Good bye and Hello

Happy Train Day 2022 to all. It's been a long time, and there have been plenty of long trains that have passed in the meantime. I'll fill in some missing railroad-related adventures in future posts, but the most important events in the past 29 months involved a good bye and a hello.

Just before Labor Day 2020 I got a call from my Uncle Bill Monteleone, a great man and model railroader. He has always been a part of my enjoyment of this hobby and my interest in trains in general. We had a wonderful conversation, about family and trains. When we finally said “good bye”, I had no idea it would be our last good bye. He passed away about two weeks later. Maybe some future posts will relate some of our train tales; until then:

Here's a toast to Uncle William, may his name forever stand

And always be respected by folks throughout the land

For when his mortal race had run and the curtain around him fall

We carried him home to Glory on the Wabash Cannonball

And five months later I said a loving hello to my son Maverick (“Ricky”) Zephyr, who arrived in February 2021. He's exploring everything now, including trains, along with his older brothers Wesley Hudson and Cody Selkirk. So, much of my model railroading quests of late have occurred with Ricky in a baby carrier on my back (Lille Baby – a fantastic product for new moms and dads). Perhaps he is absorbing lots of railroad experience... in addition to locomotive oil, grease, and smoke fluid...

Anyway, in celebration of Train Day the boys and I watched some steam locomotive videos on YouTube, and later Ricky and I repaired a diesel locomotive, and now we have a fully functional roster again. I also did some initial research on replacement diesel truck side frames.

Young Railroaders

I've had a used Canadian Pacific GP9 in storage for some time, but hadn't had the opportunity to run it until now. After initial lubrication, it would run smoothly at first, but then behave strangely – slowing down and speeding up on its own, and eventually slowly coming to a full stop. And regardless of what speed it was running, the rear pickup roller would spark more than any Post War Lionel locomotive I've seen! This is a dual motor model 206, road number 8488 manufactured by Williams. I performed some basic troubleshooting steps before poking around with anything. I overturned the locomotive and placed it on some fabric, then connected leads from a transformer to the rear pickup roller and one wheel. This powered both motors without all the sparking that was present when the unit was on rails. For another test, I put masking tape over the rear pickup roller and applied power with it on the track. This resulted in no power at all to the locomotive, which told me something was amiss with the front pickup roller. I removed the shell, and thankfully this is one of those times when the problem was immediately apparent. An important-looking red wire near the front motor was attached to * nothing *. I could see where it was originally attached to a crimp-style connector, but the front truck had likely been swung too far to the engineer's side at some point, which broke the wire. So, I removed the old crimp-style connection, found a new one, and attached it to the important-looking red wire. After re-affixing everything I ran the shell-less locomotive on some test runs around Track 1 with great success. I reattached the shell, and was able to run the all-CP freight train continuously at a relatively slow speed. So, a bit of time and ingenuity netted me another fully functional Geep on Train Day – not bad!

Seems like that important-looking red wire should be connected to something...

A shell-less test run

Back on track

I have a different used diesel locomotive set that is in need of several replacement truck side frames. The set seems to run perfectly – it just needs a couple cosmetic parts to complete it. This is an MTH Premier FT set, and currently there are no parts for this listed on MTH's (new) parts website, and I have a feeling that even if they were listed, they would be out of stock. So, I've started looking at other potential ways to get decent looking truck side frames for this locomotive set. I have seen various Post War Lionel truck side frames for sale on eBay, and they are plentiful. Perhaps one of these parts would be close in style to the ones I need? I inspected one of my existing truck side frames, and compared it visually to the many Post War styles online. I found that replacement truck side frames for a Lionel 2343 may be built in such a way that one could be augmented for my purposes. I then referenced my big Post War Lionel Repair & Service book, to see what would be involved in removing a side frame from one of my PW locomotives for comparison. While there was lots of good information to be found, none of it was overly helpful for this particular quest. I believe a bit more online searching will give me the answers I need.

Truck Side Frame Research

Okay, lets get to my current fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL roster!

On Track 1 is an all-Canadian Pacific freight headed by the Williams GP9 mentioned earlier, sporting the handsome grey/maroon paint scheme. The freight cars are a Lionel single-dome black “water only” tank car, an MTH grey/maroon boxcar, and an MTH red bay window caboose. This is the first run for all four members of this train.

On Track 2 is an all-Chicago Northwestern freight train, headed by Lionel 4-6-0 “Ten-wheeler” #361. This loco had a guest appearance at church last year – I'll get to that in a future post. The rolling stock on this train features a K-Line yellow/green woodside reefer, an Atlas brown outside-braced boxcar, and MTH green hopper with coal load, an MTH boxcar in boxcar-red sporting the “Challengers” motto, and a sporty yellow/green bay window caboose. This is the first appearance for all of these cars except the reefer and the hopper.

On Track 3 is another Chicago Northwestern-helmed freight, but this time all the freight cars are reefers of various small-to-large companies. Oddly, but by popular request from my boys, it is also headed by a CNW rotary snow plow. This MTH yellow operating plow has seen plenty of action on this layout, but it is always a crowd pleaser and is genuinely fun to run. The locomotive is a Lionel 8056 Fairbanks Morse Train Master, which I've had since high school. Ever the trend setter, I posed with this locomotive in my senior pictures! Anyway, the motors in this loco can growl along with the best of any of its older Post War brethren, and it is strangely refreshing to send this one around the loop surrounded by more technologically advanced steam locomotive models on neighboring tracks. Following the Train Master is a colorful assortment of reefers: K-Line white/blue Rath's Blackhawk Ham, Atlas grey/brown Marty Cheese from Monroe Wisconsin (relatively close to where I grew up in Illinois), MTH yellow/brown Lakeshire Cheese from Plymouth Wisconsin, K-Line McLhaney Creamery from the breezy plains of Texas, Lionel green A&P milk car based in West Bend Wisconsin, K-Line red/yellow Black Hills Packing from Rapid City South Dakota, and the reliable MTH yellow/green CNW center cupola caboose. This is the first run for all of the reefers.

Track 4 is a shay-powered caboose train. You may find a real-life version of this train at the Illinois Railway Museum on steam days throughout the summer season. Powering this tourist train is Lionel Elk River 3-truck shay #12. Shays are fascinating and fun to watch and experience. This Lionel model does a pretty good job of capturing the motions and sound of real shays, and the resulting ultra-slow speed operation is strangely peaceful, despite the cacophony of motion required in the engine's gears to make it happen! The six cabeese in the train comprise some old favorites and some first-time runs. It starts with a K-Line orange woodsided Milwaukee Road rear cupola, followed by an MTH Tuscan N-8 Pennsylvania Railroad cabin car, then a K-Line red woodsided Illinois Central rear cupola, then an MTH blue/white Electro-Motive extended vision, followed by a K-Line silver Chicago Burlington & Quincy offset cupola, and finally an MTH red Great Northern extended vision.

Shays look fascinating 

Until next time, here's another toast to Uncle Bill, and keep your rails shiny

While I was out... and Cody too!

Hello again. The summer flew by, as always. So here’s a summary posting of the ferroequinological goodness I’ve been up to these past three months…

In June, we traveled to Illinois to visit family and trains. We visited the Illinois Railway Museum during their celebration of the Railroad Post Office (RPO). My son Wesley got to experience a real, running steam locomotive for the first time, as we were happy to see that SLSF decapod #1630 was operational that day. We also got to visit the J Neils Lumber Company shay #5 in steam shop, which was “close” to running as a refit continued (the shay should be fully operational for the 2019 season). Plus, we got to see dozens of other locomotives, rolling stock, and “railroad accessories” at the country’s largest train museum! Wesley also got his first ride on a streetcar (CTA “Red Rocket” #3142), and we got to enjoy the day with my Uncle Bill (another long-time ferroequinologist). When I was young, I was blessed to be able to go to IRM frequently, but it’s a bit harder when one lives 1200 miles away…

Speaking of Uncle Bill, we were able to stay with him and Aunt Dee in the Chicago area. And Wesley got the opportunity to see his great O Gauge layout. While visiting my wife’s relatives north of Chicago, we took a trip to the Chicago Botanical Gardens and viewed their substantial outdoor G Scale layout. I had never been there before and was delighted by the dozen trains they were running simultaneously through a landscape of American landmarks. We all had a great time experiencing the mesh of gardening and model railroading!

Back home, and after cleaning up the “wreck of the wreckers”, I switched the layout to an all-Lionel-Post-War-steam roster. The planned roster never actually ran, but here it is anyway:

Track 1: #2034 2-4-2 steam with LL searchlight, NYC gondola, LV hopper and a LL SP-style caboose

Track 2: #2037 2-6-4 steam with 6 6464-series boxcars and a LL bay window caboose

Track 3: #2035 2-6-4 steam with a set of silver O27 streamlined passenger cars

Track 4 #671 6-8-6 steam with remaining O27 Post-War freight cars and a work caboose

Right off the bat, there were a few setbacks. #2037, while a reliable runner, doesn’t have the strength to pull itself and 7 freight cars. Also, #2035 wouldn’t advance more than a couple wheel revolutions. It would reverse for a few inches, but after a bit of cleaning and troubleshooting I couldn’t get it running, so I took it out of service. Then, some tests of the turbine (#671) proved that it was in a rather cantankerous mood. First, the whistle mechanism got stuck in the “on” position. Then, it started giving me intermittent electrical problems, causing trains on other tracks to malfunction, due to their connection through the transformer. And finally, the thing looks and sounds like a fireworks display when operating, with its thunderous grinding sounds and constant under-chassis sparking. So 671 was put out of service too.

The eventual roster that actually went into service, keeping to the “spirit” of all-steam Post-War running, was:

Track 1: #2034 2-4-2 steam with LL searchlight, NYC gondola, LV hopper and a LL SP-style caboose

Track 2: #2037 2-6-4 steam with 3 6464-series boxcars and a LL bay window caboose

Track 3: modern Lionel Illinois Central 2-6-4 steam with a variety of O27 Post-War rolling stock and a work caboose

Track 4 Union Pacific #2023 FA diesel and the other 3 6464-series boxcars and a LL SP-style caboose

This roster ran well for a few months, and then I encountered more steam trouble. Both #2034 and the IC steamer went offline. Diesel 2023 moved to Track 1 and the MTH NP 0-6-0 steamer took over Track 4 (note that the NP still does not output any sounds).

Back in the real world, I got a picture of a freight train at sunset in Big Timber, MT, with the Crazy Mountains in the background.

And, since it’s been so long since the last update, I’ve changed the roster a second time! The current roster, through the end of October 2018, is “Passenger trains”:

Track 1: Trolley

Track 2: CSS Interurbans

Track 3: RI E7A and partial Rocky Mountain Rocket

Track 4 CBQ E8AA and the Bozeman Zephyr

This setup is far less problematic than the previous one. The major issue is that running 18” cars (and really long locomotives) on Track 3 is always a poor idea, as they end up bumping into trains on both Track 2 and Track 4. So, the short Rocky Mountain Rocket only got to run when Track 2 and Track 4 trains were parked in safe places.

Oh yes, we had another baby too. He decided to come a little early. At home. With just my wife and I in attendance. So guess who got to deliver Cody? The ferroequinologist, that’s who. Everybody is healthy and the 4 of us are adjusting to each other, and Cody enjoys watching the trains run J Special addition!

We've kept our tradition of giving our boys middle names that are also steam locomotive classes. Wesley Hudson, and now Cody Selkirk. Selkirk is a Canadian 2-10-4. Why Canadian? Well, my bride and I were married in Canada, and Cody happened to arrive on our anniversary! Plus, "Cody" means "helper", and thus his name can be translated "helper locomotive".

Take care and keep those rails shiny til next time!

Wesley and the 1630

Happy day at IRM

Wesley and Uncle Bill detrain the Red Rocket

Two Hudsons: CBQ 3007 and Wesley

Wesley and Shay #5, both asleep

Wesley and I marvel at Uncle Bill's train layout

At the botanical gardens, a Santa Fe loco meanders between Old Faithful and Old Faithful Inn

The botanical garden layout is impressive; I could easily spend a few hours there!

Back in MT, we have the Post-War consists

Big Timber sunset on Sept 7th, 2018

Night time passenger trains

Myself and my boy, Cody Selkirk

Wesley, Cody and I watching trains downstairs

Cody and his boxcar

So blessed to have these two unique cars in my collection

Getting ready for some MOWing

Hey there, looks like it is about time to start MOWing... no, not grass mowing... stay tuned!

Sort of Spring

In the past week, we had our first visitor in a long while to the train room. My friend and follow model railroader, Darren, from Butte paid a visit. The current roster has been up for about a year, so a roster switch is coming soon!

Meanwhile, Spring will finally come to Montana... maybe?

Wesley Hudson

There hasn't been much activity or blogging on trains lately, as we've been busy with other things!

This is my son, Wesley Hudson Poynter, born 11/23/2016:

Wesley Hudson and CNW Hudson

Snippets of 2016 so far

Hello there, various influential persons have requested an update, so let's hop to it!
I'll expand on some of these topics and events over time, but here's what I've been up to regarding trains this year:

I've run two different train lineups on the train set thus far, an all-Postwar Lionel roster, and an all-steam roster. Speaking of steam, I had Caboose Hobbies repair 3 locomotives that were suffering from computer-related problems.

I sold off the last of the O-27 track and rolling stock that I did not want for future developments, which has freed up some storage space.

The train room has received a few improvements through paint and frames.

I've started collecting Postwar Lionel 6464-series boxcars, and have 4 of 29 so far.

Several new pieces of rolling stock have been added through purchases and gifts.

A very fancy piece of railroadania has been gifted to me.

I was able to visit the Union Pacific Steam Shops in Cheyenne, WY and had a great time!

More later ~ keep your rails shiny!

Postwar Trains

All steam

Cheyenne, WY

4014

3985

Boxes...Again!

The remainder of my train collection has been brought from Illinois to Montana, and is now sitting on and around the layout. Now to find a new home for everything!

It was a big job to disassemble a fully scenic'd train set, and I will show the process in a few blog installments. I was also able to ride on several real trains while in Illinois, so we'll check those out too!

Keep your rails shiny!

Regular Posts Returning Soon!

After taking a year off from regular blog posts, Mark's MT Railroads will soon be active again! Check back in the next few weeks for new content, and keep your rails shiny in the meantime ~