5606s last turn…
Yesterday was the last time, at least for now, that 5606 will run on Beaverbrook. This HMLX GP7r has been resident on the operation here for about 6 months…
Drafted in to cover for a power shortage when ex Bay Colony 1751 was down for repairs she did sterling service until 7106 arrived. The smaller SW1200RM was better suited to the street running along Beaverbrook where loads usually don’t need the extra grunt of a GP. Now that 1751 is back online and there is rumour of an ex IC GP11 in the works, plus the news of a new operation elsewhere in Atlantic Canada the wandering ex Chessie unit can roam a new set of rails.
5606 is Chris’s Bachmann GP7. He posted it to me when ‘the Shove’ came to its natural conclusion. I reworked the weathering and added the patch marks, finished the lighting and enjoyed playing with it here on Beaverbrook. However with his latest ‘short term’ shelf filler progressing (The Margin) I want to see it rolling along his track once more so she is heading back across the Atlantic!
Chris and I enjoy co-creating written material here on our blogs. Model exchanges are a wonderful way to stitch our shared experience together with tangible items that have witnessed our hand. Thank you Chris.
Until next time, more soon…
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This joint operation between yourself and Chris is fascinating to watch James, combine that with the recent US outline shelf layouts and images like these from beaverbrook and I'm so sorely tempted to hunt out a few bargains to practice modelling skills on. There's something in this short line railroading for sure!
ReplyDeleteIt’s a dangerously slippery slope, I’d be happy to send some inspiration your way at some point!
DeleteYes James's
DeleteOnce you really get into shortline railroading there is no real way back. Has all the things we might like to have had in UK railroading but is still current operations. And in H0 the scale track combination is right - no more 00n4 - as is the locomotives and rollingstock. Just needs some re-lettering as James H has done on the Chessie unit if you don't feel like a full repaint.
I also have some inspiration if required
Best regards
Alan
Alan is right, there is definitely a sense of what we might have had in US short line modelling. I’d also take a look at my Prototype Parallels blog post, where I invented the Ballard and Wantage!
DeleteThe prototype parallels and several of the early Beaverbrook posts have been on my cycle of reading in the last week indeed! By all means inspiration is more than welcome, I've recently come across this video, completely crammed with inspiration too: https://youtu.be/M74_GawXxik?si=A0B1LUFutwm7UPyn
DeleteGreat video! You’ll like another James’s project, the Hockley and Western too then! Bowser are proposing the C415 I think, in HO. I’d suggest it’s perhaps a little too niche, and a generic EMD GP9 or SW1200 would be a safe bet - or perhaps an old Alco S4 or RS32 or something… if I only had the space. At the moment the HMLX fleet is largely EMD based, for spares and maintenance knowledge as much as anything.
DeleteYes the common parts bin for a fleet is one thing to consider, my love of the old F units (looking to the Oxford County there) is a spanner in the works for my love of the Alco's of the Battenkill Railroad, another lovely inspiration.
DeleteSuperb selection!
DeleteAlan, sorry I missed your reply earlier! By all means happy to talk inspiration, had a bit of a conversation with James today and got lucky on a few ebay bits, happy to share email details through him too if he doesn't mind!
DeleteHi James and James
DeleteThat is an interesting video but getting a bit long in the tooth and is not really correct that it was the “Last Railroad Logger”. It was a contact clean up operation along the right of way of Weyerhaeuser’s Chehalis Western after Weyco closed out the operation in 1994, recovering timber next to the right of way. One definition of a logging railroad was taking the tracks right up to the felling area so this operation might have be a parallel , however railroads used as an integral part of the logging operation were still around after 1994. The Simpson Timber Company out of Shelton Washington ran log trains until 2014 with three SW1200, a SW900 and an Alco S-4 in reserve. I rode a Simpson train in 1989 and it is an inspiration for my modelling as is the Englewood logging railroad on northern Vancouver Island which ran log trains again with four SW1200 until 2017- I was fortunate to visit that in 2006. There are videos from both operations on the web and I took some video as well
Although the C415 was a rare beast Weyerhaeuser had three in Washington. 684 which features in the video on the Vail operation and two on the Columbia and Cowlitz (CLC) which connected the mill at Longview to the BN/UP at Kelso. The line extended on to forty miles into the woods and that ran until the around 2008/9 but hauled lumber and chips from a mill in the woods as much of the St Helens Tree Farm was destroyed when its namesake mountain blew up in 1980. The woods railroad ran with sets of up to five SW1200/SW1500 and a lone GP7 to haul trains down to the mill. The CLC is still around but only switches the mill and transfer cars to and from the UP/BNSF. Again I saw this in 1989/1999 and 2015. The earlier visits they had two GP7/GP20. The C415s had replaced some ailing Fairbanks Morse switchers they had since the 1940’s and then were replaced by the GP’s. Longview was /maybe is a good place to watch trains and the CLC is another inspiration for my model short line
Best regards
Alan
Thanks for the insight into the video Alan, an interesting operation but every day is a school day and I've spent a very enjoyable evening winding up the internet connection to look up some of the other operations, I've seen James mention the C415 elsewhere but seeing them I'm film now they do have an appeal... although the budget probably shouldn't be pushed much past a GE 44 tonner... shouldn't
Delete