Monday, November 20, 2006

Room prep continues...


Hello again to all. I've had a tough time posting photos on to the blog, so I had to download Mozilla Firefox browser to fix the problem. Well, as you can see, I've pretty well finished the taping and sanding in the layout room. The walls are about 50-60 % primed and I hope to have the walls painted by month's end.

Seeing as it is after 2 AM, I'll just make this a short and sweet entry for now.

Ken.



Tuesday, June 27, 2006

New power for the KWR!


Well, it would seem that the Kootenay Western has received some new power from both CN and the Santa Fe. A former NAR SD38-2, recently repainted and renumbered as 1653, was spotted on its way to Kelowna from Fort Steele. This is being leased to Kootenay Western from co-parent CN.
Here is 1653 on the high trestle over Dolores Creek, just outside of the town of Canyon Creek on Jack Slimmon's Kootenay Southern. The 1653 will be assigned to yard switching and local freight duties between Kelowna, Winfield and Vernon.
KWR's "new" F45's were spotted on the point of a through freight in the town of Canyon Creek. KWR management might not be able to repaint the 3600 hp units for awhile, as they are needed for the daily through freight from Kelowna to Fort Steele on the Kootenay Southern. These were purchased outright from the Santa Fe.
This the same train departing Canyon Creek for Fort Steele. These Athearn units have been reworked, with the powered unit having a Mashima can motor, NWSL wheels and fitted with a T1 DCC decoder. The dummy unit will eventually be equipped with a small CCD wireless video camera. Talk about realism in miniature!
On to the real McCoy...I was called on a grain "spotter" to Vermilion AB on the former Canadian Northern mainline, now CN's Vegreville Subdivision. What with all of the residents of Ukrainian descent around Vegreville and Vermilion, we call this "the Kubassa Trail". Taken late in the day just east of Vegreville. I had just spotted 22 hoppers at the adjacent elevator.

The next morning, we returned on a loaded grain train with SD70M-2 8017 on the point. This is at the west switch at Vegreville, after a meet with train 452. This is "dark" (OCS) territory. Apologies for the off lighting on both shots!


Now this little guy must be a railfan at heart...a true ferro "equine" ologist!! One short blast from the Nathan P5 horn sent him running back to Mommy, seen to the right in the photo!

That's all for this edition, ecxept to say that Len K. will come over bfore the end of july to finish wiring the basement. After that, I will finish the drywall and the suspended ceiling. Once that is in place, then construction of the Kootenay Western can begin in earnest!

Have a good weekend ... hopefully I will have more to report soon!

Monday, June 05, 2006

Ontario trip













The wife (Gail) and I took a trip out to Ontario to go visit with friends and family. We flew from Edmonton to Ottawa on the 13th of May. That's me with the hat, notice the Oilers pin on the hat...



Met up with Chris Lyon (on the left in the photo) the next day to go see some of the finest model railroad layouts in the Greater Ottawa vicinity. Viewed 3 great layouts (sorry, no still shots...Gail had the digital camera as she toured Ottawa with an old neighbor and Chris's wife Lela), then went to Chris's to try my hand with switching out the 2 coal mines on his layout.

After dinner at the Montana's in Orleans, Chris and I went to Mike Hamer's HO Boston and Maine layout. This is an abslolutely stunning layout...almost makes a person want to break out in song, doesn't it, guys??






A couple of shots from Mike's layout...notice yours truly looking on approvingly!


The photo I like is taken from the perspective of the cyclist as he (or she) approaches a level crossing. The B&M passenger train is blasting through the
crossing...

















The local switcher is tucked away in'the hole' as the hotshot freight approaches North Dover station. By the looks of the station platform, the varnish can't be too far behind the freight...










We departed Ottawa the next day on VIA train 79 to Toronto and Chatham, Gail's birthplace. Lela was kind enough to accompany us on a 'mini-tour' of Ottawa and a bite to eat at downtown Ottawa's Byward Market. This is the first opportunity for Gail to ride the train. Of course, this is 'old hat' for me...


All Aboard!!















We had a 2-hour layover in downtown Toronto. The main hallway in VIA's Union Station left one with a surreal feeling...like being in a cathedral, perhaps. Just imagine the numbers of passengers using this facility throughout the years...




I was able to walk up to the headend of VIA 75 (our train to Chatham) in the train shed and took this shot. Notice the GO commuter train preparing to leave westbound to the left...

It was a rainy, dreary day in T.O. We decided against going up the CN tower on this day. We actually returned to Toronto from Niagara Falls on a sunny day a week later to do this. Drove to GO Clarkson station and took the GO train to Union station and hoofed it to the tower. That was a good distance on foot for the two of us!
Chatham VIA station in the evening. We had a good time here, checking out Gail's childhood haunts and getting reaquainted with some of her old friends and aquiantances...
This is the Chatham Railway Museum, which is actually ony 2 blocks from Gail's childhood home. Located inside an old CN smoothside streamline baggage car, in the green / gold paint scheme.
Another shot inside the museum. A model representation of the passenger trains that travelled through Chatham...
We departed Chatham the next day on VIA 72 for London to meet with some more friends and pick up our rental car. Not many photos, which is part to do with allof the video we shot. At or near Komoka (5 miles west of London), we were delayed for over 2 hours when a stack train ahead of us struck a pedestrian trespasser at 60+ MPH. Needless to say, this person was instantly killed. We did not leave London until quite late in the afternoon, arriving at our friend's farm near Bailieboro about 10:30 that night. A long rainy day, to say the least...This is young Kenny (Ken Sr. had his 40th birthday party on the Victoria Day weekend). Somebody must have let it out of the bag that I like to sing. First time I've ever done Eric Burdon's 'House of the Rising Sun'. I don't think the old hogger is going to give up his day (?) job any time soon...
The birthday boy...dunno, I don't think he looks a day over 38...Must have been tough to find a bartender that night...
Ken's wife Lorie must have been really tired when we took this shot. Maybe she's just conserving energy...who knows? The whole weekend was quite cool, as evidenced by the touque...
Off we go to Niagara Falls for 4 days. We finally got some lovely weather and decided to take the helicopter tour above the Falls. Gail took this spectacular shot of Horseshoe (Canadian) Falls. After this, we visited Gail's cousins (which she had not seen for 40 years) in Welland, then drove to London. We spent a day and a half around London bfore flying home last Tuesday.
But before we left, we managed to run into a couple of famous people...Who said 'Bogey" was dead. We had seen him in Niagara-on-the-Lake! I taught Tiger everything he knows...LOL!

















Tribal-class destroyer HMCS Haida display at Hamilton Harbour. I had the see this grand old lady while we were in the vicinity...Canada's most famous warship during the 2nd World War.

Well, that's it for this edition. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Regards...Ken.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Jasper trip...volume 2.


Woke up next morning (Monday) and got an early morning shot of the Rocky Mountaineer in Jasper yard. As you can see, it was a rather cloudy day again, affecting the photo quality somewhat.
Oh well...I'm hungry, so off to the beanery for some cackleberries and toast...and a large pail of coffee.


On the way to breakfast, I snapped this shot, showing the old train station with Pyramid Mountain in the background.

There is a SD70M-2 on the point of a grain train in the yard.




With a full belly, I returned to the bunkhouse just in time to see this train leaving Jasper West (now named 'Home', in honor of long-time engineer Harry Home, of 6060 fame). Lighting still not great, but it is early in the day...If you look closely, you can see the tea house on top of Whistler Mountain (the peak to the left). A sky tram takes people up here...

As we were switching our train, a stack train decided to come join the fun. Good thing Kenny had his camera. Lotas of new power out here. The sun also decided to cooperate for a change. One thing about Alberta weather...if you don't like it, just wait 5 minutes...it's bound to change!


Most interesting and unusual occurence...VIA 1's power had died somewhere east of Edmonton and had to be pulled in with a CN unit (more on this later). We picked up the spare VIA F40PH in Jasper and ferried it east.

Meanwhile, the chant of the VIA unit's prime mover was joined in chorus with a pair of old road warrior 'thundercow' SD40-2's on the other side of the yard. The turbocharged 16-645e3's still have one of the neatest sounds, at idle and all the way througn the throttle selections...


We had finished our switching and...good thing! You can see the furry four-legged 'railfan' by the dwarf signals at Jasper East.

Maybe he was looking for a young tender brakeman for his breakfast...Boy, would he have been out of luck,with me not being too young or tender anymore...


Don't suppose too many railfan / 'foamer' types get to take a photo like this. Coming out of Brule Tunnel.

On our way back to Edmonton.


Waiting at Swan Landing for train 357. Looks a bit unusual, having a VIA unit coupled to empty glycol tanks. Yes, it was quite windy, with the trees leaning like that...


357 shows up...with another new ES44DC on the point...

Hogger Ken...to the rescue! We met VIA 1 at Evansburg, where they picked up the VIA 6402 up from us. The conductor is handing the VIA enginner a MU jumper cable.

THe trailing unit, VIA 6444 is dead, so the passengers had no electrical power on the train. This at 17:30, wit no way to cook dinner. I wonder if Panago would deliver??

That concludes my volume 2 photo essay. Hope you enjoyed!

Ken King.

Proto photos from my Jasper trip...volume 1.


Time to add some more 12" to the foot scale photos. I was called as a brakeman on train 107 to Jasper AB last Sunday. This looked like a good opportunity to test out my new 6.0 mp digital camera.

Our train ready to depart McBain Intermodal Terminal, on the west end of Edmonton. On the point is a pair of GE Dash9-44cw's


Whew! A high speed meet on double track at Acheson. We were doing about 30 mph, and train 104 was cruising at about 60 mph. Overall closing speed had to be at least 90mph! The hogger on 104 has them smokin' as he crests the slight grade, 7 miles west of Edmonton. Lucky to get this shot! As you can see, the lazy brakeman was on the trailing unit...

Meeting 346 at Hargwen, just east of Obed Summit between Edson and Hinton. Obed is the highest point on the CN mainline. Shiny new GE ES44DC on the point.

As you can see, the hogger put the 'lazy brakeman' to work in the 'hot corner', drivin' the train...



Just west of Entrance (named by the Grand Trunk Pacific surveyors for the 'entrance' to the front range of the Rocky Mountains). Crossing the Athabasca River, which eventually flows into the Arctic Ocean as part of the Mackenzie River watershed. Please excuse the raindrop marks on the windshield! Lighting went from perfect to subpar as we approached the mountains, along with a few showers.
Just leaving Brule Tunnel, this is Windy Point on Jasper Lake. We have travelled close to 200 miles from Edmonton by this time.
We remarshalled the train at Edmonton for delivery to the CP west of Kamloops. The containers ("cans") on our train are destined for the intermodal terminal on Burrard Inlet in Vancouver BC.


Crossing Snaring River, about 12 miles east of Jasper. You can just make out the train we are meeting at Henry House.

Time to pack up the gear and put the gloves on, for some more switching in Jasper yard. We have 2 blocks for Deltaport (Roberts Bank) for train 111 to pick up...damn windshield wiper keeps getting in the way! Hey, the sun was out for a bit! Where did it go to??

2 Miles east of Jasper at English. Meet another container train (think it is 106). Note the new GM SD70M-2 as a trailing unit.

This concludes this issue. I will do another post with stuff around Jasper and the return trip. Hope you enjoyed this photo essay!

Regards...Ken King.