If you have not seen this video it is a must see. Blair Kooistra presented it at Winterail last week and it was the final presentation at the end of the evening. I don't know that anyone would have been able to follow his presentation with their own as this video brought down the house and brought tears to many if not all of those that attended. I can think of no other RR video that has elected such strong emotions. This is what railroading was like in the PNW in the 70's and this is what draws me to model the region, especially the Milwaukee Road.
Milwaukee Road PNW Tribute
Blair Kooistra had an story in the June 1979 issue of Trains Magazine called, "Two More Mountains to Cross" which essentially introduced the Milwaukee Road to me although I had seen the railroad once or twice in 1973 on a family vacation out to Seattle. Short glimpses of an amazing railroad that made me wish I had been born 10 years earlier in order to experience it at an appreciative age. Not having a driver's license or car impeded my ability to rail fan around central Iowa and only after the Rock Island shut down and the Milwaukee Road cut it's system down did I have the opportunities to drive and look for trains, it was too late.
Blair had several stories in Trains but "Two More Mountains to Cross" was the genesis of my love for the Milwaukee Road. His stories are incredible and leave you with a lump in your throat. CTC Board magazine fueled my love as well as the masterful and breathtaking book, "The Milwaukee Road" by Fred Hyde. Fred was another person that influenced me in my early years as a rail fan and model railroader. The internet has given many of us the opportunities to meet and have discussions with our heroes, mentors, and make new friends. I have been able to have invaluable conversations with both Blair and Fred which have continued to fuel my desire to model the Milwaukee Road in some form or fashion....thus my choice of modeling Lynden, WA.
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Well,
I am back from the Chicago area after attending the March Meet O Scale show. Tons of items for sale and a large crowd. There were a couple of people I wanted to meet but every time I stopped by their table they were well engaged in conversations with potential buyers and well time was limited. So I will be purchasing products from them online.
I did get to meet old friends and some new friends that I hope to see again next year. For the 2nd year in a row I was able to participate in an operating session at the Fox Valley O Scalers layout. Was able to operate the meat train from Calmar all the way to Dubuque so that was fun. If you are interested in learning more about the Fox Valley O Scalers check out their website. http://railsunlimited.ribbonrail.com/FoxValley/index.html.
I attended two meeting on Friday night and the growth of the hobby was the primary discussion in one and was part of the 2nd meeting. The O Scale Kings meeting had the growth as the main point of discussion. People have been saying for 30-40 years that O Scale is dying and yet here we still are.. I will agree that the majority of the people attending the March Meet are in their 60's, 70's, and 80's. Some of the younger people in their 40's and 50's such as myself have moved into O Scale as our eyes are not as good as they were 20 years ago and we do not have the manual dexterity to put N scale and HO scale cars together. A big point that was brought up was that most of the product produced is for steam era and many of the younger people have no inkling of what the steam era was like. There are modern engines and cars being produced but that most of the manufacturers and parts suppliers focus on steam era.
We need more modern equipment but it also has to become more affordable... with that said there was a gentleman who is planning on producing resin kits of four different types of the FMC 50'6" boxcar. Thing is he needs to know that he can sell a specific number of cars before he can go through with production. If you are interested check out his website....still new...just a couple of weeks old so he has not finished updating it as he was trying to get his sample cars done for the show. go to ModernEraOScale.com. I put my name down for four so we will see what happens.
The other meeting was the Proto:48 meeting and it got a bit contentious. There is an attitude in the industry where people feel that someone should produce a certain model for example and get a bit bent out of shape when told no. Argument was that is fine if someone does not want to put the effort in to something that may not sell.....tell us that....don't say there is no market for said items....especially when you are sold out of modern era items... With that said, the growth of the P48 group is also dependent upon new people getting in to modeling or convincing those individuals that are detail oriented in HO to move up....
So, I only bought one item and it was an American Standard gondola kit for RailGon. Add that to my three American Standard air hopper kits I do have some modeling work to do. It really helps to finally nail down what I want to model so that I am much pickier on what I am buying at a show like the March Meet. There were quite a few things I saw that I thought, oh cool!, that would be fun to have but then it does not fit for what I am modeling. I really need to find a OTTX 60' flat car or something that is very close that can be made into an OTTX version. That and four bay cylindrical covered hoppers in the CP pacman scheme.
I am back from the Chicago area after attending the March Meet O Scale show. Tons of items for sale and a large crowd. There were a couple of people I wanted to meet but every time I stopped by their table they were well engaged in conversations with potential buyers and well time was limited. So I will be purchasing products from them online.
I did get to meet old friends and some new friends that I hope to see again next year. For the 2nd year in a row I was able to participate in an operating session at the Fox Valley O Scalers layout. Was able to operate the meat train from Calmar all the way to Dubuque so that was fun. If you are interested in learning more about the Fox Valley O Scalers check out their website. http://railsunlimited.ribbonrail.com/FoxValley/index.html.
I attended two meeting on Friday night and the growth of the hobby was the primary discussion in one and was part of the 2nd meeting. The O Scale Kings meeting had the growth as the main point of discussion. People have been saying for 30-40 years that O Scale is dying and yet here we still are.. I will agree that the majority of the people attending the March Meet are in their 60's, 70's, and 80's. Some of the younger people in their 40's and 50's such as myself have moved into O Scale as our eyes are not as good as they were 20 years ago and we do not have the manual dexterity to put N scale and HO scale cars together. A big point that was brought up was that most of the product produced is for steam era and many of the younger people have no inkling of what the steam era was like. There are modern engines and cars being produced but that most of the manufacturers and parts suppliers focus on steam era.
We need more modern equipment but it also has to become more affordable... with that said there was a gentleman who is planning on producing resin kits of four different types of the FMC 50'6" boxcar. Thing is he needs to know that he can sell a specific number of cars before he can go through with production. If you are interested check out his website....still new...just a couple of weeks old so he has not finished updating it as he was trying to get his sample cars done for the show. go to ModernEraOScale.com. I put my name down for four so we will see what happens.
The other meeting was the Proto:48 meeting and it got a bit contentious. There is an attitude in the industry where people feel that someone should produce a certain model for example and get a bit bent out of shape when told no. Argument was that is fine if someone does not want to put the effort in to something that may not sell.....tell us that....don't say there is no market for said items....especially when you are sold out of modern era items... With that said, the growth of the P48 group is also dependent upon new people getting in to modeling or convincing those individuals that are detail oriented in HO to move up....
So, I only bought one item and it was an American Standard gondola kit for RailGon. Add that to my three American Standard air hopper kits I do have some modeling work to do. It really helps to finally nail down what I want to model so that I am much pickier on what I am buying at a show like the March Meet. There were quite a few things I saw that I thought, oh cool!, that would be fun to have but then it does not fit for what I am modeling. I really need to find a OTTX 60' flat car or something that is very close that can be made into an OTTX version. That and four bay cylindrical covered hoppers in the CP pacman scheme.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
This #$^# Just Got REAL!
Well, I took the first step to building the layout of Lynden, WA. I ordered 200 feet of Code 125 steel rail and 1500 sugar pine ties from Right-O'-Way and those showed up a couple of days ago. Really appreciate Jay Criswell's great customer service and looking forward to meeting him in person at the March Meet this upcoming weekend. Plan on picking up supplies while at the March Meet...such as spikes, tie plates, and other various items. I will also be looking for several cars but I have more research to do on them...flat cars that brought in IH, Case, and John Deere farm implements; tank cars going to several fuel depots; and three bay cylindrical covered hoppers.
I am debating on building my own turnouts but will talk to Jay and others at the meet as well as watch some of the youtube video links that Jay sent to me. Based on what I see I need three left and four right hand turnouts so a total of seven.....15 less than I would have needed for Kingsbury Avenue and well $1500 less if I purchased finished turnouts.....
The 2nd step I took was attempting to sell some of the equipment that I have....such as the Lionel 86 ft box cars and the Atlas 60' auto box cars. Reading through the inbound and outbound traffic reports I see no mention of any of these cars in 1978 and 1979 going to or from Lynden. Have not looked at the 1976 reports yet. If you are interested in the reports you can find them on Cascade Rail Foundations Milwaukee Road Archives......http://research.milwelectric.org/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/SitePages/Traffic.aspx. If you have personal knowledge of such cars showing up in Lynden let me know.
If you are interested in purchasing any of the four Lionel 86' box cars (3 MilwRd, 1 RI) or one of the EL or MilwRd 60' auto box cars let me know. Some modifications have been made such as the Lionel trucks having NWSL 33' /145 wheel sets installed and both being weathered. Kadee #805 couplers are included in several of the cars. I can provide more details if interested. The two 60' undecorated auto box cars are spoken for so it has begun.
Hopefully in the next month I can get all of the inbound and outbound traffic reports for Lynden into an excel spreadsheet and then run some pivot tables and such to get an idea of how many cars per week inbound with freight and outbound with freight as well as the time of the year. Most of the cars I have on hand fit Lynden and some others no so much but with a team track it is plausible for 2 bay covered hoppers as well as 40' and 50' airside hoppers to show up......any feedback on this type of freight showing up in Lynden would be appreciated.
Heading to Chicago early on Friday so I can get to Ted Schnepf place to take part in an operating session on Friday afternoon. I will be attending the P48 meeting Friday night so that should be fun. Saturday it is all about walking around March Meet and looking for stuff that I need....nailing down the prototype for modeling really cuts down on buying cars that would never show up even though I think the cars are neat to have.
I am debating on building my own turnouts but will talk to Jay and others at the meet as well as watch some of the youtube video links that Jay sent to me. Based on what I see I need three left and four right hand turnouts so a total of seven.....15 less than I would have needed for Kingsbury Avenue and well $1500 less if I purchased finished turnouts.....
The 2nd step I took was attempting to sell some of the equipment that I have....such as the Lionel 86 ft box cars and the Atlas 60' auto box cars. Reading through the inbound and outbound traffic reports I see no mention of any of these cars in 1978 and 1979 going to or from Lynden. Have not looked at the 1976 reports yet. If you are interested in the reports you can find them on Cascade Rail Foundations Milwaukee Road Archives......http://research.milwelectric.org/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/SitePages/Traffic.aspx. If you have personal knowledge of such cars showing up in Lynden let me know.
If you are interested in purchasing any of the four Lionel 86' box cars (3 MilwRd, 1 RI) or one of the EL or MilwRd 60' auto box cars let me know. Some modifications have been made such as the Lionel trucks having NWSL 33' /145 wheel sets installed and both being weathered. Kadee #805 couplers are included in several of the cars. I can provide more details if interested. The two 60' undecorated auto box cars are spoken for so it has begun.
Hopefully in the next month I can get all of the inbound and outbound traffic reports for Lynden into an excel spreadsheet and then run some pivot tables and such to get an idea of how many cars per week inbound with freight and outbound with freight as well as the time of the year. Most of the cars I have on hand fit Lynden and some others no so much but with a team track it is plausible for 2 bay covered hoppers as well as 40' and 50' airside hoppers to show up......any feedback on this type of freight showing up in Lynden would be appreciated.
Heading to Chicago early on Friday so I can get to Ted Schnepf place to take part in an operating session on Friday afternoon. I will be attending the P48 meeting Friday night so that should be fun. Saturday it is all about walking around March Meet and looking for stuff that I need....nailing down the prototype for modeling really cuts down on buying cars that would never show up even though I think the cars are neat to have.
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