An Intense Day of Ferroequinology!

Happy First Day Of Autumn to all ~ this past Sunday I crammed a lot of train fun into a few hours. 

I headed out at 5:30AM traveling west. I met with friend and fellow modeler Darren in Butte, MT, and had a great conversation regarding the world of trains. After some breakfast, I headed northwest and viewed a static outdoor railroad equipment display in Deer Lodge, MT. The equipment has been cosmetically restored, and consists of all Milwaukee Road equipment: a bay window caboose, an E-9 diesel locomotive, and a Little Joe electric locomotive. The electrified Milwaukee Road line used to travel through Deer Lodge, beginning further east in Harlowton.  

Leaving Deer Lodge, I continued northwest. I attended a train show in Missoula, MT. I sold the 5 pieces of equipment that I brought, and purchased a Lionel PW 6464-125 NYC boxcar from Jim Caras, and a K-Line K742-8025 Kingan's ham/bacon reefer from Bob Peterson. About 60 tables were set up, 5 of which included O gauge trains. There were lots of kids, HO trains, and railroad artifacts. There were also two or three small, functional layouts. 

After the train show I visited the restored Northern Pacific depot in Missoula and photographed NP 4-6-0 steam locomotive #1356 on static display. Then I viewed the "City of Spokane" passenger train parked in the Missoula MRL yard. The train was made up of 18 or so historic, road-worthy passenger cars from throughout the country, generally traveling from Denver to Spokane. I've seen several of these cars parked in Billings at various times, but it was neat to see them all together. 

On my return trip I photographed the ruins of a Milwaukee Road electrical substation along I-90 east of Missoula. Then I explored the abandoned BNSF tracks in Homestake, MT right along the Continental Divide east of Butte, MT. I found a loose piece of a switch mechanism to add to my railroadania collection. 

All in all a great day of trains and 10 hours of driving in Montana! Keep those rails shiny ~

Deer Lodge MT: Little Joe E70, my Yukon, and E9 36A

Sunlight through the E9's cab

Missoula train show

NP Ten-wheeler 1356 in Missoula

The City of Spokane parked in Missoula

Abandoned Milwaukee Road substation along I-90

Forgotten rails atop the Continental Divide

Unused rails at Homestake at the end of summer

Switch equipment with a loose part

Mid September already

Hello folks,
My plans to start some repair work got side tracked, but that's ok. This weekend I'll be attending a train event, and I'll be taking some trains with me! Next week I'll report on the details. Keep those rails shiny ~

Rolling into Fall

Happy Labor Day week ~

On Monday I ran trains for four guests who were visiting to celebrate my wife's birthday. Apparently there is a lot of anticipation on the street about the Electroliner's first scheduled run next month… I also updated the train inventory and planning spreadsheets, finding some interesting statistics. And, I planned out rosters for a future military train and some PW passenger trains. I'm planning to do some repair work in the coming week, so hopefully I'll have some good news to report next time! Until then, keep your rails shiny ~

Block Party Guests

Last Sunday our neighborhood had a block party and I invited the attendees to see the train room. We had about 5 guests and the trains ran well during the demonstration. Everybody got a stamped ticket and fun was had by all!

Special thanks to my wife and folks for helping to prep and host the event!

Keep those rails shiny ~