Avengers: Endgame - Favorite scene/quote

Ok... here's a non-train-related post, but it's timely. A movie was recently released in theaters called "Avengers: Endgame", and it seems to be doing rather well at the box office. Many people on the planet have listed favorite scenes and quotes from the movie, and I haven't seen my favorite listed yet, so here goes... ***Spoilers Below***














***Spoilers Below***















***Spoilers Below***
















***You've been warned! Spoilers Below***













***Spoilers HERE:***
Right before a climatic battle scene, Stark and Banner are handling a bunch of glowy, colorful gems with infinitely-focused, extreme care, as they place them together on a metally, red glove. Just as they have completed their universally-important task, Rocket comes up behind them and yells "BOOM!"

That is one of my favorite moments from the movie. Regardless of everything he's experienced, Rocket is always Rocket.



***More spoilers below!***













***Here comes another spoiler!***















***Last chance! Spoilers follow****















***Spoilers HERE:***
Avengers: Endgame does not include ANY footage of trains or railroads!



That's all. Come to the National Train Day celebration at the Billings Depot this Saturday, May 4th, from 11AM - 5PM!  https://www.facebook.com/events/1996998737263604/

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 ~

The Gray Wall

Did You Know? Out of the nearly 650 Railroads operating today in the United States, the Brownsville and Rio Grande International Railroad sports the longest name, at 44 letters long.

This past week was devoted to prepping for Easter, and for a monumental project: rebuilding the listing concrete-block retaining wall along our driveway. The wall was originally built incorrectly by a previous owner, and the roots of the apple tree have been pushing it outward for a number of years. Bill, Andrew, Amber, and I tackled the demolition and reconstruction project. Obviously, this took away from time to work on the railroad.

I cleared the train table, and vacuumed up the sawdust from all the hole-drilling last week. KevinG from work got to see the room on Friday while he was helping deliver concrete for the wall project. On Easter the whole gang came down to see the Broadway Limited riding around Track 4, along with Edgar's amazed looks each time it passed by. Bill also managed a win against me in a dual of the Rail Baron board game. 

Happy train time

 Appropriately, the fourteenth in this series of future passenger train topics is the Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited.

Along with its competitor (and future fellow member of Penn Central), the New York Central, the Pennsylvania Railroad ran a flagship passenger train between New York and Chicago. The Pennsy's Broadway Limited began its run in 1912 and continued through 1995. This train was not named after the theatre-lined street in New York, instead it refers to the "broad way" of the Railroad's 4-track main line. It changed its appearance and motive power many times during its 83-year run. It began as an eight-car steam-powered heavyweight set. In 1938, it was upgraded to a streamlined train, pulled by electric GG1 locomotives or various streamlined steamers on various parts of the route.

The PRR had unique engines and cars - they were a railroad of experimentation. Of particular interest, since meeting my wife and experiencing her theatrical dreams, is the Theatre Scenery Car. These 45 baggage cars were designed to carry set pieces from one venue to another, as shows toured throughout the country. Currently, there is one O-Scale version of the "Shakespeare", made by Weaver Models. Other Theatre Scenery Cars included the "Hamlet", "Caesar", "Richelieu", and "Pinafore".

My fictional version of the Broadway Limited is an early MTH 5-car heavyweight set, pulled by the massive Williams GG1 electric engine. The real GG1 received its power from an 11,000-volt overhead catenary system, and this did not stretch all the way to Chicago. The peculiar devices on the top of the engine which collect the power are called "pantographs". But, on my railroad, my custom GG1 can be powered by catenary or a unique internal quantum singularity, which will allow it to travel anywhere on the layout.

My impression of the passengers on the original Broadway Limited is that they were mostly traveling for business or upper-class pleasure in New York or Chicago. Not so much the type that would fancy the dusty streets of Red Stone, or the tent accommodations of Iron Horse National Park, or the company of gruff lumberjacks and miners of Cedar Falls, or the quaint-to-bizarre agro-tourism options of the town of Pinecone, or the north woods hideaway of Fence Lake. I think these folks may take this train to have a relaxing en route lunch or meet with fellow businesspeople in the parlor car before returning to Silver Falls for cocktails and a show. Or, maybe the local theatre troupe will commandeer the train and bring their gear to the Lodge at Iron Horse National Park for a special weekend show, performing for the other passengers as they travel down the line :) 

Keep your rails shiny ~

Theatre Scenery Car "Shakespeare" from http://passcarphotos.info

A GG1 pulling a PRR heavyweight passenger train.
Photo from Bob Coolidge's site at http://www.bcoolidge.com

Underground Wires

Happy Palindrome Week to all ~ 41714 ~

On Saturday, I met with Cal and discussed options for selling the assessed train collection. I provided him with a spreadsheet showing the value of each item, along with notes, and the potentiality of selling said items through various means. For the time I've worked on the project, he very generously gifted me several items I was interested in! He is analyzing the data and will advise if he needs further assistance from me.

Cal owns a company called Billings Bronze, and you can learn more about the business here: www.billingsbronze.com
I had the pleasure of seeing many monuments in various stages of completion during my many visits to complete the train collection assessment. Cal and his team do exemplary, award-winning work. Please consider Billings Bronze for all of your bronze sculpture needs!

These are the new additions to the collection:

• Yellow & Green House - this was an item my wife thought was cute, so I was sure to acquire it for her. It is an old Plasticville house with little monetary value, but it is solid and will last for years to come.
• ZW Transformer 250W - I have been seeking out a ZW transformer for many years. Lionel made two versions of this model, a 250W and 275W edition. This was the most powerful train transformer on the market for several decades, and should be able to operate 4 trains at once. I am looking forward to hooking it up and testing it out!
• Complete Service Manual for Lionel Trains - this is a hardback book that has seen a bit of use. It has a plethora of useful knowledge for servicing and repairing Lionel Postwar trains.
• Personal affects - these include a binder of notes and some photographs from the original owner of these trains. I find it to be historically interesting, and will archive these.
• Several tubes of paint - I'm not really sure if these were used with the train set, but they may still have use for crafting purposes.
• Lube Kit - this is a Lionel maintenance kit (missing grease) made in the 40's and 50's. All of my equipment is due for service, so this will really come in handy.
• Bag of realistic logs - most model trains come with "logs" that are made from dowel rods. These actually look like O-scale logs and will make great scenic details or lumber loads.
• Pike Place Fish Market Truck - this is a really cool vehicle made for the 51st TCA convention. It is a 1950's era truck which has a load of several large, frozen fish in the bed for Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. The logo paint is a bit worn on one side, which decreases the collector's value, but I plan to display this on the train set, not keep it in a box :)
• Misc scale details - the collection contained many details, but most of them were not truly O-Scale. These seem to be the few that would be at home on the layout of the future, and include things like a wheelbarrow, hand truck, pop machine, and table.
• Misc parts, wires, electronics - the collection, which included over 20 operating accessories, had LOTS of wire running about. This pile of wire includes a bag of distribution blocks, which are really handy for sending power throughout the train layout.
• Misc metal, possibly for loads - a bag of real-life scrap metal, which will look great in a gondola car. We are not really sure what it used to be.
• Vertical fuel tank with extra lid - this is a plastic storage tank of some sort. I'm not sure if it is really O-Scale, but it would seem to fit in on the layout.
• 4 metal sheds - these were probably HO structures originally, but will fit in quite well as O-Scale switch, signal or electric boxes.
• 2 double outhouses - for the rural inhabitants of my train layout communities, these will solve many problems...
• Semi-scale playground set - I believe this is a Plasticville set of accessories that has been painted by the previous owner. These are not scale items, but they will bring a child-like cheer to the toy train layout.
• Pile of people - there are about 40-50 people, of various types and scale-accuracies. People really do help bring a layout to life, so the more the merrier!
• Benches - some of these are scale, and will provide a place to take a break for the citizens of the layout.
• Box of evergreen trees - some of these were purchased, and some appear home-made. Regardless, they can all be used to add some greenery to the layouts.

Amber's house

This is a REALLY HANDY book

Some spiffy metal sheds

New citizens of the layout

Over the weekend I screwed all of the track to the table and drilled access holes for track power wires.

Screws

Wire holes

On Tuesday I labeled each access hole with the track number under the table. Then I drilled horizontal holes through the under-table supports to hold the wire for each track. I labeled these by track number as well. I routed 10-gauge wire through all the holes - two continuous wires for each loop. On Wednesday, I installed hooks under the table for wire management, and successfully tested all four outputs on the ZW. Wow it feels good to use one of these! Smooth acceleration and lots of power to boot.

Keeping track of tracks under the table

Wire management, with Red and Harold

Keep your rails shiny!

Emptied and Refilled

Hello all - during this rather snowy week, I managed to clear the Train Room, and vacuumed and mopped the floor. Unfortunately my mop had TSP residue on it left over from the major floor project a few months back, so the floor will require additional scrubbing (with different equipment). Regardless, between battles with the snow, I measured, cut, and moved all of the pieces for a home-made shelving unit into the Train Room for prep work. This shelving will be stained and then assembled in the Craft Room upstairs, which is undergoing its own refit (my wife had to deal with similar blue-colored walls in that room too). Continuing on the hallway project, I cut more discs of silver poplar wood for a decoration. Today I purchased some paint at the Restore, which will be used on the train table tops. While walking to the store on my lunch-break, I snapped the above snowy Santa Fe photo.

Also this week, I received and displayed a Railroad Crossing sign my bride got me for my birthday. It is a non-traditional crossing sign, but it provides a great picture of the type of iron horses that will be frequently roaming about the Train Room! :) It now graces the door to the room.

This coming weekend looks like it will involve a lot more snow, and hopefully some railroading progress too! Until next time, keep your rails shiny ~

Cleared out and mopped clean

Filled with the next projects

Stop, look, listen

Cabin Complete

Welcome back to another MarksMTRR blog entry ~

This week my valentine and I went for a brief trip down to Cody and Worland, WY. We enjoyed staying and dining at the historic Irma Hotel, and listened to the country band play late into the night. They finished up with the classic "Ghost Riders in the Sky", ending a uniquely western-themed evening. The following day we viewed the Artrain exhibit "Infinite Mirror" in Worland, WY at the Washakie Museum. The exhibit travels around the country in specially designed train cars, which brings art to the people, rather than people having to come to it. It is a really neat concept, and we enjoyed the exhibit together. After viewing the art at the museum, we tried in vain to find the train cars that transported the art. 

But, that's ok! While having lunch in downtown Billings, I snapped a shot of a train headed (and tailed) by some CitiRail ES44AC's. I've never seen these engines around here, so it was a treat - they are biiiig locomotives.

Also, while out and about for our weekend getaway, we drove past the Montana Limestone Company locomotives, just north of the Wyoming border on route 310. Just some out-of-the-ordinary trains to share with y'all...

On the Train Room quest, great progress was made in the hallway this week, as pictured above. The "cabin" is complete! There are still a few things to work on overtime, but the project is done. It actually turned out pretty neat looking. Stick several pieces of 100-year old boxcar wood on the wall in relatively straight lines, and you'll have a spiffy-looking room :)

The Gray's were in town and got to take a peek at the progress this past week. 

Now that the hall is done, the Train Room can once again be emptied, cleaned, and prepped for the next step, which I'm very happy to say is the train layout framework! 

Until next time, keep your rails shiny ~ 

The Irma's historic cherry-wood bar, dressed up for Valentine's Day

 

CitiRail visitors passing through Billings

MLC locomotives just north of the WY border

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

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.

A Different Kind of Reefer...

This week produced major changes in the Train Room. I removed the remaining floor trim, for use elsewhere in our dwelling. I also removed all of the carpet and carpet pad. I scraped the bear floor, using a bladed tool that Bill Gamsby lent me. This involved moving things multiple times, including the contents of the closets, which are to the left and right of the entryway. Several more loads of non-train items were moved to new homes in other rooms. I finished up by doing the initial taping for the upcoming painting project.

An unexpected find behind one of the baseboard trim pieces was reefer, but not the refridgerated boxcar type. This "stuff" was left by the previous occupant, and I'm not planning to incorporate it into the refreshed decor of the room...

Half of the carpet gone, getting ready to scrape under the pad

Bare floor seeing daylight

Shuffled furniture, no more carpet

Non-railroad reefer!