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!!

Christmas Train 2008

We had to take down our Christmas tree today because it had dried out. We put up a little tree with lights around the base. We did leave the Christmas train up. Here is a 2 minute video of that train as it passes through the little village. I added the sound from a sound track.



The train has 12 cars representing the 12 days of Christmas. Hope you enjoy.
You can also view in HD on my MobilemMe gallery (larger download and requires more bandwidth)

Fast Flying Virginian

Passenger Train - Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad ) (FFV)
Filmed this at Andy Schnur's HO scale C&O Layout in bay area
This short video is merely a teaser. If you have good broadband then go to the following link to
View good High Definition version which is longer (10 minute) and more involved.

Originally ran from Washington DC to Cincinnati. We set out Pullman at White Sulphur Springs & change Engines/pickup Diner in Hinton, West Virginia. Sound is in tender using Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders. (We know the bell is a bit loud).

John Provitz' N Scale layout

one of the most beautiful N scale layouts which lives in South San Francisco area.

From JohnProvitz_SP_BayArea

12 x 23 N Scale with SP & the State Belt RR along San Francisco's waterfront along walls. Central peninsula has NWP with Petaluma, Tiburon, & Healdsburg on one side and Eel River canyon on the other.

From JohnProvitz_SP_BayArea

Market Street has a cable car. The Ferry Building is busy receiving commuters from PCC's. The State Belt runs along Embarcadero & below Telegraph Hill & Coit Tower. 3rd & Townsend station receives the Daylight & Lark plus many commuters during the mid 1950's and early 60's. WP and AT&SF have limited trackage as well.

Link to photo album

Link to Video

WP heritage unit Youtube Test embed code

Test of better way of embedding youtube video I found from wherethehellismatt website.

This is regular youtube embed code:



This is embed with a change of code: