I was feeling pretty homesick after 3 weeks in Jamaica back in February and still had just over a week to go. I was bored, sitting in my room at the "Great House" (Alcoa Corporate Lodging) and about ready to just go to bed early as Alicia was visiting her daughter and not online. My allergies were killing me, I had an upset stomach (apparently, I do NOT like eating goat), and I just wanted to be home. I had always wanted to visit Jamaica, just not for 32 days. I was exhausted. I was having a great time, working with an OUTSTANDING (and hilarious) crew, but I just wanted to be back in familiar surroundings. Just as I was about to log off, close the lap top and hit the sack, I got an interesting e-mail... I was invited to be one of a small group of hosts for the 3 Union Pacific #844 Western Heritage Tour trips over the old Western Pacific Railroad to celebrate the WP's 100th Anniversary as a fund raiser for the Feather River Rail Society's "Western Pacific Railroad Museum". The engine was coming out with her train for several events and since it was the Centennial year of the WP, the FRRS was graciously allowed to invite guests aboard the UP's flagship steam train for a monetary donation to the FRRS.
Since I am VERY much involved with the FRRS, I was excited about the fund raising opportunities, but ecstatic and honored to be a part of the trip.

I arrived home from Jamaica on February 18th, but call it what you want, it was work. Fun, but hard work, so I needed a little vacation anyway. So, I planned it around the 2 week stretch that 844 was going to be out and eagerly anticipated the arrival of the classy Northern.

April 21st 2009 found Alicia, my brother Timmy!, nephew Dustin and I going to Oakland, CA to meet the train. Though it is only a 1 1/2 hour drive from home in Stockton, we had a crew briefing with Conductor Reed Jackson of the UP Steam Crew and orientation for the 12 car train on Tuesday, and steam boss Steve Lee likes to be on the road between 0800-0900 each trip, so we had to be up early! Also, being as how the trip was going Oakland to Stockton and return via charter bus, I left my car at a friends house here in Stockton as he lives near I-5 and Alicia and I rode down to Oakland with our crew. Timmy! and Dustin were paying Passengers, so they rode Amtrak to Oakland and we all overnighted at the Jack (or is that Crack???) London Inn (a disgusting place if you ever find yourself in Oakland, CA) eagerly anticipating a 0700 crew call the next morning.

Bill Parker and I went to the yard to get the train and have the vestibule trap open and ready to recieve passengers at the depot in Oakland. I had given over my camera to my nephew Dustin (aka: "Gadget") to get photos as that is something he enjoys and I wanted some great shots to remember this by. Here are some of those shots, some taken by Gadget, some by me. If this doesn't lure Deano© out of hiding, then there is no hope left and we must assume he was kidnapped by Pygmies and being held ransom for a thousand tons of yellow Peanut M&M's. Anyway...on with the photos:

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UP #844 Surprises Amtrak Employees as dozens of Railfans swarmed the platforms at Jack London Station (We "forgot" to tell Amtrak we were using their depot). I was on the train so Gadget took the photo of us coming in.

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Speaking of the long silver Greyhound on rails, this is NOT your average stinky Amtrak train. This is inside the lower level of Dome Lounge "Walter Dean". We were lucky to have this car, it is usually assigned to the Executive Fleet at UP and normally reserved for VERY upper management at UP. This is how we rolled the whole trip.

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Me "hard at work" rolling a freight by at Fruitvale

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Rolling through my old home town of San Leandro, CA

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Nicely restored Centerville Depot in Fremont, CA was over ran with happy railfans all lined up for photos. This is also where we slowed down from 60+MPH running to swing off the SP and onto Western Pacific Rails at Niles Tower for the run through Niles Canyon and over Altamont Pass on the WP 1st Sub.

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At Hearst, we met Golden Gate Railroad Museum's SP 2472 Commute Pacific and Pacific Locomotive Association's Robert Dollar Lumber #3 2-6-2T (BEAUTIFUL little engine!) at the connection to PLA's "Niles Canyon Railway".

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I decided to hang back at the cars after helping passengers unload from the Walter Dean with my buddy "Heywood" and grab a smoke once the passengers were up front. We just didn't care to be in the middle of the mob scene at the head end, besides, we had an ace in the hole: We had famed Bay Area Photographer Alex Ramos on board as the official FRRS photographer, so me taking photos up there was like entering a funnycar race with a Ford Pinto. Gadget and Timmy! went up front though to partake, and Gadget got a couple of decent pics. Thanks dude!

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Rolling through Castlewood Golf Course in Pleasanton. Beautiful shots were had here by the fans I'm sure. The main line runs right through the middle of the course making for a heck of a shootin' gallery for frustrated golfers.

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This shot was funny... I had talked to a friend of mine in Pleasanton who works as a director of the cities library and told him of the train coming that Wednesday. He notified the local elementary school and HUNDREDS of kids stampeded in a large herd for the fence when we came blasting through at 60mph.

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Ok, I've seen some real idiot foamers, but this is ridiculous. I mean, if they fell onto the busy boulevard below, they might dent the hood of a car and cause a big mess that some poor city worker would have to hose off the pavement.

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Crossing a creek in Pleasanton, CA

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My friends from the Pleasanton City Library came out to greet us.

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Barely on Altamont near Livermore, the only way to railfan! Lawn chairs and beer coolers, my kind of tailgate party!

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Climbing the grades on the East side of Altamont Pass. About that Genset... It was not started once during the trip. We simply didn't need it. Besides, as the lack of smoke from 844 attests, this was after all, Earth Day! That is so "Western Pacific"... bring an oil burning 65 year old steam locomotive to the San Francisco Bay Area during "Earth Day", HAHAHAHA (Now you know why we fly the Jolly Rogers!)

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Being Earth Day though, FRRS President and UP Steam Fireman Rod McClure kept the flue sanding and the dark exhaust to a minimum. I was really impressed with how little effort she had to exert to climb Altamont with that train....all by herself!

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"Altamont" siding, the summit of the pass

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What goes up.....

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Haulin' the mail near Trevarno (Tracy), CA

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Mossdale (near Manstinka, CA) haulin' butt through the home stretch.

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Now THIS is familiar territory, the very West End of Stockton Yard at Ortega. Maintenance in the Way crew was uninterested.

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A VERY old friend. Stockton Yard Tower. Man, I spent a LOT of Summer days as a kid in that thing!

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Funny story about the last time I saw 844 at Stockton. The track to the left of the tank cars is the turntable lead. Last time 844 was here, she derailed the rear axle of her Centipede tender backing through there (the reason that that lead is now all concrete ties!). I was a Senior in High School and in Photo class and aced it taking photos of the re-railing process. Dad was on the derailment crew as a Carman in Stockton back then. I was told to "get off my @$$, grab some PPE and sling some blocks. The crew was tired. They had been at that rerailing for 6 hours, we spent another 2 hours, then brought the 3985 through once we were finished.....and then spent 8 MORE hours rerailing HER tender. The boss laughed when I brought up the story of rerailing his engines when he came to visit Alicia and I near Mossdale and he laughed and said "You remember that?!". Of course I do. I still have the oil splattered Stockton Derailment Crew windbreaker too...

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One of my favorite childhood places, WP's Stockton Diesel Shop. The loco's have changed over the years, but not the shop.

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We detrained the passengers in the yard near the diesel shop, and they rode back on the bus. Since Alicia and I live in Stockton, we continued on to the display site at the Stockton SP Depot after dropping all but the support cars for the engine and the "Sherman Hill" Souvenier car where Alicia and I hawked WP RR Museum Swag to the visitors. Thanks a BUNCH to the crew of the Sherman Hill for allowing us to setup store in their souevenier car. I could tell Rod was on the crew, EVERYONE on the UP crew (except Conductor Jackson) was wearing WP RR Museum T-Shirts. Just a CLASSY group of fun folks! Made me proud to work along side them.

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Speaking of Rod, here is FRRS President Rod "El Presidente'" (Or "EP for Short) McClure firing with Ed Dickens, one of the engineers right behind him. Steve Lee was running, so Ed was showing Rod some tricks and tips for firing the big engine. We like to give Rod a hard time, (and he LIVES to give us a hard time), but he worked his butt off this trip and secured us many great opportunities through UP for this trip. My hats off to him. He's Alicia and I's favorite Pirate, and we give him all sorts of grief, but he's good people and is the heartbeat of the WPRM. We're proud to work under his lead at the museum.

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UP's Steam Boss, Steve Lee ready to greet local dignitaries who gave him the "Key" to the city of Stockton. He later asked what the key went to, and we told him it went to the front gate of the sewage treatment plant. Afterall, it was a symbol of the city of Stockton...

You'd think he might be a little standoffish given the position he's in and the fame associated with it, but he's one of the nicest, most gracious people you'd ever meet. He came into the Sherman Hill and chatted with Alicia and I for about 45 minutes before rolling into Stockton yard and was a pleasure to talk to. He also told us about the sale of the D&RGW Ski Train in Denver to CN before it was announced in the media and happily answered questions and shot the breeze. Pretty nice little break, not that I was working very hard anyway, but we were having a great time. A VERY hospitable train and crew.

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The throng of people at the SP (Altamont Commuter Express) Depot was pretty thick. We had record temps that day in the 90's, but for Stockton, we were surprised....everyone behaved and nobody got sideways, a real feat considering downtown Stockton....

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And finally, our crew. From left to right:
Conductor Reed Jackson, UP Heritage Fleet Operations
FRRS Vice President and UP Steam Crew Gopher Steve "Pop-Tart" Habeck (Thanks again for the invite Steve! Had the time of my life!)
Cody "Noodle the Clown" Wilson, FRRS
Tom "Nitro" Carter (Me), Crew Trainer, FRRS
Kerry Cochran, FRRS
Eugene "Heywood" Vicknair, Secretary, FRRS
Bill "Billy" Parker, Operations Crew Supervisor, FRRS

Photo by Alex Ramos, FRRS PR guy.

Next installment, leg #2 of 3: Feather River Canyon from Oroville to Portola, as soon as I have some more free time.

I stopped by three of my local hobby shops today, two of which specialize in trains only. They all have extremely limited selections and very few customers, and frankly charge and arm and a leg for stuff. Its sad. :cry: I feel bad for them, but whats one to do? I know I only have a little bit each month to spend on trains these days. I hope the local hobby shops can survive. Online shopping might be the only way to get trains soon. I'm in the Phoenix area, anyone else notice this in their city?

I am hoping someone may be able to answer some questions about a caboose kit I won on ebay. First off I bid on the kit thinking it was an HO scale kit as it was listed in the HO scale listings. I had never heard of the company and meant to google them before bidding but I forgot and when I did remember the auction had less than 2 minutes to go so I went ahead and bid. I ended up winning it. Well the kit showed up today and I was surprised to learn it is an O scale caboose kit. :o Good thing I got it for a very good price.

The kit was sold by Northern Models ( Toronto, Canada ) and was produced by Mullet River Model Works. The kit builds one of four versions of a Canadian National Railways wood caboose. The kit is made up off laser cut and engraved wood parts and etched brass parts for the frame as well as some cast brass details and brass wire. It looks like a very nice kit with loads of detail. it even comes with interior parts.The instruction seem to suggest it was meant to be built as a Proto 48 caboose but does mention what needs to be done to mount standard O scale couplers ect. I do not model in O scale but I am very tempted to build the kit as a display piece due to the fact it is a model of my favorite CNR caboose type and also because of all the great detail.

Has anyone here ever built one of these kits? I am asking because my kit came with two sets of etched brass frame parts. One set has dimples etched in them so the builder can punch rivet detail and the other set does not. The funny thing is there are two complete set of steps, end plateforms, ladders and a few other parts that are identical. Does anyone know whey there are to sets of brass frame parts and end details included? There is also two sets of wooden unframe parts included which are identical to each other as well. Other than the above listed sets of duplicate parts the kit is complete and has all the other require parts to build one of four versions of a CNR wood caboose ( well except for trucks and couplers as they are supplied by the builder it seems ).

I have attached a picture of the kit. I would be very gratefull for any info anyone may be able to provide about this kit.

Wayne Reid

   

While working on my layout the other day I realized that I needed a way to move and load freight in the freight handling area other than just a crane. I went looking through my goody box and found a Boley front end loader that I bought sometime ago.It looked like it would fill the need. This on was the articulated type which I didn't want so I filled in the area behind the cab,cut the back off the cab,added a rear window and a new stack. I then cut the bucket off the arms and added some styrene strips to simulate the fork blades.Once finished I will have something that can do the job.
Enjoy-Bob

Hey Wayne,

For the benfit of the masses, could you please describe the various modifications (and how you accomplished them) you made on this Athearn car? Looks like you shaved down or removed the door tracks and replaced them. Looks like a new door. New running board? Steps and grab irons?



Thanks Wayne!

Just curious if other folks find themselves continually fixing or at least having to improve their layout's track?

Back in the winter, my main 4x6 layout had a LOT of track problems. During Feb/Mar I managed to fix most of these and I hardly ever get any derailments now. However, I've also found that there are still several places where I can still improve it further. Again, the "trick" is to keep all track as flat as possible, especially turnouts.

I've noticed that most of my locos (especially my newer ones) will pass through the problematic turnouts with no problems so that gave me the illusion that my track was in good shape. But a few locos (mainly my older ones) will either hesitate or stall at the turnouts. So, during the past few days, I’ve managed to make the turnouts even “flatter” and there has been a definite improvement.

[My layout has had so many uneven areas for several reasons -- the main one is that I’ve tweaked and changed the track layout so much (this has been my “learning curve” layout) that I’ve often ended up laying the the track on surfaces that are no longer even.]

I find it strange that 90% of my locos will run smoothly through slightly uneven turnouts, but it takes the remaining 10% to reveal the problems in the layout. Also, when I buy a new loco, I often have to tweak the track as well.

There have been many times, during the past few years, when I’ve thought I was done fixing the track, yet there are still places that need improving. I guess this is also true in real life as crews are often out repairing and improving track as well.

Rob

A couple of days ago I say a powder blue diesel unit letter KCS bringing up the rear of a BNSF coal drag. I assume that stands for Kansas City Southern?

Today I saw boxcars rolling north lettered for the RJ CONNELL (sp?) Railroad. Does anyone know anything about that outfit? First I ever heard of them.

Interesting thing...for years and years, loaded consists have traveled south and empties have returned north. Now, about a third of the traffic I have seen is loaded going north with the empties returning south.

I have listed a Kato BNSF AC4400CW (HO Scale) on ebay for sale. Starting bid of $49.95. Buy it now receives FREE shipping to USA

Loco was bought off ebay a while back, was custom detailed and has had after market detail parts added on to super detail it. DCC ready and brand new having only been test run by previous owner

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...0201434092

We finally made the jump to sound on two diesels (AC4400 and SD80MAC). I installed an MRC sound decoder and after some gentle persuasion to get the decoder to fit, both decoders programmed correctly and are up and running. I think given the noise these guys make, that I'll only have these two with sound. I can't imagine having any more than this running around my small layout putting out sound.