Christmas Time!

I hope everyone had a most-merry Christmas! I received many generous gifts from loved ones, and many of them are train-related. In the past week, I completed the Christmas Train in the Train Room, hung up more railroad art and memorabilia, transferred a lot of train literature from a plastic tub to an antique display-trunk, and cleared more space in the hallway and laundry room. On Christmas morning, the Gamsbys and Seemans visited the Train Room (and the rest of the house too.)

My bride gave me a Lionel 6257 postwar caboose, an MTH Proto-Sounds reset kit, a stack of O-Scale railroad ties, an O-Scale Nativity display, and a photograph of the first C&NW steam locomotive: the Pioneer.

My folks gave me the 2013 Lionel Hallmark ornament set, and the 2014 Howard Fogg Trains calendar.

My sister gave me the 2014 Lionel Trains price guide.

And, my folks-in-law gave me an antique wooden railroad whistle, a steam train DVD set, the "Wyoming Whistle Stop" booklet, "Mailing May" - an early Idaho railroad story, a framed picture of an old toy train, and a Montana Rail Link cooler.

We gave our nephew, Edgar, a red steam locomotive ornament, a train outfit (makes him look like an engineer in overalls), and a big, warm train quilt (see picture above).

The train I set up around the living room tree this year consists of an all-Lionel cast. Aside from the engine, I alternated the train with red and green cars. At the head is C&NW 4-6-2 Pacific #2903, the first Lionel steam locomotive I purchased. Following it is a red Canadian National reefer, a green C&NW covered hopper, a red Union Starch tank car, a green Railway Express Agency reefer, and a red C&NW bay-window caboose.

I've been greatly blessed by family and friends (not just in train-related endeavors), and I wish everyone a joyous and meaningful New Year!

C&NW 2903 leads a merry train under the tree

The red & green upstairs Christmas Tree Train

The Gamsbys, Poynters, and Seemans visit the revamped Train Room

Lots of fun and useful train gifts for Mark! Thank you everybody!

Christmas Train

Merry Christmas blog readers!

The past week involved some more merry-ish projects than in previous weeks. I finished up the pile of filing that had built up, and then found and hung additional railroad art and artifacts. I brought all of my trains into the train room, and after some puzzle-work, placed them into the two closets. I cleared a bit more in the hallway, laundry room, and garage, which will allow people to actually get into the train room. I also set up the TV for watching lots of railroad-themed programs, and added a lantern-like lamp. Throughout the week, I set up and trimmed the Christmas tree, and added our antique portable fireplace to the temporary decor. I cleaned up the room, after the tree spread its little fake needles all about, and used the space to wrap several Christmas gifts for my bride. Friends Ted & Michelle came over to visit and got to see the nearly-complete room. And last night, I setup an oval track and transformer, and ran the new C&NW GP7 around the tree. Thus, the first train has been operated in the Train Room, as of Wednesday, December 18th, 2013... 3 days within my goal of "Fall 2013". Yes, an oval around the Christmas tree counts as a "functional O-Gauge model railroad" :)

The #1518 C&NW GP7 is a new addition to the fleet this year. This Lionel locomotive is modeled after the very first GP7 ever produced, and I've actually been able to see it at the Illinois Railway Museum. It is appropriate therefore, that it was the first engine to run in the new Train Room. In Illinois, I have another model C&NW GP7 (#8375) waiting in the queue to be shipped to Montana; once it is here I can double-head them.

I also set up a Christmas train under our Living Room tree - I will report on that next week! And, as usual, the Season brings other fun decorating projects - at the top of the page is our deck Christmas display for 2013. Amber added all of the spiffy accents, and I laid down the lighting.

A new arrival joined the collection this week too - a K-Line die cast hopper car in the Santa Fe "Midnight Chief" (aka "Black Bonnet") paint scheme.

The train boxes are nestled all snug in the closets

Newest addition - a die cast scale ATSF Midnight Chief hopper car

Christmas decor!

The new #1518 C&NW GP7 model

The original #1518 C&NW GP7 prototype

Great Progress

On Saturday morning, I finished scraping the floor. This allowed the rest of the project to proceed quickly. I cleared everything out of the room, and using a shop vac borrowed from a friend at work, removed all of the scraping debris. Using a mixture of TSP and water, I treated the floor, and then dried it using a mop and the shop vac. Next I applied the concrete etching liquid to the borders of the room. This has special time limits and procedures to follow. It has to stay moist while it is "cooking" the floor, and must remain on the concrete for at least 30 minutes. Etching prepares the concrete for painting, so the paint will adhere properly. It must be completely removed from the floor before painting, so I rinsed it with the mop and sucked up the remaining liquid with the shop vac. Once it dried, I repeated the process on the remaining "middle" part of the floor. Then I had supper with Amber and her folks. I finished up Saturday night by painting the brown trim border around the bottom of the walls. I activated the moisture-detector test, which is just a piece of plastic duct-taped to the floor.
On Sunday morning, I checked the moisture-detector, and found it to be dry on the top and undersides. While in Laurel, MT, I took a picture of several BNSF locomotives waiting for orders to pull their trains WB (photo at top of this entry). After church, I checked for moisture once more to be sure, and then started the first coat of floor paint. I did some border work with the brush, and used the roller for the rest. After 4 hours, I applied the second coat, this time brushing the entire border, at Amber's suggestion. The results were very good!
On Monday night, I brought in six planks of boxcar wood from our shed. A few years ago, our friend Jeff from church gave me one of his boxcar sheds. I took it apart (with help from my friends Darren, Kevin (Keg), Bill, and Andrew) one board at a time, and now most of it is sitting in our shed. It was originally Northern Pacific boxcar #31628, built in 1918. I cut the 6 planks into trim pieces for the Train Room, and nailed them to the wall. I placed pieces which still have some of the original boxcar paint on them in spots that are easy to view. Since this wood is nearly 100 years old, and spent most of its time outside, either as part of a tree, or part of a boxcar hauling grain throughout the country, or as part of an animal shed, some of it has rather large holes or cracks. This is why I painted the brown border around the bottom of the floor, so there wouldn't be white paint showing through these eccentricities.
On Tuesday, I cleaned and vacuumed the room again, and moved in the larger furniture pieces which sit along the eastern wall.
On Wednesday, I moved in the pictures that will be stored, and started sorting the papers we have accumulated since moving into the house in April. That project should be wrapped up tonight. I also started hanging up some railroad artwork and artifacts on the wall.

The floor has now been scraped, scrubbed, and etched. The brown border has been painted as well.

The finished floor!

Now the boxcar wood trim has been added. The upper right section of this board has some of the original red boxcar paint on it.

The room is now complete! Thank you to everyone who helped and tolerated this project (especially my bride) to this point. Looks like new walls and floor!

And this is what it looked like about 4 months ago...

Tree Incentive

We've made it to December - that means I just have a few weeks to meet my Fall goal. Outside looks and feels quite Winter-y already, with 9" of snow and high temperatures below zero. I've been blessed with a new incentive to get the Train Room floor done though... and it is a Christmas tree. Right now, the items that are headed back to the Train Room are blocking the path to part of one of our Christmas trees. And, in my wedded bliss, I can strongly sense that my loving wife would strongly like to decorate a Christmas tree as soon as possible. So, scraping efforts have been doubled. 25% of the entryway/closet area has been scraped, and I've arranged to borrow another shop vac from a coworker, as the one I've been using is somewhat hindering the process at the moment. I believe this weekend will produce much progress.

The eighth in the series of future passenger train discussions is "The Canadian". This is a streamlined 7-car version of the real-life Canadian Pacific "Canadian" which entered service in 1955, and a form of it still operates today. The Canadian connected Vancouver, BC to Sandbury, ON, and then on to either Montreal, QC or Toronto, ON for a 71-hour trip. On our honeymoon, my wife and I were able to ride on The Skeena passenger train (a.k.a. "Jasper - Prince Rupert"), a small sight-seeing consist that runs on some of the same tracks as the current Canadian. We traveled from the bustling metropolis of Dunster, BC (I'm sure you've heard of it) to Jasper, AB. Dunster has a population of about 27, but they use the metric system, so I'm not sure how that converts. Anyway... it was a very fun and pretty 60-mile ride. We had practically an entire passenger car to ourselves. At the end of the train was the Waterton Park vista dome observation car (Canadian Pacific #15417). I was allowed to tour it briefly before the train left Jasper. Jasper was not on the original route of The Canadian; instead, it was served by Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian National passenger trains. My Canadian is an O-scale MTH set, pulled by Williams F3 ABA locomotives. Lionel originally made a semi-scale version of this set in 1957; the locomotives from that original set are some of the most sought-after Lionel collectibles of the postwar era. Mine have little collector's value, but they make for a very sleek trainset, and will be pulling The Canadian around the train layout of the future for years to come. The observation car on my set is based on the Sibley Park (original Canadian Pacific #15413). The CP's color scheme of grey and maroon, with yellow accents, and their nifty beaver logo is rather ritzy, and graces the top of the blog today while running on the SPCR&GC RR. Keep your rails shiny ~

Section scraped in front of closet door

25% of this section done

The Canadian in the Canadian Rockies

Newlyweds and the Waterton Park in Jasper, AB

Trainsgiving

The main part of the Train Room floor is complete! What remains is a 3x11 foot section, which contains two closets. The consistency of that section of the floor is rather odd. The surface ranges from yellowish to greyish to blackish. Scraping it is a challenge, because it is quite difficult to tell when you have reached the bottom layer of material. The main part of the room, while difficult, was very easy to tell when the raw floor was reached through scraping. I will attack this new section the same as the other, but it provides different challenges.

Today is Thanksgiving, and we are hosting the Gamsbys and Seemans. We have decorated for the event, which includes many autumny harvesty things, and a train!

This part of the floor is done!

This part of the floor is weird and in progress

Thanksgiving kitchen decor

Bring a Model Train to Work Day 2013

Hello all - a bonus post due to today being a special holiday ~
Bring a Model Train to Work Day occurs on an undetermined Friday in November every year! Here you can see my Lionel Frisco Mikado (a 2-8-2 steam locomotive) sharing my workspace for the day. Many coworkers stopped by to take a look.
Have a nice weekend, and keep your rails shiny ~

Locomotives Unlimited

Scraping Fest

I have a much better progress report this week - the main part of the room is now 80% scraped. Once I figured out a good rhythm I was able to progress through several rows of scruffy tile glue. The vacuum does suck up the debris, but since it isn't working properly, it is adding a layer of finer dust to the entire room every time I run it. Thus, I'll have the added step of wiping off all of the surfaces and items in the room when the scraping is complete. But, I feel it will be done soon :)

The seventh entry in this series of future passenger trains is the "Night Fire". This is a heavyweight train populated by Pullman-made passenger cars. The reason I wanted to create this train is because Pullman cars can prototypically be pulled by just about any locomotive. I see Pullman cars as kind of "generic" in that they aren't necessary visibly tied to a particular railroad. This can allow for some neat motive power match-ups. I originally purchased four of Lionel's O-Scale heavyweight cars from a dealer at the monthly train show in Wheaton, IL (at the DuPage County Fairgrounds). As of this blog, the train show continues to occur, and is called the Great Midwest Train Show. Anyway... I think these four cars were designed for Lionel's Commodore Vanderbilt locomotive from the 1990's. Although the locomotive was New York Central, the cars do not show NYC markings. Later on, I added a front-end freight car, which matches the Pullman-green color-scheme nicely.  Later still, I added the K-Line made Santa Fe "Granite Canyon" to the consist. It is painted in Pullman-brown, but it fits in well with the style of the train, and is probably prototypical anyway - I've seen many historical photographs of trains where every passenger car wasn't the same style, color, or road-name! On the train layout of the future, this train set would be pulled by big steam - a CB&Q Hudson, the C&NW E-4, a C&NW H-1 or MR 4-8-4, the GN Mikado, an NP A-4, the RI Northern or the Frisco Mikado. The "Night Fire" will take passengers to all points on the layout, hailing from Liberty Station. Run some heavyweights down the track and keep those rails shiny ~

Here's the Train Room as of last night. Just 45 squares of glue remain in the main area.

The Inglehome is a Pullman lounge car that now safely resides at the Illinois Railway Museum.

Just Two

Hello there - this week's work included disassembling and cleaning the shop vac, but it is still not running properly. I also had time to scrape two squares of the floor, but that's not a lot of progress!

The sixth in this series of future passenger train talks is the "Minnesota and Black Hills Express". This is a fictional five-car Chicago & North Western heavyweight passenger car train that heads northwest from Chicago to La Crosse, Wisconsin, and then traces the present route of Interstate 90 to Rapid City in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This route is special because it is the way we take when we visit Illinois. Highlights include the cheese stores of south-central Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Dells area, "Alice" of La Crosse, the Jolly Green Giant of Albert Lea, Goo's RV of Sioux Falls, the Corn Palace of Mitchell, the Bad Lands of south-western South Dakota, Wall Drug of Wall, and the limitless attractions and scenic views of the Black Hills themselves. The five-car heavyweight set was made by Custom Trains/Frank's Roundhouse, which was the first set of this type I purchased. "Heavyweight" refers to a type of passenger car manufactured with riveted steel. These cars started showing up in the 1910's and were generally more luxurious than their wooden predecessors, and offered a smoother ride because they were heavier. They are sometimes called "Pullmans", "Heavyweights", or just "passenger cars". My Minnesota and Black Hills Express would look well behind the same locomotives I've suggested for the "Fence Lake 400": O-Scale F7 diesel's, a 4-6-0, 4-6-2, or a big 4-8-4 steamer. Thanks for reading, and keep your rails shiny ~

A June 2008 sunset on Stockade Lake in Custer, SD (in the Black Hills). I waited amongst the mosquitoes for a while to get this shot...

A real C&NW heavyweight observation car

One of the cars on the Minnesota and Black Hills Express

Edgar Harrison

This posting is named in honor of my nephew Edgar Harrison Seeman who was born this past Tuesday evening. He and mother are doing well, and I believe the three Seemans will head home from the hospital in the next day or so. We were with the new grandparents in the waiting room when Edgar arrived. It was an amazing and wonderful event, and Amber and I will do our best to provide love, support, and trains to our nephew.

This week I progressed to the 40% mark on floor scraping. The main part of the room was originally 15 tiles square, so that means I've completed the equivalent of 90 tiles. I tested the entry part of the room, and whatever is pasted to the concrete there is of a different consistency. It may require a different type of scraping technique, but it will probably demand the same amount of elbow grease. Special thanks to Bill Gamsby, who lent me his shop vac for this project. Before I continue my next swath of scraping, it sounds like the vacuum will need a little maintenance, so I'll try to get that done tonight.

The fifth in the series of future passenger train talks is the "Fence Lake 400". The Chicago & North Western railroad provided a passenger train which ran from Chicago to Saint Paul, a distance of 400 miles, which was designed to arrive in 400 minutes. Thus, the train was named the "400". The name proved popular, and several other C&NW trains were given the "400" suffix, even though they traveled farther and took longer than 400 minutes. One of these trains was the "Peninsula 400", which traveled from Chicago to Ishpeming in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. For many summers while I was growing up, my father, sister and I would go on a weekend fishing trip with some church members to Fence Lake in Michigan. Fence Lake is about 30 miles west of Ishpeming. I have many fond memories of fishing, camping, exploring, and rope-swinging in and around the lake, and will be recreating portions of the terrain on the train layout of the future. There will even be a small resort town called Fence Lake. My "Fence Lake 400" will take passengers from Silver Falls through the farmlands to the north-woods destination of Fence Lake , where they can enjoy a relaxing time in and by the water. The train consists of four custom-painted streamlined aluminum passenger cars made by Williams. These represent 60', rather than 72' passenger cars, so they appear relatively short next to other O-Scale models. But that's ok! For motive power, there are a few choices. I have an F7 ABA C&NW set of diesel locomotives from Williams, with the shiny paint scheme that matches this passenger train nicely. There are also 3 O-Scale steam locomotives (none of which have been purchased yet) which would look spiffy with this set: a C&NW 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler, the "Yellow Jacket": a covered/shrouded 4-6-2 C&NW Pacific locomotive, or the gigantic C&NW 4-8-4 class H-1 Northern locomotive. Thanks for reading, and remember to keep your rails shiny ~

Fence Lake in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Eagle Island is on the left.

The real-life C&NW Business Train looks very similar to my model Fence Lake 400 consist. This photo was taken by James House in Elmhurst, IL in 1989.

And here's the C&NW Business Train along the eastern shore of Devil's Lake, south of Baraboo, WI. My family and I camped here numerous times, and I may attempt to re-create this scene on the train layout of the future.

Back On Track

My wife and I recently returned from a trip to attend my sister's wedding in Illinois (explaining the lack of progress in the Train Room last week.)

The "forgotten turntable" picture from last week was taken along the northern edge of Freeport, IL, down the hill near Don's Oasis Restaurant.

It was good to see lots of family and friends in Illinois, and also help out at the wedding. A bonus of driving there and back meant that I was able to bring many more model trains back with me. Amber safely puzzled them into our backseat and trunk, and they all arrived in one piece.

I also purchased two more freight cars on the Trainz Auction since the last blog update. The cars are pictured further below.

I did make a wee bit of progress on the Train Room floor last night. The main part of the room is now 28% done.

The fourth in this series of future passenger train talks is the "Challenger". The real-life train ran between Chicago and Los Angeles, beginning service in 1936. It was a joint venture between the Chicago & North Western and Union Pacific railroads, and thus a variety of equipment was used. My "Challenger" is an all-C&NW train, and is pulled by an E-4 class hudson steam locomotive. The real-life E-4 was a huge, streamlined engine that weighed nearly 400 tons and sported driving wheels that were 7 feet tall. According to Montgomery Scott, this locomotive weighs as much as two adult humpback whales and their surrounding water. Nine of these locomotives were built, but sadly none of them have survived. Fortunately, a bit of their memory can live on through my train sets. The Challenger is a 7-car, streamlined passenger set pulled by a matching E-4 hudson. A hudson steam locomotive has a 4-6-4 wheel arrangement, and were designed for a lot of power at high speeds. At the time I purchased this train set, it was the most expensive single item I had ever acquired on my own. The entire set was built by MTH Electric Trains, and was the first set I obtained with an advanced sound system. The locomotive is able to play a few tricks thanks to the onboard computer. Currently, the Challenger is waiting for its turn in the roundhouse, where it will require a bit of repair work. The engine sat unused and if the battery is left inside of it, it leads to a condition that requires a special re-set. I believe this can be fixed by purchasing a MTH ProtoSounds reset kit, but that is to be determined. Hopefully I can get it up and running quickly, so that visitors can experience the sound and light show it provides on track. On the train layout of the future, the Challenger will be one of the premiere long-distance passenger trains, taking vacationers to all corners of the layout. Keep your rails shiny ~

Two new additions to the rolling stock fleet: A semi-scale Lionel C&NW Reefer, and a scale K-Line Pure Oil Tank car

I'm packing up a few more trains for the trip to Montana

A rear-view of my C&NW hudson locomotive (on the outer-most track)

A real C&NW hudson

A painting of a C&NW hudson by Mark Karvon

Twenty Percent

Being rather busy with other events this week, I've been unable to work in the Train Room. However, I've now scraped 20% of the tiles in the main part of the room, so if I can put a few more hours in then I should be just about ready for painting...

I was able to get away and do a brief bit of railroad archeology this week - does anyone know where this picture was taken?

A forgotten turntable

Bonus Coat

My lovely and generous wife volunteered to paint one more additional coat of white on the Train Room walls! The third picture below shows the results of the nice, even paint job she provided - thank you Amber!
This week I gave the bottoms of the walls a nice blue racing stripe - seems like the room is going faster now, doesn't it? I also started the process of scraping the black tar-like glue from the concrete floor. I purchased a few tools from Harbor Freight to help assist with the effort, but it will still take quite a while. Thank you to Bill for letting me borrow the shop vac! Thus far, I've managed to about a quarter of the floor, which requires scraping every inch of material. Some of it comes up easily, but most of it doesn't. This will push back the project a bit, but it is a necessary step. It is dirty work, but it is worth it!
Some good news is that the floor passed the first "moisture test". Before painting a concrete floor, a thin piece of transparent plastic (a Ziploc bag will do) is taped to the floor. After about 18 hours, the bag is removed and checked for moisture on the bottom and top surfaces. If moisture is present, then there are problems that have to be resolved before painting the floor. My test results were completely dry. I will do the test once more before the painting begins, but first the surface must be fully prepped.

The third in this series of future passenger train talks is the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee "Electroliner". It is an articulated unit train that was designed to navigate the sharp curves of the Chicago Loop, and also travel at 90mph between Chicago and Milwaukee. One of the two Electroliners was restored and is now available for viewing at the Illinois Railway Museum. I was fortunate enough to be able to ride on it a few times at the museum before it was taken out of service for repairs. Hopefully it will be operational one day again. My Electroliner is a brass model built by Third Rail (a division of Sunset Models). I ran it a few times before it developed some electrical problems. So, this one will require some time on the work bench before I can put it back into service (kind of like the real one I suppose.) Once it has a clean bill of health, it will operate on the current semi-scale layout, and later on the train layout of the future, it will handle interurban routes between Silver Falls and Red Stone, and between downtown and the industrial district. The "Electroliner" is the only brass unit in the fleet at the moment.

New racing stripe

View of the room looking south from the window

Third coat of white paint, and the scraping has begun on the floor

Floor view

The Electroliner in service in Chicago

Amber, Mark, and the Electroliner at IRM in May of 2013

White Walls

During the past week, I cut in the room twice with white paint, and rolled it twice as well. Of course, it was later on in the process that I found that the two cans of paint I got were slightly different tints of white! That plus my relatively poor wall painting skills presented a less than perfect result. But, since I plan to cover most of the walls with various railroad art and memorabilia, I'm ok with it! At least it isn't neon green and blue anymore! Last night, I pulled most of the items out of the room to prepare for the next project, which is prepping the floor for painting. We purchased some floor paint and concrete etcher last weekend. I have to completely remove all of the black "stuff" from the floor that you see in the pictures below before I can apply the etcher. So that is what I'll hopefully be up to this weekend...

The second in this series of future passenger train talks is the "Bozeman Zephyr". This is a Chicago, Burlington and Quincy train from my own imagination, which runs from Chicago, IL to Bozeman, MT. It travels across Illinois to Burlington, IA, and then heads along the southern border of Iowa to Lincoln, NE. Then it sets course diagonally across the state for Alliance, NE, and then barely clips South Dakota on its way to Sheridan, WY. Finally, it stops in Billings, MT and heads over Bozeman Pass to its namesake city. It consists of 5 silver streamlined cars, and is pulled by matching E8 diesel locomotives. All components of this set have been purchased, so all we have to do is wait until they are all in Billings and we have an operational layout for them to ride on. The locomotives were a limited edition run available only through "K-Line Superstores" at various spots around the country. I purchased them through Chicagoland Hobby. The passenger cars were a relatively inexpensive Williams Electric Trains purchase through an online retailer. Despite this, the whole train is O-Scale and thus will run on the train layout of the future, taking passengers between Silver Falls, Red Stone, Cedar Valley, and Juniper Peak. Special runs may see it head further into the wilderness near Iron Horse National Park.

The room is now white!

A better view of the floor and the projects to come...

Bozeman, MT

These are my CB&Q E8's, which will pilot the Bozeman Zephyr.

This is a real CB&Q E8, leading the Denver Zephyr into Chicago. This neat picture was taken by Bob Krone and was retrieved from RailPictures.Net