We are planning a train trip Saturday Sept 25, 2010!

(Click Pictures to enlarge)

Maine Garden Railway Society is planning an outing on Saturday September 25, 2010 to get all the members together that enjoy taking a nice train ride up the coast of Maine while the weather is nice and the tourist activity is quieter. Carl has talked to Maine Eastern and has come up with the following:

We will meet at the new Maine St. Station in Brunswick which was built to extend service for the Downeaster starting this summer. We will leave Brunswick at 10:20 AM and stop briefly at Bath before continuing up the coast line as we travel to Wiscasset and head up to our destination Rockland, Me. A beautiful trip that takes 1 hour and 55 minutes which put us in Rockland at 12:15 just in time for lunch. We have a little over 3 and a half hours to spend in Rockland which is perfect for a nice lunch and site seeing on a beautiful Main Street with lots of interesting shops. There is also the Farnsworth Museum which features 3 generations of famous Maine artists (Wyeth's family) art work. Plus the Rockland Station has food and train souvenirs, plus other interesting things to see. We depart Rockland at 3:55 and enjoy a nice ride back which pulls into Brunswick Station at 5:50PM. There is a snack car on the train and it is a great ride for members to enjoy together. 

Very comfortable and clean and we can guarantee a discount price of $33.60 per person for the round trip. If you bring someone under 16 years old their round trip cost is $18.90  MGRS will need to collect the fares ahead of time as we will be charged by Maine Eastern for the total cost. We have about 40 people who want to go on the trip. 
Thank you and All-aboard for MGRS !

Sorry ~ Discount Tickets Sale has ended.   You are still welcome to join us but you must purchase your own ticket from Maine Central.  

39 People have bought tickets for the trip! We will meet at Brunswick Maine Street Station  between 9:30 and 10am on Saturday Sept 25th.
Photos - Crossing the St. George river Drawbridge - M/E Brochure Cover - Maine Eastern No. 488 At Maine St. Station Brunswick. - No. 488 pulling in for a quick stop at Wiscasset.

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Fire Extra Sent to Quebec

The Winnegance and Quebec has run an extra train this morning to support fire fighters in their efforts to control massive wild fires in the woods around town.

The fires started when campfire sparks landed in tinder dry leaves, according to spokesman. The campers had been staying at an old logging camp well out of town. they had worked hard to stamp out the flames but lack of water in the near by stream made their job nearly hopeless. While no charges were brought against the campers, Oliver LeVesque the town fire warden did give them a strong lecture.

While Winnegance's finest will work with local authorities until the fire is out, John Morse said he thinks they will have little effect on the large fire. "there is just not enough water in the ponds and streams in the area that we can carry to fight the fire. we brought the W&Q's tanker with us as well as our pump truck and will do our best!"

Happy Memorial Day

Military Songs of the Army, Navy, Airforce and Marines

This is a good time to announce that the Maine Veterans return to visit MGRS on Tuesday June 22, 2010. Any member who would enjoy meeting the Vets and enjoy a day with trains, golf-carts and conversation over lunch is encouraged to come and take part in the veterans first visit of the year to Pat and Carl's Overlook Garden Railway in Buxton. Starts about 10:00am and goes to mid afternoon.

Thank you from Polk's Hobby

This is a copy of an email sent by Polks Hobby: A Memorial Day Weekend message from Lewis M. Polk, president of Aristo-Craft Trains and Walter M. Matuch, president of Ready Made Trains/RMT

MEMORIAL DAY

Monday, May 31, 2010

May 21, 2010 Bloomsbury, NJ To All: Every year, the RMT/Ready Made Trains website is updated with a special Memorial Day Tribute to our fallen veterans. I would like to invite all our new ARISTO CRAFT TRAINS friends to view these Memorial Day - 2010 images at... www.readymadetoys.com Thank you to all our veterans and those serving today in our Armed Forces.

Walter M. Matuch

President/Ready Made Trains, LLC

A nice looking Memorial Day Train

This picture was taken in 2009 as Train # 311 pulls out of Alexandria, Virginia on a nice Friday evening before Memorial Day with a GP39 in the lead, pulling former Metra Galley coaches, and a Gallery cab bringing up the rear.

Item for Sale ~ Please Note these are old items and may no longer be available~ Thank you.

I am selling a 1:20.3 Accucraft 3 cylinder Shay.
http://www.accucraft.com/index.php?show_aux_page=36
The shay was to be a 7/8th conversion but I have
moved on to other plans. The loco has a "steam" RCS remote control system
installed and also a Dalliee sound system. (for whistle and bell sound).
Very limited run time. The loco is big enough to be converted to a very convincing
shay for your logging railroad.

I am asking $1600 USD plus shipping.

John Foley

John Foley is VP of NHGRS You can find his contact info on the NHGRS web site which can be found about half way down the left hand side of the Blog.

Trains that pass in the Day

Ok, my apologies to Mr Longfellow , but this must be where the southbound train passes the north bound train just after leaving the station in Saco, ME. We experienced the fun of riding the train from Portland to Saco, Then we got off and stayed right on the station platform because a few minutes after the train departed and disappeared down the long single track, another train appeared and came toward us. It had left Boston 3 hrs earlier and we hopped on and returned to the Portland Station where we had started our trip about 20 minutes earlier!
I always thought it would be neat to find a picture of the 2 trains meeting, it looks like I just did (it looks like one has red running lights and the other green). Take that you ships that pass in the night.

I really like this picture

The first ever passenger train into the new Maine Street Station in Brunswick is this Mother's Day Special. The station is already the home of several local businesses and it is proposed that when Amtrak's Downeaster is extended to Brunswick, it will meet Rockland bound Maine Eastern passenger trains there.

Railcams.net

I have not had time to learn much about this site but it looks like it could be interesting. Submitted by our own "Web Explorer" Denneth Lee who comes across a lot of Railroad related material. Here is a site that deals with Rail Cams Click here:

Rail Pictures - Photo of the Week

This is an excellent site for railroad photos.

Click on image below for peoples choice.


Link to Rail Pictures Web Site
In the middle of their Home Page is a "Find the Photo's" button. Just fill in what you are interested in and click on the button.

Here is one I found that I thought was interesting.
Click here to see Union Station/Portland/Natl Train day

From Doug Johnson

This is interesting to look at: It is a link to the South Eastern Pennsylvania Garden Railway Newsletter. You should be able to see the pdf file by clicking on this link: Thanks Doug!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1872224/10-03_SCREEN.pdf

Authentic Railroad Memorabilia Auction

The name of the Company is the J.W.Auction Co.located in Rochester, NH. They will be holding an auction on Saturday June 12, 2010. There are hundreds of very interesting items. Deneth Lee has gone to this auction before and he sent us the announcement to post on the blog.
Click on the following link: http://www.jwauctionco.com/
Then follow the green colored area to see the Railroad Auction Catalog.
You can read item descriptions and click on each item to see a picture. (pictured item #11 as an example). Very interesting and thank you 'Tiny' for bringing this to our attention.

Nice job Eric!

Thank you to Eric and Sue and the rest of the family (including the friendly dog) for a really great OPEN HOUSE today! The weather did cooperate and it was mostly sunny with a nice breese.
Eric has done a great job on the extension which he has made that goes way off into the woods with a beautiful trestled turn around.

All his trains looked and ran great! He used battry power and a couple of very nice looking steam engines. Please excuse my picture taking they do not do justice to what a great job he has done. Thanks again, it was an excellent open house and it was enjoyed by a large turnout. And from someone who had a lot to eat, I can testify to how much we all appreciated Eric's ability as a chef also!


A very short clip of one of Eric's trains completing one of the turnarounds and heading back down the mainline. And, one last thank you to all the members that turned out to support the event. Thank you all for your help to make it a great day!

'Angelique' Tulip

Added picture on 05/26 of another Walmart perennial which came up called "ALLIUMS".


We were very pleased with this $5 package of 12 bulbs planted last fall. They are called 'Angelique' Tulips. The blooms last for a long time (picture taken this morning) Over 30 blooms from the 12 bulbs. We want to get some more and liked them enough to want to tell others about them. JJ&GG.

Getting ready for the 'OPEN HOUSE'

This Saturday May 15th at Eric's in Phippsburg - OPEN HOUSE - This is a great photo that Eric sent us with the caption " I got the extension open just in time. The crew is proud and tired! I look forward to a good turnout!"

Thanks Eric! Hope to see many members there to appreciate the crew's hard work! Click here for Directions

Note- (Two more pictures added) Items for Sale

Please click on pictures for a closer look.

These are from member Neville Lewis who has the items for sale and included the following message to other members:

We still have a few buildings and some accessories for sale. Shown is a
portion of the rolling stock and some of the model cars. There are some
bits and pieces that can be used on someone's layout. All very reasonably
priced.
Please call Neville Lewis at 207-354-8055. 576 Pleasant Point Rd., Cushing,
ME

Stockholm Subway Art

Tiny sent me this presentation which I hope I have loaded up so that anyone who clicks on this link will be able to view it. It is a slide show using Power Point. Please click here

Wow, I hope you could see that, it is pretty amazing. Some difference from the MTA tunnels I used to run through as a kid. (Disregard that, I will deny it). Actually, I love Subway Systems. Here is a short video I found of some of the cars operating in the Stockholm system. Click here for video

Thanks Denneth for 'digging' this up.

Named after Yarmouth Junction

The little red signal shack provides some of the operational fun on my new lay out as you get to control two trains headed for the same crossing. (This just came to mind - honest there was an old law in Colorado that said if two trains met at a crossing they both had to come to a stop and neither train could proceed until the other had gone past). Anyway, this section reminds me of the real 'Yarmouth Junction' which I have visited and taken some pictures of. Tomorrow, I hope to get back outside and do some more testing.

Happy Mother's Day

We wish all our members and friends a very happy Mother's Day as we salute all of the Moms today!

Happy Train Day to all MGRS Members

MGRS is fortunate to have a large group of train loving members and dedicated train professionals in its membership. The two gentlemen pictured above are both MGRS members and join us all in wishing each other a very happy national "Train Day" as we look forward to another great year together.

???

It is late at night and I have no idea if this is a real picture. Tiny sent it to me from several other people with the following comments: enjoy
Subject: Fw: Need air ride seats
Date: Tue, 4 May 2010 21:53:07 -0500

Wow. I think it may be ecepted track, but I'm not quite sure.....yeah right.....

----- Original Message -----

top speed would be 10 miles - per DAY!

I'm sure the telephoto makes it look especially bad

but I don't think it has been photoshopped because I have seen track like that.

National Train Day - Update

(Click on above image to enlarge)

Denneth Lee found this current info on National Train day celebrations planned in Maine this weekend. Link to National Web Site

Flower Power

I think it is a hoot to plant a $5 package of bulbs in the fall and see them actually come up the next spring! It's a great way to start off the year. I know it's to bad they do not flower longer but that makes you appreciate them. You can tell, I have not done much with plants before, but I am getting into it!

What a "Turkey"

Dosen't he know it's the first day of hunting season for him? I guess not, after strutting his stuff in the back yard this turkey is knocking on the basement door! I snuck up around the trestle to catch him banging his beak on the glass until he saw me and ran off.

Progress is slow

I am working hard to get ready for an Open House sometime in June. Yesterday I ran a train from my original indoor layout out the window and around (most) of the new outdoor layout and back inside again. My wife and daughter were sitting out in the yard and said it looked funny to see a train head toward the house and disappear through the window. They anticipated a loud crashing noise but, luckily that did not happen. Then I got real daring and tried the automatic trains controlling each other maneuver for the very first time. It almost worked the way I want it to. Just a little more fine tuning said the mad wirer!

Climb Mt. Washington

Here is a quick video of what it looks like going up the Mt. Washington Auto road. Open this weekend, video shot 4/22/2010. Click here and scroll down to start video.
From member Denneth Lee.