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"