Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Happy Christmas.

I got the HO scale edition Polar Express locomotive for Christmas this year...

The date, the location of Kent, Washington and the line of "Everyone's laid off, he started to explain" are all sad hints of what's to come. The Milwaukee Road went bankrupt in '77 and abandoned the entire Pacific Coast Extension in '79.

I just stumbled upon this YouTube channel about a guy who bought a railroad spur that was abandoned for ~25 years & is trying to get it back into service. 

I'll join in the fun, here's what I've been working on in N scale. A little bit of an older pic, I've since laid down a layer of !" pink foam and started laying out my risers and subterrain.

2x4' layout, the rear curved section is going to be raised with a road going under the bridge. Trying to very loosely model a mountainous region in the pacific northwest, somewhat freelance but modernish era, of a fictional short line serving the area between Seattle and Boise. The name of the railroad is "Pacific Enterprise Network Intermodal System". The three spurs inside the loop are to house a single transfer company which handles transfers from box cars, intermodal containers and hoppers (left to right spurs), named "Teanaway Intermodal & Transfer Station". The two in/out spurs will "go to" Seattle (NW) and Boise (SE). Basically I want it to act like a small switching puzzle but also have a continuous loop.

And yes, I got somewhat creative with my naming :)

A Wabash Railroad engineer waits alongside his steed, semi-streamlined Pacific #702, at Chicago's Dearborn Street station. They have just brought eastbound train #10, Banner Blue, in from St. Louis.

A B&O E9A and a C&O E8A wait at Chicago's Grand Central Station in February of '66.

Well, that is less than helpful

MoW crews thawing the switched while NYS&W GP30 #3040 is building her train in the Water St. yard in Utica this morning.

Meanwhile the MA&N crews tinker with Adirondack #25's trucks farther down in their yard and Alco/MLW products in 2 different BC Rail liveries lounge around

Rolling up Schuyler St. and past F.X. Matt Brewing Company on the old DL&W Utica Branch with an extended-height boxcar, two regular boxcars, and three grain cars. Its a tight fit and the engineer pretty much ties the horn down for half a mile.

1928 Brill Doodlebug converted in 1954 to a rail defect detector car. 

MoW crews thawing out the switches before #3040 arrives. They set out the three hopper cars, then head onto a fragment of the NYO&W's Utica Division to take the three boxcars to Oneida Warehousing. Its a weird zigzagging, back-and-forth routing with a lot of grade crossings that had me doing a lot of U-turns to track.

#3040 returned from Oneida Warehousing with three empty boxcars, two extended-height, one standard, and cut those off the back, then ran to Utica Highway Department nd grabbed an empty flatcar. It hooked those together, then uncoupled and went back to the three hopper cars from the morning. And then I lost it. I thought it was headed back to Schuyler Street, so I hurried ahead and then...nothing. I tried to pick up the trail but couldn't, although I think it went to the feed mill in Sangerfield.

I went back to Utica Station and caught MA&N Alco #2453 switching some cars before motoring back to the engine barn. Check out the old Conrail logo on that boxcar in the foreground.

And yes, Adirondack #25 was back on her own 12 feet as well. I assume the tow up to Remsen will be soon

Going back to the Amtrak discussion of a few days back, I caught one of the heritage-liveried engines in Hudson earlier today. The badge reads "Empire Service", so I'm guessing this unit never leaves NY (except maybe on the Montreal run).

02Pilot said:

Going back to the Amtrak discussion of a few days back, I caught one of the heritage-liveried engines in Hudson earlier today. The badge reads "Empire Service", so I'm guessing this unit never leaves NY (except maybe on the Montreal run).

Its amazing how much better the Phase II livery is compared to Phase V. I saw a Phase V Genesis at Utica today, and its such a drab, uninspired paint scheme. Caesar Vergara, the guy that designed the Genesis, apparently hates the current livery too, says it makes them look like beached whales

This is a step back, not an improvement. Still, even a Phase V Genesis is more of a looker than that new Siemens Charger thing.

The Genesis I saw today also had 3rd-rail shoes, so that train must have originated at Grand Central Terminal

In reply to NickD :

Agreed. I really wish they'd come up with something that wasn't clearly designed by a government committee making decisions for a money-losing enterprise. The current scheme looks like something the Soviet Union might be using had it survived to 2020.

I happened to spot one of the Siemens engines on VRF yesterday (or was it this morning - I can't recall). In any case, it looks really futuristic pulling the old Amfleet cars. Not pretty, but futuristic.

In reply to 02Pilot :

It helps that the Phase I and Phase II liveries black out the area around the windshields, which helps cover up how weirdly tiny the windshields are. From what I read, the original concept by Cesar Vergara had larger windshields and the front end was leaned back further. Amtrak has submitted a replacement proposal for the Amfleets, but an RFP usually takes 4-5 years, and then more time for actual construction, so it will be mid-2020s before they start to arrive, at which point the AmCans will be 60 years old or more.