the country.  The members are super friendly and will often let visitors run trains using either Legacy or DCS.  The museum was dark this day and I was in a hurry so the photos do not do the display justice.

The group has several display cases for vintage and current O gauge trains.  Most of the trains and other items on display belong to the club's members.  I was told that these displays are changed on a regular basis.  

This is an overall view of the layout.  Ghosts and goblins are flying from the ceiling.    

The airport is better than it looks in the photo.  

Ghost City.

Freight cars and locomotives.

It's Wednesday and a Santa Fe 5011 class Texas is leading a string of SFRD refrigerator cars east.

AT&SF Yellow Bonnets

Spokane Portland & Seattle

MRL power is ready for assignment 

The Northern Pacific

                                                                      MTH BN ex-GN GP30

I visited the Colorado State RR Museum in May 2016.  These are a few of the outdoor displays.  NH Joe

@New Haven Joe posted:

I visited the Colorado State RR Museum in May 2016.  These are a few of the outdoor displays.  NH Joe

              Joe, I really enjoy your pictures from the Colorado RR Museum! Thanks for posting.

Bensenville, IL Sept. 1976.  Taken by my Evil Twin.

Rusty

                                      RIDES LIKE A FEATHER' 

D&R (Dandanelle & Russellville) SW1 in Russellville, Arkansas...

P.S. No pictures of D&R engines in Dardanelle, due to NO bridge across the Arkansas river.

Engines at the Arkansas Railroad Museum....

UP Railroad Jenks Shops...

What's more Western then the "Friendly SP"?

The Puget Sound Sounder and UP City of Las Vegas.

I’ll throw in some Western Road consists, with a couple ringers thrown in.

                                                         Lionel Santa Fe F3 #19C

Tacoma Rail SD-70 ACe

A couple of UP engines idling with the garbage container train near the Fairmount Ave. crossing on the Puget Sound & Pacific.   I took the shot a couple of Sunday mornings ago during my daily walk with the wife.

Larry

Western Railroad 027 version on Wednesday 

More Santa Fe

my PFM L77 2-6-6-0 in Grande speed lettering rolling past my CB&Q coaling tower and water tank at Burham in Denver. 

 Water tank and coaling tower are scratch from CB&Q plans. 

It's Wednesday, so Blue Goose time.

Time for some maintenance ...

Lionel Northern Pacific RS-11 

MTH engine and cars

MTH Spokane Portland & Seattle RS-3

The AT&SF picking up passengers.

Pre-merger paint schemes..

I guess these two cars qualify for western roads.  Armour Stockyard Express and Northern Pacific. 

@trumpettrain posted:

I guess these two cars qualify for western roads.  Armour Stockyard Express and Northern Pacific. 

I would think so. Anything West of the Mississippi will do for me. Thanks for posting Patrick!

My family and I visited Colorado's Georgetown Loop in May 2016.  Here are some photos.  NH Joe

The Silver Plume shops.

Silver Plume is the end of the line.  

The old Depot was still a restaurant in May 2016.  We had a good hamburger there.  

The Great Northern

The Super Chief

                                                BF70-7 , Weathered car # 1801

A Williams WP passing through on the S&Y RR.

Just made it. Pretty western. 

Rainier Beer from Seattle, Washington.

             U P...  in Maumee, Ohio...

                Marci's photo...

I rode the Royal Gorge Railway at Canon City, CO in May 2016.  Here are some photos.  NH Joe

The train has an attractive red, white and blue color scheme.  Perhaps I should say blue, white and red?

This is the Royal Gorge along the Arkansas River.  There was no room to build a conventional bridge so the railroad built the famous hanging bridge.  The bridge is supported by the rock on both sides of the gorge with suspension beams.  The track is suspended by cables hung from the suspension beams.  I have some close up photos of the construction.  

Suspension cable (below).

Suspension beams (girders) where they attach to the rock.  

Electric lines are carried across the top of the bridge.

This where the suspension cable attaches to the bridge deck.  

Bill T,  unfortunately Rainier Beer is no longer brewed in Seattle.  Pabst Brewing Co. is the owner. Rainer Beer has been produced under contract in Irwindale, Ca.

Larry

@PSAP2010 posted:

Bill T,  unfortunately Rainier Beer is no longer brewed in Seattle.  Pabst Brewing Co. is the owner. Rainer Beer has been produced under contract in Irwindale, Ca.

Larry

Yep, I knew that. Back in the 70's when the brewery was still in operation I worked at a DC located on Airport Way in Seattle. Passed by the brewery everyday.

@New Haven Joe posted:

I rode the Royal Gorge Railway at Canon City, CO in May 2016.  Here are some photos.  NH Joe

The train has an attractive red, white and blue color scheme.  Perhaps I should say blue, white and red?

This is the Royal Gorge along the Arkansas River.  There was no room to build a conventional bridge so the railroad built the famous hanging bridge.  The bridge is supported by the rock on both sides of the gorge with suspension beams.  The track is suspended by cables hung from the suspension beams.  I have some close up photos of the construction.  

Suspension cable (below).

Suspension beams (girders) where they attach to the rock.  

Electric lines are carried across the top of the bridge.

This where the suspension cable attaches to the bridge deck.  

That bridge is amazing! Great pictures. Thanks for posting. 

The Great Northern.

Westbound, Southern Pacific cab-forward #4138 begins climbing 2% grade to Armstrong at Cumberland. 

Just got this ABB set (Premier PS3) of SP PAs as backup power for my SP GS4 Northern on the Golden State.

After leaving Canon City Colorado, my family and I drove south over Raton Pass into New Mexico.  Here are photos of Raton.

NH Joe

This is the Raton visitor center.  The city is trying to promote tourism.  This is a good place to visit to learn about the history of the area.  The yellow flag below the American flag is the New Mexico State flag.  

Below - Track view looking south toward Santa Fe (Lamy) and Albuquerque.

Below - Track view looking north toward Raton Pass and Colorado.  Note the mountains in the distance.  

Raton Amtrak Station.  

Downtown Raton.  This was once a very busy railroad town where Santa Fe stationed helper engines to get trains over the pass.  In 2016 it was  almost a ghost town.  It was sad to see this.  

Driving south toward Las Vegas, NM, we encountered the Southwest Chief speeding north toward Raton, Colorado and eventually Chicago.  I believe that this is almost the only train that uses this route.  This photo was taken through the car windshield.  

Another photo of the Southwest Chief.  

This is wayyyyyyyyy out West. Don

NH Joe - The Raton Station is where Boy Scouts leave the train to bus over to the Philmont Scout Ranch just outside of Cimarron, NM. When several crews of scouts either arrive or leave it gets quite busy. We had 2 crews of 20 each and spent 12 days hiking in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, not to mention the 20-24 hour Amtrak ride each way. Can't find my photos of the trip, otherwise would have posted a shot of when its busy.  Jeff 

@ScoutingDad posted:

NH Joe - The Raton Station is where Boy Scouts leave the train to bus over to the Philmont Scout Ranch just outside of Cimarron, NM. When several crews of scouts either arrive or leave it gets quite busy. We had 2 crews of 20 each and spent 12 days hiking in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, not to mention the 20-24 hour Amtrak ride each way. Can't find my photos of the trip, otherwise would have posted a shot of when its busy.  Jeff 

Thank you for the information about the Scouts.  I would love to see the station when it is busy.  Raton looked more like a flag stop when I visited.  

I didn't go to Philmont when I was a Scout.  I don't know if Philmont was open in 1962.  I went to a canoe camp on the border between Minnesota and Canada.  The camp was near Ely, MN.  I don't recall the camp's name.  It was a wonderful two weeks in the wilderness.  

My Scout group took the El Capitan from LA to Chicago and back.  I remember watching the train climb Raton grade.  I don't remember seeing the town of Raton.  I don't think that the El Capitan stopped at Raton going in either direction.  The El Capitan looked almost like today's Southwest Chief with its high-level coaches and diner.  The Santa Fe El Capitan had better coach seats,  lounge, and diner than today's train.  

The whole trip was by train.  When our group got to Chicago, we changed stations and caught a Milwaukee Road overnight train to St. Paul.  From there we caught a Soo Line train to Ely or somewhere nearby.  The last few miles were by bus.  

We had an interesting trip back to Chicago.  We were dropped off in the afternoon in a very small town whose name that I can't recall.  All of us Scouts went to local hamburger place for lunch / dinner.  It was one of the those classic hamburger places with the booth, bar stools, etc.  It looked like Mels from Happy Days.  The milk shakes were very good.  

After dinner we wandered around town and then went back to the station.  There was a coach parked on a siding.  We tried to fall asleep after boarding the coach but it was old, uncomfortable, and what passed for air conditioning barely worked if it it had air conditioning.  I think that the windows opened so it probably didn't have AC.  MN is hot and muggy during the summer.  

At about 7 pm, a short train powered by four or five Soo Line GP?s came by and picked up the coach.  The train picked up another coach full of kids at the next stop.  Evidently, there were a lot of summer kids camps bordering the local lakes.  

As the train proceeded through the night, it kept stopping to add cars.  The train jerked back and forth and there were loud bangs all night.  Sleep was impossible.  This wasn't the Super Chief.

By the time we got to Chicago the train was about 20 cars long.  There were four or five coaches at the end of the train and the rest were refrigerated cars as best as I can remember.  I don't know what was in the head end cars.  It was probably milk or produce from all the farm towns.  I just remember it was a very long walk lugging my luggage from the end of the train to the head of the station.  All the coaches were at the end of the train.  We had to change stations again to get the El Capitan back to LA.

I am surprised that the Scouts still take the train to Philmont.  It would seem to me that a flight to Alburquerque and a bus to Philmont would be much easier and much faster.   NH Joe

Running late today. Caught this guy in St. Louis last spring 

Trainman ATSF Dash 8-40CW upgraded with fixed pilots and detailing:

Hey NH Joe and all,  located a couple of CDs with images of Raton NM station.  I cannot believe this was 17 years ago. As I recall the day was bright and sunny, temps into the 100's - but it was a dry heat. Shade was at a premium. Amtrak was late coming out of LA.   

First photo is just kids being kids, but with BNSF 5313 Dash 9 engine passing by (internet is a wonderful thing) . I assume it was a freight.

Second photo is just scouts passing time waiting for our ride to show up, but shows a bit more of the station. 

Third photo is how the scouts learned to "stack" their back packs in an orderly fashion. Much easier to keep an eye on your gear. Looks like there were 6 to 7 crews coming back - so that would have been 120 to 140 scouts. 

Not much going on in that town in 2003, can't imagine its any better today. As Joe said - just a rail stop to go somewhere else. 

This trek we decided to ride Amtrak as opposed to trying to fly with a group of 40. Time wise you may save a day of vacation by flying. You still have a 6 hour bus ride from Denver to Cimarron. Tough call - 2 to 3 adults wrangling 17 to 18 boys ages ranging from 14 to 17 years old. And you are on the trail for 12 days after you get there. Certainly not a vacation, but quite an adventure - even riding the rails !  Never could sleep in those seats - a couple of the smaller boys climbed up into the luggage racks to sleep, others slept in the stainless steel luggage racks down below while others squeezed under the seats and slept on the floor. As I recall our group had the car to ourselves - not sure if that was Amtrak or people realizing it probably was not the best idea to be in the same car as 35 young kids.  

Western Roads

Southern Pacific!!!

The Texas Special

This is a old Atlas O 

SP 6000 leading the Daylight.