Recent Railfanning Fun (RRR) UPDATE
Recently, i've been railfanning quite a bit...no girlfriend means nothing to "occupy" my time! I've got some good stories and some great pics to share! So, without further ado, let's get on with the show!
Above, we have 4 pictures of some MOW Equipment sitting in Windsor right now. There are more as well, but due to management being at work when i was in town, i couldn't get near enough to the equipment to get any decent shots. Anyway, there we have a Maritime Rail Services Ballast Regulator/shaper, a Maritime Rail Services Torsion Beam, a home-owned WHRC Ballast Shaper/Regulator and another home-owned piece of equipment...a WHRC Electromatic Jr. Switch Tamper...affectionatly refered to by the MOW personell as "Junior". There are 5 or 6 other pieces of equipment on that siding now, but as i said, with management around, i couldn't get near enough without getting yelled at, possiably fined and maybe even arrested...needless to say, i do NOT want that, espically NOT with what else happened today. More on that later.
Anyway, continuing...
Right now, i'm at the Hering Cove Light Railway (HCLR) a 1:8 scale ridable train-track, about 600-feet long, that Ian Taylor set up in his back yard. He built it all, including the locomotive and the articulated riding car in tow. He lives right on the edge of a 300-plus-foot drop at about 85-degrees to the choppy ruthless atlantic ocean.
Ian Taylor himself, at the controls of his locomotive. He owns it, but i am usually the one who operates it at the club we both run at. Funny, eh?
Here is a more overall view of the HCLR, including the 0-6-0 gas switcher, and on the far-right of the picture is a bridge he hand-built. On the left of that bridge (side closest to us) is his lawn...on the other side of the bridge, there is a bit of lawn, and it's a 55-degree drop about 100-feet into a gully which slopes at a simaler angle into the atlantic ocean. When Hurrican Juan visited us last year, the bridge was flipped towards the house and ripped up about 100-feet of track. The track and bridge were undamaged though! All he did was flip it and add some new ballast to the track, and all was fine again. Lost Many a tree though!
Later, after the visit to the HCLR:
While waiting for the autoport switcher to show up, i snapped this pic...i was standing in the sun for about 30 minutes, in sweltering heat...in this pic you can clearly see the heat waves radiating from the tracks and the ground, making the picture blury.
This is one of the trucks leaving the autoport, where cars arrive by boat and rail, and depart by boat, rail and truck. This is an EVT, or enclosed Vehicle Transporter, owned by "thorson's". The truck stopped at the Tim Hortons about 40 feet away, i asked what the truck was carrying, the answer i got was legnthy...in short, about 5 million worth of Hummers, BMWs, Ferrari F50's and a few Mini Coppers!
This is a ship, that came into port earlier in the day. From Germany, it was loaded with new Ferrari's, Lambroghinis and far-away cars like that.
We went from the Autoport to the Main CN Yard in Nova Scotia, CN Rockingham.
A weather beaten CN GP38-2 idles after switching cars for over 2 hours, putting together the next train to leave. More on that shortly.
Here we see that GP38-2 that was switching earlier moved to a new location, and 3 new units, a C44-9W, and 2 SD50F's picking up a cut of cars to add to it's train. Soon, this train will leave for Toronto.
Next, some interesting cars in that train:
Here are some steel bridge girders loaded on decrepit CN wood-deck flatcars. These weight an awful lot, as they have idler flatcars to help spread the weight on the bridges and alos to allow the ends of the beam to turn on corners. Those girders are destined for places west, having been made a mere 15 minutes away in Burnside.
One of those idler flatcars.
CN TOFC Flatcars and Trailers. Interesting cars and trailers, not really because they're still in use, but more because they look odd (the cars) there is alot of what i would call "details" on the bodys...more then you see with the newer stack and well cars. Also, the trailers are 3 fixed axles...something i'm not really used to seeing...more used to seeing 2 fixed axles and an idler or support axle.
Here is something odd that i'd like to try to model...a CN Cummons Generator Container. For the slower amoung us, thats teh lower container...the one that says CN, CUmmons, and generator! lol. If you look at the upper-left corner of the container, you'll see a dark oval shaped thingy (2nd or 3rd rib from left) that is a light, flashing green to tell that the generator is running. I think that would be hard to model, flashing that is...paint it green and it would be close enough. Alot of balck paint and some custom decals and you'd be all set...hmmm, i might jsut try that!
Here, Greg and Brian notch out 10800 HP to get +/- 6500 feet of train up to 50+ MPH! Greg got snacks and pepsi from the Irving, and Brian got a LOT of coffee...4 large coffees and a 6-pack of donuts! That should keep them for a few hours, eh?
This is one of CN's newest...a shop-fresh C44-9W. Literally, it was just out of a tune-up and wash about an hour before this train left! Here is is on a superelevated curve at about 10MPH, leaving with about 6500-feet of train.
A day or 2 later, at home in Windsor:
WHRC is leasing this GMD1u from CN for a while. It was origionally GMD1 #1000, with A1A-A1A trucks, built in '59...but CN rebuilt it 15 years ago ('88 or '89) and put GP trucks on it...B-B.
Thats all the pics i have on railimages as of right now, i'll let you "ohhh and awww" over them, as i upload more to further hurt the 56K people out there!
Also, in the next post there will be a painfull story of today's railfanning.
Enjoy!
Recently, i've been railfanning quite a bit...no girlfriend means nothing to "occupy" my time! I've got some good stories and some great pics to share! So, without further ado, let's get on with the show!
Above, we have 4 pictures of some MOW Equipment sitting in Windsor right now. There are more as well, but due to management being at work when i was in town, i couldn't get near enough to the equipment to get any decent shots. Anyway, there we have a Maritime Rail Services Ballast Regulator/shaper, a Maritime Rail Services Torsion Beam, a home-owned WHRC Ballast Shaper/Regulator and another home-owned piece of equipment...a WHRC Electromatic Jr. Switch Tamper...affectionatly refered to by the MOW personell as "Junior". There are 5 or 6 other pieces of equipment on that siding now, but as i said, with management around, i couldn't get near enough without getting yelled at, possiably fined and maybe even arrested...needless to say, i do NOT want that, espically NOT with what else happened today. More on that later.
Anyway, continuing...
Right now, i'm at the Hering Cove Light Railway (HCLR) a 1:8 scale ridable train-track, about 600-feet long, that Ian Taylor set up in his back yard. He built it all, including the locomotive and the articulated riding car in tow. He lives right on the edge of a 300-plus-foot drop at about 85-degrees to the choppy ruthless atlantic ocean.
Ian Taylor himself, at the controls of his locomotive. He owns it, but i am usually the one who operates it at the club we both run at. Funny, eh?
Here is a more overall view of the HCLR, including the 0-6-0 gas switcher, and on the far-right of the picture is a bridge he hand-built. On the left of that bridge (side closest to us) is his lawn...on the other side of the bridge, there is a bit of lawn, and it's a 55-degree drop about 100-feet into a gully which slopes at a simaler angle into the atlantic ocean. When Hurrican Juan visited us last year, the bridge was flipped towards the house and ripped up about 100-feet of track. The track and bridge were undamaged though! All he did was flip it and add some new ballast to the track, and all was fine again. Lost Many a tree though!
Later, after the visit to the HCLR:
While waiting for the autoport switcher to show up, i snapped this pic...i was standing in the sun for about 30 minutes, in sweltering heat...in this pic you can clearly see the heat waves radiating from the tracks and the ground, making the picture blury.
This is one of the trucks leaving the autoport, where cars arrive by boat and rail, and depart by boat, rail and truck. This is an EVT, or enclosed Vehicle Transporter, owned by "thorson's". The truck stopped at the Tim Hortons about 40 feet away, i asked what the truck was carrying, the answer i got was legnthy...in short, about 5 million worth of Hummers, BMWs, Ferrari F50's and a few Mini Coppers!
This is a ship, that came into port earlier in the day. From Germany, it was loaded with new Ferrari's, Lambroghinis and far-away cars like that.
We went from the Autoport to the Main CN Yard in Nova Scotia, CN Rockingham.
A weather beaten CN GP38-2 idles after switching cars for over 2 hours, putting together the next train to leave. More on that shortly.
Here we see that GP38-2 that was switching earlier moved to a new location, and 3 new units, a C44-9W, and 2 SD50F's picking up a cut of cars to add to it's train. Soon, this train will leave for Toronto.
Next, some interesting cars in that train:
Here are some steel bridge girders loaded on decrepit CN wood-deck flatcars. These weight an awful lot, as they have idler flatcars to help spread the weight on the bridges and alos to allow the ends of the beam to turn on corners. Those girders are destined for places west, having been made a mere 15 minutes away in Burnside.
One of those idler flatcars.
CN TOFC Flatcars and Trailers. Interesting cars and trailers, not really because they're still in use, but more because they look odd (the cars) there is alot of what i would call "details" on the bodys...more then you see with the newer stack and well cars. Also, the trailers are 3 fixed axles...something i'm not really used to seeing...more used to seeing 2 fixed axles and an idler or support axle.
Here is something odd that i'd like to try to model...a CN Cummons Generator Container. For the slower amoung us, thats teh lower container...the one that says CN, CUmmons, and generator! lol. If you look at the upper-left corner of the container, you'll see a dark oval shaped thingy (2nd or 3rd rib from left) that is a light, flashing green to tell that the generator is running. I think that would be hard to model, flashing that is...paint it green and it would be close enough. Alot of balck paint and some custom decals and you'd be all set...hmmm, i might jsut try that!
Here, Greg and Brian notch out 10800 HP to get +/- 6500 feet of train up to 50+ MPH! Greg got snacks and pepsi from the Irving, and Brian got a LOT of coffee...4 large coffees and a 6-pack of donuts! That should keep them for a few hours, eh?
This is one of CN's newest...a shop-fresh C44-9W. Literally, it was just out of a tune-up and wash about an hour before this train left! Here is is on a superelevated curve at about 10MPH, leaving with about 6500-feet of train.
A day or 2 later, at home in Windsor:
WHRC is leasing this GMD1u from CN for a while. It was origionally GMD1 #1000, with A1A-A1A trucks, built in '59...but CN rebuilt it 15 years ago ('88 or '89) and put GP trucks on it...B-B.
Thats all the pics i have on railimages as of right now, i'll let you "ohhh and awww" over them, as i upload more to further hurt the 56K people out there!
Also, in the next post there will be a painfull story of today's railfanning.
Enjoy!