As some of you probably saw, I posted a buncha pics of Alaska train shots in another section. However, most of these are just scenery shots I thought you all'd enjoy so I put 'em here instead.

Let me start by saying that the geological features of Alaska have a way of making you feel small, tiny, miniscule! ...insignificant! So, to try and capture that with a camera is... hopeless! Never-the-less, I tried my best and here are some of those shots.

The first day there, I took a float plane from Anchorage about 65 miles west. Most of the mountains in this area are around 10,000 feet tall and two of them are active volcanoes. The reason a lot of the glaciers here are so filthy is because when those volcanoes erupt, they cover them in ash!




After about an hour of flying, the pilot landed down below one of the glaciers on Beluga lake where we were able to unload and stretch our legs just a bit. Let me tell you, putting your hand in that lake was like putting it down inside an ice chest full of ice water! Pilot said we'd only last about 45 seconds if we fell in!


Later the same day, now down south of Anchorage in Alyeska, I took a tram ride up 2,000 feet above the valley floor and did some light hiking...






Next day out on the Kenai peninsula headed towards Seward...
I have never seen such vibrant colored water in the streams nor lakes as clear as those.


Of all the shots I took, this is probably my favorite... there's ducks out in that mist too.


The ground foliage was absolutely amazing. It was like this everywhere you looked...


A mediocre shot of the train sneaking through the trees along Upper Trail lake near Moose pass.






Ressurection Bay off the Gulf of Alaska...


The harbor at Seward...


This is a view across the valley of Exit glacier. Just off to the left of this picture, I watched a little blackbear play in the creek for about 20 minutes.


Sometimes it seems the prettiest places are off the beaten path...


And then you realize, in Alaska, the prettiest places are everywhere!




Independence mine...








The only thing I found disappoining was the lack of wildlife. Evidently it was hunting season (moose) and everything was hiding out. I only saw three black bears, 1 brown bear, 2 sea otters, 1 Hory Marmot, 1 bald eagle and pods n pods of Beluga whales feeding on Salmon.

Hi --

I and the wife went to a concert with Norwegian female singer/songwriter Kari Bremnes last night.

She did her love song "train song" (about two people who meet on a train, and continue their journey together) as the first song of her show, and I just happened to find a copy of her music video on the net today - recorded on a Norwegian museum railroad, and thought some of the rest of you might enjoy the video too :-)

Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RkUUdGy_Bs

Engine is a class 24b 2-8-0 steam engine, built by Thune Mechanical Works in Oslo, Norway in 1912, passenger cars are 2nd class local passenger car from the 1920s.

Grin,
Stein

info needed on a trestle bridge on the P L &W rr called the Elkton bridge near Lisbon Ohio tried the internet but could find no photos have one that isent very good . looking for more info and photos look's like a different design than a standard trestle.
jim

I know It's a little late to post this but there is a show at the firehouse in new hope PA tomorrow morning. Toptrain and I will be there hope to see some others.

How would the mods and BB members feel about a section on the board that compiles a "links" section? In it, members can submit website links for Model and Prototypical Websites. We could also include a section for on-line retailers and manufacturers. (Not sure about that last one as it may be seen as promoting one over the other, however I don't see how, especially if you include "everybody".)

Memebers can submit links to the mods and then the mods can decide whether or not to add it to the list.

Thoughts?

Sitting down looking at my loco fleet, I decided that my J-Class Bachmann will never look "right" in my layout, and without N&W Passenger cars... it just doesn't make sense to own.

It's a fantastic puller being mostly dicast metal, and the tender has room for a sound decoder... and I have a sound decoder kicking around, so I wanted to make something useful out of it.

Since I'm modeling Canadian Roads I did a search for streamlined CN and CP 4-8-4 locomotives and came across the Confederation U4a locos. The most famous would be 6400 which pulled the Royal Train across Canada.

Thus, I started planning in my head the conversion of the J-Class to the U4a.

The Prototype:



Now, I wanted to keep as many details as possible, and the J-Class seems to be pretty dang close to a PERFECT base for this loco. The side-rods and the wheels are out of my league for replacement... the wheels are the wrong "prototype" size and design, but the side rods are also different too... But as long as I can capture the "character" of the prototype that is good enough for me.

Luckily the only modification this loco needs (aside from a Vandy Tender, which won't happen cus I want sound) is paint and a modified nose.

Now I couldn't get the nose "perfect' because of the hand railing and location of the number boards. But like I mentioned, I'm going for the general character....



First, forming the shovel nose.


Like my Heavy 4-8-2 that I've converted into a U1f, I used plasticine that hardens in air. No sticking my locos in a oven to bake the clay! That migth turn out bad... Heres where I placed the clay


After that... paint!




The mostly completed product




oh, and look at that, a video too!

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sorry for the stalling... I need to clean my track I think


now to help solve a question I have...

If this was your project... would you paint the rest of the Tender in the CN Olive? Or would you leave it as is?

I had a really big day of railfanning today, with over 45 pics taken! I visited the CSX Parsons Yard and figured I would share my pics of the roundhouse and turntable with you guys...enjoy!

Probably someone has brought this up already ad nauseum, but I just can't keep this knowledge for myself. Model railroading is said to be an expensive hobby. I guess it is true, but then it can be as costly as one wants it to be. A casual bystander might walk into a model railway store and see some some price tags on some of the prettiest models on display, sure, can't say that it's cheap. But what is the part of the hobby where the hidden costs lie? The electricity bill when running your basement empire 24 hours a day? The medical bill from cutting your fingers too often? Well, maybe, but how about the price of the real estate (the 1:1 kind, that is, that you need to build your empire on? Living in Helsinki, I figured that the real estate for a nice trains room of 20 square metres (about 200 square feet) in the suburbs could easily cost around $50000. That buys quite a lot of trains, don't you think? (For your information, my layout is 8 square feet)

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