Lyon Valley Northern

This site is designed to promote the hobby of ferroequinology. It also provides an opportunity to show the development of the "Lyon Valley Northern": an HO railroad featuring CN and BNSF action in the West. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or comments at cnlyon@sympatico.ca

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Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Retired

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Operating Session Aftermath

TRAIN NUMBER CN102 (Southbound)
Locomotive Number CN 5501, BC Rail 4612 MU DA55

Container Train departed Staging yard southbound on outside main and traverse the layout five times.

It then enter the outside main passing siding and proceed to North end of the main Classification Yard.



Trainman Fred Adams was distracted by all the activity lost focus on his train resulting in him proceeding into the rear end of Caboose of Train 504. Brass on Brass sigh...He quickly brought his throttle to zero but the train kept moving. In a panic he looked to the stars for direction. Suddenly in dismay he looked down at his shoes and in the process discovered that his throttle was not plugged in.

After begging the investigators for his job they gave him a breathalyzer, shook their heads and allowed him to proceed. Arriving at the destination he disconnect the power then ran around his train. He pulled back to the Container Terminal and had to drop off all inbound container cars.

He then made a new train by picking up loaded double stacks.

Pick up DTTX 56028
GBRX 2853
DTTX 560058
DTTX 620630
GBRX 2329

Some of these were singles, tripples and five car sets. Only a few discussions were needed to explain this to a steam diesel transition modeller:)

Finally after holding up the CN local for 20 minutes (Stan you are patient) Fred backed the Train to the runaround track. Disconnect the power, ran around the train, reconnect and proceeded when clear, onto the outside main and traverse layout five times.
He then crossed over to the inside main and proceeded to the inside classification tracks and over to the staging yard.

This is only one of five trains that were working during this session. Go to the friday Night Group blog for further humourings by Mike Hamer.

http://www.fridaynightgroup.blogspot.com/



This is a first blog video. Fred's Container train CN102. The sound of the locomotives are the natural metal gears in overland models. Sounds like dynamic brakes.

Now then there was Peter and Mike running that BNSF701 North to Canada. They had to take over twenty empties and sort them by colour. Red for the port mine and green for the starboard. They got local CN power to do the empties in and loads out at the two mines. They reformed a full train of Irish colours to quote Mike as he sang that famous folk ditty and took them back south BNSF702 to Montana. Only took them 2.5 hours. Well done the boats crew. Here is a video of the train they were running after they were fully loaded. The coal that is.... Fred's container train continued to provided entertainment on the outside main.



Have a great week

Monday, April 17, 2006

The trackwork is finished

Easter, What a weekend. The weather was great. I was torn between the out door bike rides, the walks, breakfast on the patio and watching the Leafs take Ottawa, Blue Jays and golf. Oh ya then there was that goal of finishing the trackwork before the Friday night group comes trooping in this coming Friday.

Well I had to get down there. First there was the south end team track, warehouse tracks and the west side industrial siding. Then I had to join this to the outside passing siding so I could connect into the engine/locomotive facility. Then there was the three track locomotive facility plus a siding track for sand, oil and chemicals. By 22:00 on Monday night it was done. Wiring everything. Tested the trains over the new track... all is well. Now for a few photos for the blog:) Then it is off to bed.

This week will be spent making signs so folks no what is what and maybe a schedule. See U guys Friday.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Dave's CN Dream


Details details details. Dave has done a super job with his HO scale CN layout. The track is peco code 100. The layout goes around the room and he has a double ended staging yard through the wall in another room. Dave had a great deal of fun integrating his track plan, ground cover, trees, rock castings, structures, figures and small details into this wonderful three dimensional masterpeace. The blending of the colours and careful weathering has made a great transition to the acrylic painted backdrop. Scenic breaks in the foreground add to the depth and the transition to the backdrop makes the scene go on for ever. The CN gang leaves the trailer park in the early morning and heads down to the round house for coffee before the morning run.















Here you see a mixed freight arriving to switch out tank cars boxcars and gondolas. You can only hold the main for a short time as there is a stream of freight and passanger traffic that must make its way through this sleepy western town










The flour mill is a Walthers Kit and he nicely combined it with a conveyor and two storage bins. The Switcher is an athearn model modified with juneco parts and custom painted and weathered. The caboose is a sylvan custom painted.









This gorge shows a grain train powering over a central valley trestle. When Dave reads this blog I hope he will add some details about the operations and I can then add a few more pictures. Consider this a draft ha ha.

Trip to Edmonton


Wow...What a great time to get back west to shoot trains. The weather was 10+ degrees and the snow was gone. Dave Hackett and I had the opportunity to see the new 2200s and 8000s doing their thing as well as an endless parade of current mainline power. Even foreign UP stuff showed up in a trailing position consist.
The shot even show a GP9 switcher trying its hardest to be an alco. Smoke everywhere:). In one go around we had a CN policeman stop and give us a warning for being to close to the tracks. Hmm I wonder if the fine will come in the mail. Keep those fingers crossed.