Snow is gone in Phippsburg...

The snow is gone here and the Covered Bridge Line is running...I am looking forward to hosting an open house on Saturday!

If you have battery or steam power please feel free to bring it along. if you want a favorite car as part of a train bring that too!

I'll set up a table for show and tell and swap.

I plan to provide burgers and dogs and a gas Bar-B-Que plus soft drinks. Additions and specialties are welcome. We are non-drinkers so make sure to take home any alcohol you bring.

call me at 207-386-0129 if you have any questions.
-Eric


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Crazy little lights

These are neat little lights. The pictures were taken right after they came on and about 10 min later.
When it was completely dark the lights were very bright and they are perfect if you want to reference a given point. but, they do not provide any illumination for the surrounding area. There was no reflected light from the stones and you could not tell that the station was there. They were like little mystery eyes in the night. The top is easily removed and could sit on top of a building with a flat roof and do a good job of lighting the interior. The bulb is at the top and it reflect off the bottom lens to produce a larger bright spot. If you want to light up an area (I put the church on top of the waterfall area and shine a little solar search light on it. It lights up the building and the waterfall very nice). In fact I experimented with it last night and moved it to the front yard and it cast a good light up to the top of the flagpole. My wife got it at Xmas Tree for me recently for about $5 to 6 dollars. The 12 volt transformer wire may still be the most versatile because you can adapt it to lots of situations and you can 'clicker' them on or off. A little something for everybody!

I love Animals

Remember I grew up in a big city and thought there were only two kinds of birds, pigeons and sparrows, so I love (we both do) living 'out in the woods' so to speak. Enjoying the bird feeders and we have our favorite pair of Mallard ducks that fly in every day. He is so gallant as he stands guard while she eats. Plus turkeys come by every day and look so funny as they 'run' across the back yard. It is amazing how they all work around each other to enjoy the cup of cracked corn I set out back. Plus a rabbit (we call it 'bunny' sorry about that) and yesterday a fox and today a deer. It really is an enjoyment to watch and see what will be next. I had just come in from sticking the solar lights in the ground next to the station when the deer came out to nibble up what was left.

From NHGRS

Hi guys I was sent this photo of Keene , NH roundhouse late 50-60’s.. Thought the club members would like to see it. Below is the list of locos.

Canadian Pacific 4-6-0 #1098 was sold to George Hart and restored in Jim Thorpe, PA. It was operated by Rail Tours Inc. during Sep-Oct 1994 and then stored.

Canadian National 1395 class H-6-g 4-6-0 sent to Edaville in June 1959, currently at Coopersville , MI

Canadian national 5288 class J-7-b 4-6-2 sent to Edaville in September 1961, currently at the Tennessee vallry RR Museum, Chattanooga , TN

Canadian National 2-6-0 #96 was sent from Bellows Falls to Scranton but never made it. It went only as far as Binghamton , NY when it was traded to a private owner from Canada in deal to get DL&W #565. 96 was later sold to the Ohio Central Railroad.

Meadow River Lumber Company Shay #1 - two truck disposition unknown

steam at Alna...

Sue, I and the Boys visited Alna and rode the train today. It was cool and overcast but pleasant enough.

We hopped off the train at the Alna Center Station and walked north along the track past the end of the newly laid rail and along the old road bed until we came to the missing Carlton Brook bridge, at the sight of the "Masons Wreck" of 1905. The old road bed is quite visible but suffers from a few washouts and downed trees.

There were Easter eggs hidden for the kids around Alna center. The guys at the museum do a first class job and have a lot of fun too! by the way, the train was only $3.00 for adults today, but never very expensive even in high season.

There is a chance to play trains again in two weeks, this is Spring Work Weekend. The plan is to ballast and tamp the track laid by volunteers last fall.

Steam trains at Alna Maine Saturday

The WW&F railway Museum is running Steam tomorrow Saturday...They plan to run a Freight train before lunch then several passenger trains starting about noon.

I plan to go early afternoon.

www.wwfry.org

-Eric

Worlds Largest Miniature Railway

I just ran across this. It's pretty neat.

http://www.bofunk.com/video/8477/worlds_largest_miniature_railway.html

On the Lighter side

This is sent to us from our friends in NH. Click here to view.

Nice weekend for house planting in the Garden

I am not the first to play in the garden over the weekend, I see, but here is one of the things I did.

On Sunday, I had a chance to play trains and do some serious planting. I placed this house so it has a good view. It is on a sloping lot which required some re-grading and (moss) lawn planting; after digging and building the natural stone foundation. I have a Diamond saw blade on my 4" grinder that I had used to cut tile. it does a great job with granite too. I used it to "carve" granite front steps for the house and to trim some of the foundation stones. I also cut some stone posts to support the porch.

Oh! and the track crew was out too getting the track in shape for the first train...a load of general freight which had accumulated over the winter. Not too many derailments!

--eric

SCGRR's First Run of the Season

Couldn't waste a nice day. Here is the first run of the 2009 season. This is on the new addition to SCGRR. None of the buildings that were taken in for the Winter are out yet. The Water Feature isn't even uncovered yet. (Ignore the wind noise.)

Fort Carson 'concept' Car

Updated May13, 2009. Sam deploys to Afghanistan on May 16, 2009. He will be operating the vehicle types pictured above as part of the 32 Trans. Co.



I have been working on a new decal car. My grandson Sam has been assigned to Fort Carson and his new unit. This is a computer version which I draw up first. After I get a chance to look at it some more and decide on what changes to make, I will be printing up the decals and applying them. Typical of every car that I have made, I always make each side different.

I never did post the other side of my 'Fort Leonard Wood' car so here it is.

Puppy Mover Monorail

Thanks to Denneth 'Tiny' Lee we have another unusual and fun story to read. I believe this came to him from John Foley.
Thanks again guys.
Click here to read about the 'Puppy Mover Monorail'
(Make sure to look at Page Two).

From North Conway.

This is an ALCO builders photo of a sister engine to the 501 which is currently on display at North Conway. It was forwarded to us by Denneth Lee, who received it from Paul Hallett who is the Operation Manager at Conway Scenic Railroad. Thank you very much for passing along the info.

ECLSTS 2009

Nothing beats Ray's Show pictures In the Blog following this one. Be SURE to check them out.

Here are some other quick videos on U Tube recently posted about ECLSTS 2009 March 27 - 28.

Live Steam ECLSTS 2009

K27s and Mallet ECLSTS 2009

SVGRS Setup at 2009 ECLSTS

Trains Running

March 24, 2009 1:33PM

The Meadowbrook and Casco Bay Garden Railway began it's 2009 operation today at the noted time. Trolley track was clear of snow and debris. Track was cleaned and off they went, Mighty Macks and Eggliners

B&M # 6000

Traveling more then 700 miles a day, 6 days a week the Flying Yankee provided service from Boston to Bangor starting and ending it’s trip in Portland Maine. Service began in 1935. Please watch and listen.

Paul's West Buxton Library Train Exhibit

Thursday morning which was March 12, 2009 Paul arrived at Carl's with his whole truck packed with trains, buildings and track. Walter and John where there to help as Carl 'borrowed' a big pile of Pat's folding craft tables loaded them into his truck and off they went to meet Charlene the very nice lady who manages the West Buxton Library. It is a beautiful historic building located across from the picturesque Saco River on Rt. 112. It turned out that Walter and she had gone to grade school together. So she immediately liked us all! The tables were perfect and Paul covered them with special cloth he has. Then we all tried to play 'connect the track' which was a lot of fun until Paul revealed that he had several curves that were cut to slightly odd lengths. Luckily, Paul found the last missing piece he needed to complete the layout and we were ready for a test run.
That much done and the clock ticking away we got out of the way and left Paul to add all his detail Indian and Western Town display. Paul had it all completed and ready for the 4:00pm Opening which went to 8:00pm that night. Then he came back early Saturday morning until 1:00pm. The library is a beautiful building and there was also a very nice art display on the walls which was done by a local artist. The attendance was good and the trains attracted lots of interest especially from the kids which there were a lot off. I know Paul gets a lot of enjoyment from teaching the children about trains. MGRS also donated train video tapes and Thomas stories to the Library which will make them available to many more children through its video program. It was a great show. Thank you Paul for all that you do.

California Zephyr Anniversary

One of my brothers called from Colorado this morning to say that today is the 60th anniversary of the California Zephyr, one of the country's premier long-distance trains. The Zephyr ran from Chicago to San Francisco over the Burlington, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific railways. The usual consist included eleven stainless steel Budd cars, five of them with vista domes. I traveled on the Zephyr between Grand Junction, Colorado and San Francisco when I was in college. The $50 trip took 28 hours, most of which I spent in a vista dome. There never was a better way to travel. The last Zephyr made the journey on March 21, 1970, sixty years to the day from its first trip.

The Flying Yankee

The Flying Yankee ~ To view Video click here
Follow Up Report click here

~ LIVE STEAM~

Larry and Pattie Goodhue's 7th Annual Southern NH Invitational Steamup - Photos by Richard Jenkins

If you want to see a very interesting slide show click on the above link. After it starts click once on a picture and you be able to read all of the descriptions which explain each photo. It is well worth studying.

If you want to see more of where these came from look for the NHGRS Logo on left hand side of the Blog. Click on it and then select photos.