Mike McGrattan Memorial Train - Photo Thread

[BCR 570]

This thread is dedicated to the memory of our friend and fellow Railwire forum member Michael McGrattan, who passed away in 2016.  Mike was a prolific and talented modeller whose work inspired many here on this forum.  The memorial train and accompanying book of condolence is intended to provide members with a way to honour his memory and communicate their thoughts to Mike's family.

Please Note:  This thread is intended for photographs taken during the train's tour of North America, and accompanying narratives.  Please start your posts with the date and location ie.  July 21, 2016 - Vancouver, B.C.  You are welcome to comment on the posted photos, but please direct all logistical type of questions or comments to the Mike McGrattan Memorial Train - Admin Thread.

Thank you, and we hope you enjoy following the train on its tour of Railwire members and N Scale layouts across North America.


The Train

The memorial train comprises four cars:




Baggage Car 2016 was assembled from pre-production parts supplied by Rapido Trains.  This model is not yet available to the public.  We wanted a head-end car and this was a first choice as it would have been one of the last N Scale projects Mike worked on at Rapido.  We  would like to think that the baggage car is an exhibition car, filled with displays of the many contributions Mike made to our hobby:




Coach 1964 is a Geoff Gooderham resin casting and this model was produced specifically at Mike's request.  You might remember his tagline "We can send a man to the moon but we can't make a single window coach . . "  The coach is numbered for the year of Mike's birth and is included in the consist to accommodate the daytime guests aboard the train during its run over your layout:




Sleeping Car GLACE BAY is a stock model donated by Rapido Trains (probably the nicest RTR N Scale passenger car I have ever seen).  This was another project Mike would have been involved in at Rapido, and its inclusion honours Mike's considerable CN modelling.  It provides onboard accommodation for the train's staff:




Official Car MICHAEL MCGRATTAN is a Micro-Trains business car acquired from Lowell Smith.  It is named after Mike in the railway tradition of naming business cars after important railway officials.  It is included in the consist to host receptions for high ranking government officials, visiting foreign dignitaries and royalty, state governors, provincial premiers, RCAF officers, important figures in entertainment, industry, and sport, and so on.:




Tim

[BCR 570]

July 21, 2016 - Vancouver, B.C.

Mike was a big fan of Geoff Gooderham's line of resin kits, which are sold at exclusively at Central Hobbies in Vancouver, B.C.  Central Hobbies is also a distributor for Rapido Trains, where Mike worked as an N Scale consultant and in N Scale product development.  The store has a very nice N Scale layout in the front window, and we thought this would be a suitable place to start the train's tour.  Thank you to Hal Kinsey and Bill Dixon at Central Hobbies for hosting this visit.

The train's tour of North America began down at the local station, where the daily VIA passenger train was relegated to the siding to make way for the special train.  (Oh dear, Jason won't like this!)  For the first leg of its journey, the train was assigned a stock Atlas RS-3 in CP maroon and grey:




At the rear of the train, official car MICHAEL MCGRATTAN carried the markers:




The VIA passengers were getting restless, but an onboard announcement informed passengers of the reason for their delay, and the purpose of this special train passing their windows:




And then the train was off, into the wilderness of British Columbia, which inspired Mike to model the Canadian Pacific and base his Puddington Valley layout in B.C.:




The train continued to climb through the mountains with peaks towering above, forests along the hillsides, and rivers below:




Soon our train will reach the famous CP mainline across the Rocky Mountains - stay tuned!

Tim

[trainforfun]

What a great train consist for a great guy !!!!!!!!

[BCR 570]

July 21 2016 - Vancouver, B.C.

The following pictures were taken on Geoff Gooderham's layout depicting a portion of the Canadian Pacific main line through the Rockies between Revelstoke and Field in 1958.  The layout is still very much under construction but there is a fair bit of scenery to date.  Geoff (aka Angus Shops) also produces a line of resin  kits for CP equipment and structures, which Mike was very fond of.  Geoff is not set up to take or post photographs so I have done that for him; the photo captions are his.

Tim




Passenger Extra CP 1426 West, "The Mike McGrattan", prepares to leave Field B.C. early on July 21, 1958.  Often a passenger special such as this would operate as a second section of a scheduled passenger train, but the need for public involvement means that this train would not be able to maintain the schedule of a regular passenger train.





"The Mike McGrattan" rolls through the forests of Kootenay National Park.  As a national park, these forests are protected from harvest, meaning none of these trees are destined for the paper mill.





Passenger Extra 1426 West crosses the Ottertail River bridge during the descent from Field to Golden.




As the line makes it's way west, the scenery changes from a open wide forested U-shaped valley bottom into the well known Kicking Horse River Canyon.  Here the special crosses a tributary creek as the the railway heads into the canyon.




The train dives into a short tunnel, one of several that characterize the route through the unstable shale of the Kicking Horse Canyon.




In a scene straight from a model railroad, "The Mike McGrattan" emerges from a short tunnel and immediately crosses the Kicking Horse River on a through truss bridge.




Having just recrossed the Kicking Horse deep in the canyon, Passenger Extra 1426 West is only about three miles from it's next stop in Golden B.C.  In the background, between the two bridges, is the disused siding at Cloister, now used as a set out spur.  Whoever took these images must have been driving like a madman (or a railfan); the Trans Canada Highway did not exist in 1958 and the only road between Golden and Field was treacherous gravel road.  Note from the Photographer:  Driving like a madman not necessary when one owns a Jaguar . . . 




Our train has come to a stop in Golden B.C. on the main so that the general public and dignitaries including Village Chairman (mayor) George Marr and Commissioners Thompson, LaRue, Lapp, and Collins can easily and safely visit the exhibitions.  The crowd may seem less than generous in this photo, but most of the town has gathered at the Mike McGrattan car at the far end of the train.  Locals say that the turn out was better for this event than for the train carrying Princess Margaret that paused in Golden in the same year.




The "Mike McGrattan" sits at the Golden  station platform.  A few minutes earlier the townspeople had cheered Village Chairman George Marr's remarks noting the special relationship between Mike McGrattan and the Village of Golden.  Chairman Marr reminded the townspeople that the Village had incorporated only the year before to facilitate the installation of sewage system, a system made possible only by the innovative use of paper (!?) championed by Mr. McGrattan.  Again, few townspeople are present in the photo, but only because they have all moved to the exhibit car at the head end of the train.  You would have thought the photographer would have planned that better.  Ed Note:  Or the layout owner could have purchased more N Scale people . . . 

Hahaha

Geoff


From Golden our special train will continue west to the coast of British Columbia and over to Vancouver Island for a run on the CP's Esquimalt & Nanaimo Division.  Stay tuned for more CP photographs!

Tim

[MVW]

Beautiful. This excursion is off to an impressive start.

Perhaps my all-time favorite feature in MR was their 50th anniversary tour of some of the nation's most notable model railroads, featuring a Hiawatha that had been "found" in northern Wisconsin and restored. I think this thread will put that piece to shame.

Well done, everyone. Can't wait for the next report. Thank you!

Jim

[BCR 570]

July 24 2016 - Vancouver, B.C.

The following pictures were taken on Michael Batten's layout depicting a portion of the Canadian Pacific's Esquimalt & Nanaimo Division on Vancouver Island in 1979.  Track and wiring on the layout is complete and scenery is in the early stages.  Michael is a recent addition to our Railwire family and goes by the name Dayliner after the E&N's daily Budd RDC service.  Michael's son Nicholas is also an accomplished N Scale modeller and his portable layout occupies the centre of his father's layout room.  Nicholas is currently 15 years old and his layout has already been featured in N-Scale Magazine.  It is also still in progress.  Michael and Nicholas are not set up to take or post photographs so I have done that for them; the photo captions are theirs.

Tim


We join the train for its Vancouver Island run at the north end staging yard, representing Wellcox in the city of Nanaimo, B.C.  Wellcox is the operational hub of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway, and the location of the barge slip providing the railway's primary connection to the mainland.  No attempt has been made to reproduce the actual Wellcox yard; this simple four-track stub yard is well able to support a typical operating day on this version of the E&N.




Here we see the train after it has been pulled off the barge, awaiting clearance to proceed south to Victoria.  Train orders call for the train to meet No. 51, the daily northbound freight from Victoria, at Hayward, and to be overtaken by VIA 198, the daily southbound passenger train, at Cowichan.  The train will host an early afternoon reception at Duncan and an evening reception in Victoria.  The train is being pulled by a stock Intermountain FP9, no 1411.  This locomotive did actually run on the E&N, albeit as no 1867, assigned to the Confederation Train in 1967.




The E&N's 35 m.p.h. speed limit for conventional passenger trains gives us many opportunities to overtake and photograph Passenger Extra 1411 South, the Mike McGrattan Memorial Special, as it proceeds toward Duncan.  Here we see the train around mile 45, climbing toward Hayward after crossing the Chemainus River bridge in the background.  Those familiar with Vancouver Island will wonder where all the trees have gone--don't worry, they're coming; the ground cover went in just a couple of days before this photograph was taken!




Train No. 51 Eng 5019, 2 loads, 7 empties, 394 tons, is waiting for us at Hayward.  As the "Michael McGrattan" eases past the head end of the freight, the engineer turns on the headlight before proceeding north out of the siding.  Hayward was the junction with the Lake Cowichan subdivision, an 18-mile line serving an area important to the Island's logging industry.  A small yard was located at Hayward, but on the Lake Cowichan Subdivision rather than on the Victoria subdivision as I have modelled it here.  GP35 no 5019, seen here running long-hood-forward, did run on the E&N, but rather later than my era and painted in Action Red.




Extra 8695 North, the Nitinat Logger, is waiting to come off the Lake Cowichan sub at Hayward wye.  This train ran once or twice a day, usually with 40 cars, to carry logs from Lake Cowichan to the log dump at Ladysmith.  The conductor of the passenger extra has signed the Hayward train register, and the special is now proceeding south to its stop in Duncan.  This scene will be a little confusing to those familiar with the E&N, as I have had to flip the wye to fit it into the available space.  On the prototype, the wye was on the west side of the Victoria sub and the log train in this picture would be heading south toward Duncan, and the passenger train going north.


   

At Hayward, we leave the scenicked portion of the layout.  The next photo in the sequence shows Passenger Extra 1411 South arriving at Victoria.  In the meantime, the train has hosted a reception at Duncan, then proceeded south to be overtaken by the daily VIA passenger service at Cowichan, before giving its riders a leisurely trip over the Malahat and into Victoria.  We see the train here easing to a stop at the E&N's Victoria station just short of the Catherine Street crossing, where B.C.'s Lieutenant Governor will host an on-board reception.  The station, looking a little the worse for wear, and the temporary scenic ridge behind it, both came from an earlier version of the layout.  A more accurate model of the E&N's Catherine Street station and its setting on Esquimalt Road will be built here.




Following the vice-regal reception, No. 1411 pulls the train across Catherine Street, past the section hut and speeder shed and onto the roundhouse lead where the cars will be parked overnight.




In the final view, we see the train on the roundhouse lead.  The VIA RDC has been evicted from its usual stall in the roundhouse to accommodate the special.  The power and the baggage car will be moved into the roundhouse/machine shop, and the rest of the train left on the lead.  Once the Dayliner leaves for Courtenay in the morning, the Victoria yard crew will get busy turning the cars for the special's run north. 

The track layout of the Victoria yard and shops duplicates that of the prototype almost exactly, although I have had to squeeze the freight yard closer to the roundhouse to make things fit.  The cardboard mock-ups of the car shop, roundhouse, and machine shop were constructed to help with track placement, and to give a sense of what the finished scene will look like.  As on the prototype in this era, the former coach yard is used to store equipment for the Victoria Auxiliary, including the old Roco crane which is being modified into something a bit more CP-ish and a bit more steam-ish, and one of Geoff Gooderham's C.P.R. 3260-3299 series wood combines.


It has been an honour to run the Mike McGrattan Memorial Train on my version of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway, as a tribute to a fellow N-scaler who also enjoyed modeling the Canadian Pacific.  Mike's enthusiasm and sense of fun inspired my own efforts, although we never met in person.  As the Memorial Train leaves Vancouver Island, it is my pleasure to hand it off to my 15 year old son Nicholas, for a run on his Kamloops, Kelowna and North Western Railway. 

Michael

[BCR 570]

July 24, 2016

Nick Batten's Kamloops, Kelowna and North Western Railway is a portable hollow-core door layout set in the North Okanagan region of British Columbia in the late 1990s.  It is based on the CN and CP lines that ran in the area, as though operated by a jointly-owned subsidiary of both companies.  Nick wrote a feature article about the layout which appeared in the November/December 2014 issue of N-Scale Magazine.




After leaving Vancouver Island, the Mike McGrattan Memorial Train travelled east on the CP mainline to Revelstoke, where one of the KK&NW's ex-CP RS-2s, No. 8401, took it down the old "Sleepy-Oh" (Shuswap and Okanagan) to Kelowna.  Here we see the train crossing Deep Creek and B.C. Highway 97A, past the old caboose that serves as a tourist information centre for the town of Armstrong, B.C.




Passenger Extra 8401 South pulls through Armstrong past the site of the now-demolished passenger station.  The weed-covered track in the foreground serves a freight house, team track and lumber yard.  The KK&NW's jointly-owned internal short line business model means that car-load business continues to thrive on this railway.




Leaving Armstrong, the special crosses Mill Street on its way to Kelowna.  After displaying in Kelowna, the train will return north for a stop here in Armstrong, before continuing on to Kamloops via the ex-CN line though Falkland and Monte Lake.


The Mike McGrattan Train's official photographer now departs on a nine day road trip to Vancouver Island, then up to Prince Rupert via BC Ferries and the Inland Passage, then east along the Skeena River to Terrace and Prince George, then south down through the Cariboo and back to North Vancouver.  The special train will accompany me for several layout visits along the way.  Stay tuned for more posts after August 3.

Tim

[BCR 570]

July 26, 2016

The following pictures were taken on Steve Stark's layout depicting the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway on Vancouver Island in 1970.  Steve is not a Railwire member but he participated in the Lil' Puddy tour and Mike was familiar with his layout.  Some of you will know Steve from his frequent attendance at the N Scale Conventions; he is also known as a past president of NMRA Canada and a partner in CS Models and Pacific Scale Rail.

Steve's layout was operated in their Vancouver home for 39 years, and I was privileged to be a member of his monthly operating crew for many years.  In 2015 Steve and Mary moved to Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island, taking approximately half of the layout with them.  It is currently being reassembled in their new home, and these pictures were taken on the two sections currently operable.  It was a pleasure for me to see the layout once again as it takes on a new life in a new location.





For its second run on Vancouver Island, our train was powered by two Baldwin DRS 4-4-1000 roadswitchers.  Here we see the train prior to departure from the station in downtown Victoria, with the consist extending across the Johnson Street Bridge spanning the Inner Harbour.  Behind the consist, the Dayliner can be seen waiting to undertake its daily run north to Courtenay.





A little further on, our train passes the Victoria Yard and roundhouse.  This is the same scene as seen in photo 7 on Michael Batten's E&N layout (see earlier post), but modelled looking from the other side of the tracks.  The roundhouse was built by Steve's wife Mary.





Our train continues its trip north through the suburbs of Victoria, with the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State visible across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.







As our train crosses Highway #1A North, a CN train passes underneath en route to Lake Cowichan.





North of Victoria, our train passes through the town of Langford.





The railway then climbs into the Malahat mountain range, which includes a short tunnel and two famous bridges.  Here our train crosses the Arbutus Canyon bridge.  The bridge is an RPM model built by our friend Kevin Knox, who also built my East Pine River bridge.





The next major community north of Victoria is Duncan, where a sizeable station was built.  Here our train meets southbound freight No. 52, also powered by a pair of Baldwin road switchers.  The ten Baldwins were modelled by our friend Mike Chandler from TrueLine Trains RS-10/18s and Atlas VO-1000 parts.







From Duncan our train will continue north to Wellcox Yard in Nanaimo for a barge trip back to the mainland.


Tim

[peteski]

Is that a funeral on the road in the photo with the roundhouse?

[BCR 570]

July 29, 2016

Doug Davies (aka BCR 751) and Chris Dittmar (aka BCOL 747) live in Terrace and Prince George, B.C. respectively, and both are modelling BC Rail's Chetwynd Subdivision in the late 1980s.  This subdivision extends north from Prince George through the Rocky Mountains via the Pine Pass to Chetwynd, where the line continues north to Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, and also east to Dawson Creek.  Their layout ends at Chetwynd, where mine begins.  Thus you get to see two different treatments of the same subject by two different modellers. 


The following pictures were taken on Doug Davies' BC Rail Chetwynd Subdivision layout.  It is a double-deck layout occupying a space approximately 17' x 11'.  The trackwork and wiring are approaching completion on the upper deck, and the backdrop and scenic landforms are in the early stages.  The lower deck is bare benchwork at this point.  The layout is operational from the bottom of the helix around the upper deck to Chetwynd, although the yard has yet to be laid and wired.





Trains enter Doug's upper deck via the north portal of the Azouzetta Tunnel, located at the summit of the Pine Pass.  Here our train exits the tunnel as it heads north to Chetwynd.  Doug provided M-630 No. 713 to power the train.





At Mile 600.8 the railway crosses the Pine River on a glulam trestle.  This is the first of four crossings of the Pine River; Doug has chosen to model all three on the Chetwynd Subdivision.  (The fourth crossing is on the Dawson Creek Subdivision and is included on my layout - see subsequent post.)




Our train pass over Highway 97 (the Hart Highway) as a motorways tractor and trailer pass underneath.  The railway crosses Highway 97 via a concrete overpass twice on the Chetwynd Subdivision.  A third crossing exists on the Dawson Creek Subdivision and is included on my layout.





The Pine #2 crossing is a through truss span located at Mile 613.  Our train is now descending the east slope of the Rocky Mountains and will follow the Pine River most of the way into Chetwynd.





At Mile 614.2 our train crosses Mountain Creek on a short pre-cast concrete bridge.





At Hulcross siding our train passes a northbound freight powered by GMD SD40-2 No. 754 and EMD SD40-2 No. 743 (still in Oneida & Western colours).  BC Rail acquired all twelve O&W SD40-2s in 1987 and they were eventually repainted into BC Rail colours.





The Pine #3 crossing at Mile 641.8 is a through truss span with plate girder approaches.





Passenger Extra 713 North comes to a stop at the Chetwynd station grounds.  The cardboard rectangle indicates the footprint of the future station and freight shed.





There was time for a return trip south.  Here our train crosses the Pine #3 bridge once again.





As our train disappears into the Azouzetta Tunnel on its return trip south, passengers and viewers can look forward to another trip over the Chetwynd Subdivision, but on another layout.


Tim

[BCR 570]

August 1, 2016


The following pictures were taken on Chris Dittmar's BC Rail Chetwynd Subdivision layout.  His double deck layout occupies a room approximately 20' x 10' with staging and helix beyond.  Chris' layout covers the same prototype and locale as Doug's, but it is significantly more advanced in construction.  Virtually all of the track on both levels is wired and operational.  Approximately one half of the upper deck is fully scenicked; the remainder of the upper deck and the entire lower deck have some early landforms in place and are awaiting scenery work.  Chris actually models several different eras, but his choice of subdivision makes this feasible as there were few changes along the route during the eras modelled.





The lower deck on Chris' layout starts at the Bridge Yard in Prince George, the town in which he lives.  This yard is located immediately north of the Fraser River Bridge and serves three large pulp mills.  Given Mike's employment in the pulp and paper industry, this is a very appropriate place to start our tour.  An ALCO C-420 is switching the yard as our train passes through.





At Killy, our train passes one of two online sawmills in the area.  This one is Canfor's Polar operation.  Centrebeam flat cars and wood chip cars await shipment south.





At Tacheeda our train meets a southbound coal train coming off the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision.  This is where the BCR GF6C electric locomotives came off the train and were replaced by CN diesel locomotives for the remainder of the trip south to Prince George on BCR and west to Prince Rupert on CN.  Today a pair of CN SD50Fs wait to take over the train.  This operation allows Chris to run CN powered trains over a portion of his layout.





After climbing the helix to the upper deck, our train enters the scenicked portion of the layout.  We are now ascending the west slope of the Rocky Mountains via the Pine Pass.  For this trip Chris has provided ALCO C-425 No. 812, one of twelve such locomotives acquired from Erie-Lackawanna in 1976.





The Trembling Aspen is one of the most prolific deciduous trees in northern British Columbia and we see them in their full fall glory as we pass over Highway 97 (the Hart Highway) at Mile 584.5.  This is one of three such concrete overpasses on the north end; two are on the Chetwynd Subdivision and one is on the Dawson Creek Subdivision.





Another view of our train passing over Highway 97 with the Rocky Mountains in full view.  Chris and I visited this location in July 2009 and he has captured the locale brilliantly.







Just after cresting the summit of the Pine Pass, the train passes through a short tunnel at Azouzetta.  Highway 97 passes above the north portal.







The railway crosses the bucolic Pine River four times; three times on the Chetwynd Subdivision and once on the Dawson Creek Subdivision.  Here our train crosses Pine #1 on the glulam trestle.  The Pine River is rated as one of the clearest rivers in B.C.





At Garbitt siding our train meets Extra 763 South, powered by GMD SD40-2 No. 763 and an ex-Kennecott Copper EMD SD40-2.  BC Rail acquired the seven KCC units in 1986 and they were eventually repainted into BC Rail colours.





With the long freight having passed by, our head end brakemnan will walk up to the north switch and throw it so our train can continue north from Garbitt.





At Mile 611.2 our train rounds the bend past the Lemoray Quarry, where a pair of ballast hoppers await collection by a work train.






Chris used the BLMA through truss bridge to represent the Pine #3 crossing.





At Chetwynd we reach the northern end of Chris' layout.  Like Doug's layout, the yard is still under construction.  From here, the journey will continue north on my layout, which starts at Chetwynd.


Tim

[BCR 570]

August 4, 2016


My turn!  My double deck layout is housed in a 13' x 11' apartment bedroom and will depict the British Columbia Railway's Dawson Creek Subdivision as it appeared in 1977.  This 61 mile branch line extends east from Chetwynd to Dawson Creek where it met up with the Northern Alberta Railways.  My layout is in the early stages of construction; benchwork and lighting are complete, the track and wiring for the main line is complete and operational, and the next step will be to lay out the yards at Dawson Creek and Chetwynd.  There is no scenery as of yet other than installing risers and inclines for Highway 97.  Most structures exist in cardboard mock-up form.





Our journey begins at the Chetwynd station where we left off after the tour of Chris' layout.  There is no track laid here yet, so our passengers will be forwarded to the train by crew van.  Across from the station, we see the mechanical shop, fuel pump house and storage tanks.





At Sundance siding our passengers board the train for their journey over the Dawson Creek Subdivision.  Sundance is located at Mile 14.3 and also included a pit track for ballast.





Our train is powered by MLW RS-10 No. 581, which in its early years would have hauled passenger trains on the PGE.  Here we see the train crossing over Highway 97 (the Hart Highway) on a concrete span similar to the two earlier crossings om the Chetwynd Subdivision modelled by Doug and Chris (see earlier posts).





At Mile 16.68 the railway makes its fourth crossing of the Pine River on a 1,013 foot long span comprising three continuous deck truss spans on four concrete piers with deck plate girder spans at either end.  This temporary wood span will shortly be replaced with a printed model.  The span is full size in  N scale.





Our train is 163 feet above the river as it crosses the span.  The piers and abutments are printed models.  I was fortunate to obtain a complete set of plans for this bridge from the railway's Engineering Department.





After climbing the helix, our train emerges onto the upper deck and will now make its way across the South Peace Plateau.  The scenery here will depict rolling hills with hay farms, rural dirt roads, and acres of Aspen and Cottonwood trees.





At Tremblay siding our train passes Work Extra 584 with grading equipment on flatcars.  Later this year it will make its way to the end of steel to continue tracklaying into Dawson Creek.  The work train is currently powered by RS-10 No. 584.





East of Tremblay our train negotiates several sweeping curves on its way to the end of steel.  This is the first passenger train to run over my recently completed trackwork and a slow order is in effect.





At Mile 46.09 the railway crosses the Kiskatinaw River on a deck How truss span with frame trestle approaches at either end.  The total span measures 458 feet in length and the rails are 60 feet above the river.  This temporary wood span will eventually give way to a scratchbuilt model made from scale lumber.  This span is believed to be the oldest and largest deck Howe truss span in North America still in service on a Class I railway.





Our train soon reaches the end of steel, and our passengers must return to the crew van for the remainder of the trip to Dawson Creek.






Our passengers soon reach the station at Dawson Creek, which currently awaits the arrival of the track gangs.  From here it is a short drive east along Highway 97 to the local Tim Horton's restaurant!


This instalment completes the first portion of our train's travels in Canada.  Tomorrow our train will cross the border and commence its tour across the United States.



Tim

[OldEastRR]

The foam in the Pine #3 photo (Chetwynd) looks amazingly like drifted snow.

[OldEastRR]

Aug. 7, 2016 -- Mike McGratton Memorial Train Crosses into the United States

...and immediately goes from British Columbia to New England (watch out for jet lag). My layout is based on the New Haven circa 1954-5, tho I haven't modeled any prototype locations that I know of. And all the scenery I've done (basically whipped up "temporarily" or this occasion) is shown in these shots. But  the trackwork all works perfectly!

Here the train, pulled by a NH Alco PA1, rolls across a downgraded junction just before heading into North Middling, MA on the Houwich branch.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]


This single track line through downtown North Middling lost its passenger service not long after the war, so the few people here on a sleepy late Sunday afternoon are surprised by the big passenger diesel and a varnish rolling by. They'll read about the train in the Monday paper.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]


It's a bright clear cloudless sky just before dusk as the memorial train crosses the Watahmahdahyoo River beyond North Midling. A New Haven evening commute can be seen beyond the bridge on the NH mainline, which the Houwich Branch is about to curve into and join.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]


Next morning, after a night on a siding spent adjusting to EST from PST, the crew has the train rolling through the early morning hustle and bustle of Dunpheeboro's busy industrial area, one of the many such sites along the New Haven mainline. Here the photographer has captured some classic 3/4 views of each car as the train speeds by.


[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

And as the train rushes off, the photographer manages to swing the camera and catch a last glimpse of the observation as the consist roars toward its next destination.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[BCR 570]

Well done Al - thank you for meeting me to receive the train and for starting off the U.S. leg of the tour.

Tim