Mark's MT Railroads: Catch Up

Howdy - this post will give some brief details about my railroading exploits over the past year, when this blog was on hiatus. And of course, there are spiffy pics at the bottom!

July 2014
-Took some photos of individual trains while changing out the roster.
-Trains on track included the CNW Doodlebugs, Lionel Lines Columbia-class 2-4-2 Postwar steamer "trying" to pull the Rock Island Denver Rocket, Rock Island Northern 4-8-4 with a reefer freight, and Illinois Central GP9 with a caboose train.
-Repair work on the CNS&M Electroliner. One motor was failing to run, putting a lot of pressure on the second motor. I deemed that either the motor was bad, or that I did not have the tools/skills to repair. I send the Electroliner to Illinois to await repair in Michigan.
-On a hot day I photographed track repair equipment at work near the Billings Depot.
-I won my first game of Ticket to Ride.
-Set up the new roster: Track 1 - CBQ GP7 and small freight, Track 2 - CNW F7 and freight, Track 3 - Trackside Construction set headed by MP-15, Track 4 - Frisco Mikado 2-8-2 and freight

August 2014
-Saw a wacky-looking ballast recycling machine near the Depot.
-Also at the Depot, a special MRL train pulling a mix of modern and heavyweight passenger cars was parked for a day.
-Repaired Postwar #2034 to working order

September 2014
-My bride gave me a beautiful piece of artwork - a hand painted historic map of the Montana Railroad
-A string of nine BNSF locomotives came through Billings
-My folks were in town and visited the train layout
-While traveling, saw two enormous new MRL EMD SD70ACe locomotives followed by two little SW switcher locomotives in an EB train

October 2014
-Set up a model logging train at work as part of a "north woods" Halloween theme

November 2014
-Set up the new roster: Track 1 - LL 2-4-2 and small freight, Track 2 NP 0-6-0 and logging train, Track 3 - CNW GP7 #1518 and reefer freight, Track 4 - complete Vista Dome North Coast Limited passenger train (chasing its own tail)
-Decided to sell the K-Line Milwaukee Road GP7, as it is not a scale locomotive

December 2014
-Set up Christmas tree on the layout, with train ornaments
-Set up permanent Christmas lights under the layout for storage illumination
-Hosted family on Christmas day in the train room
-Set up CNW 0-8-0 freight around Christmas tree in the library room
-Prepared train tickets for visitors to the train room, and stamped them upon admission

No activity for a few months

April 2015
-Set up the new roster: Track 1 - green Brill trolley, Track 2 - CNW 0-8-0 and ore car train, Track 3 - GN 2-8-2 and mixed freight, Track 4 - CNW F7's and bi-level passenger train with the UP American View.
-Took various photos of the roster

May 2015
-Got to see a Lionel Smithsonian-edition NYC 20th Century Limited set at an auction in Lewistown. Only 500 of these were produced.
-At the auction, bought: ZW transformer, mint BA&P freight tag, numerous railroad paperwork items (majority from 1893), several railroad maps, framed painting of an NYC steam train, a heavy box of railroad spikes, and a large 1961 Burlington wall map of its western US tracks

June 2015
-Set up the new roster: Track 1 - CNW Doodlebugs, Track 2 - IC GP9 and caboose train, Track 3 - RI GP9 and CNW GP7 #1518 with the CNW Minnesota and Black Hills Express heavyweight passenger train, Track 4 - CNW 4-6-2 with a hopper car train
-Put all of the trains away in preparation for the remainder of railroad items to arrive from IL
-At the end of June, we set out for Illinois, and the rest you know! Now we're caught up, and keeping those rails shiny ~