Rochester Yard on the Mud Bay & Southern

Recently I was up in Olympia to operate on one of my favorite layouts, Jim Younkins' Mud Bay & Southern. The morning session found me in Rochester yard and the afternoon in Mud Bay. I got so busy running the yard that I didn't get much time to railfan. here is a brief 4 minute video from the session in Rochester. Incredible detailed scenery.

Chama Yard on the Cumbres & Toltec RR

Visiting Cumbres & Toltec RR here in Chama, New Mexico

We will ride the tourist train tomorrow up to and back from Osier. Today, however, I went down to yard this afternoon after the tourists all departed from their ride during the day, when the real action begins as the road crew switches out tomorrow's consist, then the yard hostelers clean and ready the engine for tomorrow's duty. did you see this? watched them switch out, wash the coal, dump ashes, wow.. walked all over.

If there is such a thing as "railroad heaven". Doesn't get much better than this. Like it was back in early 50's when my father was a railroader, and in some ways like it was when my grandfather worked for old OWR&N railroad 100 yrs ago as an engine hosteler in Starbuck, Washington. I could smell the coal cinders and remembered them from my childhood days in summer out with my father.

I spent 3 hours until sundown in the cold wind freezing to get the latest photos and video. And to top it off, Sraddha made fresh minestrone soup when I got back to trailer. (last photo in album).

local internet isn't letting me upload video. may have to wait until home for that

And, no, I won't be switching to Narrow guage modeling...too much work but really neat.

And, no, I won't be switching to Narrow guage modeling...too much work but really neat.
Photos here.

Galloping Goose and Dolores, Colorado

first, we are staying at Dolores, CO, RV park. found it in AAA camping book. this is about 30 minutes north of Mesa Verde where spouse really really wanted to visit.

As we are driving into town I see a sign at a station on the left that says "Denver & Rio Grande Southern". Yes, I have heard of it. in fact know that there are a lot of narrow-minded, er...narrow guage guys who model this. Hmm. museum...hmm. so today, after 1.5 days of looking at cliff dwellings, I finally get to stop and take a look.. WOW. see attached photo. Didn't realize Dolores essentially midpoint of DRGS between Ridgeway (never heard of until today) and Durango (where I am headed on Saturday to ride a train). not only that, but it is home to the Galloping Goose #5 and I have that model at home. however, sigh, the Goose is over running in Chama this weekend and coming back here on Monday. Wait. we are going ot Chama on Monday...darn..
anyway, still a find. amazing what you find when you are not looking. (or don't find).

well, onto other trains.

My Life as a Hobo

from a post on PCR by Bob Booth
Blog here
Pete, the author, was my best friend in High School, both of us avid HO modelers, and shared things like stealing switch lanterns from the SN RR and walking on the old NCNG Bear River trestle after hitching a ride up to Colfax.
Pete has put togeather a nostalgic recollection of riding the rails in the waining days of steam - Any of you that can getg thru it without wet eyes is NOT a railroad buff.

Riding the Skunk Train

Got to ride the Skunk train last week. IN THE CAB! Listen!

Mud Bay & Southern expands its 44 toner fleet

My friend Jim is at it again. hard to keep up with his creativity. Below are some photos of the Bachman GE 44 ton switcher as customized for his layout using MTL 905 Z scale couplers.


Here is what he said in his email to me:
" As you've seen, I finally finished the last of my three 44 tonners. Now all three are decaled and ready for service in their respective places. I'm going to use the MB&S unit for the Bordeaux Local. The Local usually only has five or six cars at the most. I made Cascade Paper Co. decals for the yellow 44 tonner. It's going to be the paper mill switcher eventually. The other red one I put the Simpson lettering on and will use it at the McCleary door plant."

Special delivery

While in Portland I discovered that the Central Brewing Company of Vanvouver, BC, had built a facility to brew a really good beer called “Steelhead Stout”. So I ordered a car load to be sent to the CEO of Younkins Paper Company.


WARNING. the CEO's keys to his Mini have been confiscated.



Please view the slide show of the deed

Railfanning the North Bank Road

While in Portland I had the chance to railfan the North Bank Road SP&S layout and Tennessee Pass (DRG&W) layout.

Photos here

Shasta Route OP session

Yesterday I had the privilege of operating on the HO scale Shasta Route. Set in 1952, it runs from Redding in Northern California up through Dunsmuir yard (photo on right). to Klamath Falls. CTC from Redding to Black Butte then runs Time Table and Train Orders (TT&TO) from Black Butte to Klamath Falls. about 15 crew members spent most of Saturday operating. I ran helper engines up and down the mainline. mostly big Cab Forward steam engines.
Here are more photos.

Just posted video of helpers on Shasta Route:

UP 844 in Feather River Canyon

Rainy day..lowsy for fans, great for steam plume. Clio trestle shot is good. So many rabid fans all over the place. hard to get good locations and keep up with it. still it was worth the chase.

UP 844 over Donner

railfanned this on Friday April 17, 2009
From Truckee to Roseville.


IF you want to look at
High Def here

UP 844 over Donner on Friday

We will be up there photographing. stay tuned
About 844
Twitter feed for UP 844 http://twitter.com/UP_Steam
Position updates to you phone!
There's also a web position map.
Also I will twitter

No More Cable Mess

Why didn't I think of this?


How To Make A CHARGER BOX Very Easy - No More Cable Mess! - video powered by Metacafe

New signs at Portland Union Station

Thanks to Dave Haehn for laser cutting these signs for clock tower on Portland Union Station:

Express Freight on OWNRy

2 minute video with 3 scenes on my N scale home layout, the Oregon, Washington, Navigation & Railway or OWNRy. Bluffs represent Eastern Oregon areas, Portland city scene and passing Portland Union Station. Do you notice the one little signal glitch and the new Union Station Signs?

M10000 Enters Portland

Debut of Union Pacific M10000.
1 minute, ambient sound. Notice new Union Station Clock Tower signs.



Also HD version video here

Original 1996 OWNRy video

Thanks to Al Lowe up in Seattle who took this old Video back in 1996, we have an archive of my original layout in Kirkland, WA/ Actually not original which was on a 5x9 plywood but that is a different story. This video was taken during a local NMRA layout tour. Mark Bridgwater can be heard on the video discussing theautomated layout during video. THe train control I used was Jocotek which ran on Win 3.1 (they never upgraded to Win 95 which is why I abandoned it for DCC when I moved. The Jocotek system used analog cab block forwarding and routing to set up automated train control so I could program a route the train over a particular route. it would run around, turnouts would turn. it would stop and start. In the video I was running 3 or 4 trains at the same time, all automated. Wouldn't that be neat today on the layout? Actually pretty neat and you can see the bluff scenery is similar to current Pasco side of layout representing Eastern WA. first scene opens with a little branch line scene unfinished. you will see some buildings that currently reside on layout. I gave many away to UNW buddies before I left.
The large yard represented Pasco, my main yard. The bridge is Joso bridge and it was given to Mark Bridgwater who incorporated it in a scene on his Feather River layout. it ran through a tunnel to the family room where I had a reverse loop staging yard. Oh, yes, here is the link

real men ballast their tracks

Spent last week with Jim Younkins here working on layout in between operating sessions elsewhere.

Jim took some photos and posted on Picasa (click here for album)

More work on details and checking out track and turnouts for proper electrical and functioning.

Also here is some shots of "before and After"

remember, "real men ballast their tracks"

Twitter is cool!!

I have a twitter account (kentwilliams) which you can follow if you want. I subscribe mostly to interesting digerati because they sometimes say cool things. Twitter is becoming more mainstream though. I also now subscribe and read Lance Armstrongs twitters, among others.

recently I subscribed to Pete Carroll (USC football coach) and Steve Sarkisian UW coach). Pete noticed and actually sent me a real tweet. I knew I would like this guy even if I am a lifelong Husky. See photo..

FM - H 15-44's

Was railfanning the owNry and saw these UPRR H15-44's today on the southbank of Columbia River. Pulling an MOW train. Amazing considering only 35 units were built for American railroads.

From Wikipedia:

The FM H-15-44 was a road switcher manufactured by Fairbanks-Morse from September, 1947–June, 1950. The locomotive was powered by a 1,500-horsepower (1,100 kW), eight-cylinder opposed piston engine as its prime mover, and was configured in a B-B wheel arrangement mounted atop a pair of two-axle AAR Type-B road trucks with all axles powered. The H-15-44 featured an offset cab design that provided space for an optional steam generator in the short hood, making the model versatile enough to work in passenger service as well as freight duty.

Raymond Loewy heavily influenced the look of the unit, which empasized sloping lines and accented such features as the radiator shutters and headlight mounting. The cab side window assembly incorporated "half moon"-shaped inoperable panes which resulted in an overall oblong shape. The platform (underframe) was shared with F-M's 2,000-horsepower (1,500 kW) end cab road switcher, the FM H-20-44, as was the carbody to some extent. The platform and carbody was also utilized by the H-15-44's successor, the FM H-16-44.

No H-15-44 is thought to exist today in any shape or form.

Truckee station on Timber Creek RR

operated tonight at Gordon Briggs' Timber Creek RR. Proto 48 layout.




here is a shot at Truckee Station. SP freight coming through the yard.

Rebuilding West Portland Depot track

Time to rework Portland Depot tracks. Currently we have a depot siding next to station and then mainline then huge freight yard with industries, engine terminal and coach yard. Need to add a way for Inbound Shasta Daylight to get over to station so passengers can disembark or get on train without crossing mainline. In addition, need to improve ability of yard goat to exchange head end express/baggage cars and rear end pullman/diners on the passenger trains.

I have extended the west depot track switch to Willbridge crossing and added a spur long enough to handle 80 ft passenger car and 4 axle locomotive as you can see in lower right. In addition I am adding a 3-way switch at the freight yard throat capable of routing traffic to main or, through a double slip, over to the depot track. Recently, "Fast Tracks" has produced a jig for both of these turnouts that enable switches to be built with code 55 rail.

More soon.

Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) 10 minutes

Shasta Daylight

HO Version

Snow removal in Columbia Gorge

While you have had a lot of fun the past 2-3 weeks iwht snow up in Pacific NW, we have had our fun here on the OWNRy also. Photos here.

Best wishes for a more prosperous and fun 2009!!