Open House
Each Novemebr the layout was open for the Houston Area Model railroad open houses that were sponsered by the San Jacinto Model railroad Club.
November 2007 open house. These first three pictures were taken by my good friend Craig Brantley
 Dave R came over to help with the open house. We are programming a locomotive. |
Wes M came over to help with the open house. Here he is skillfully running the limited. |
With the room full of visitors, Barry B was one of the many visitors. Here he watches as I tinker with a switch as one of his modeling buddies, Ward, looks on. |
November 2006 Open house
Action on the Mainline and Fidalgo |
The 927 is about to cross the Howe truss bridge. |
Extra 927 east is hustling three reefers of Calif produce towards Montana. The reefers are fresh off the barge dock. The 927 is a PFM import with ancient PFM sound. Those gorgeous reefers are Pecos River imports. Sharper pictures will be posted next time
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November 2005 Open house
These pictures were made when Photoshop was my new toy and there was no scenery yet on the layout. So I improvised.
An eastbound Fruit Block, runs past an 'undisclosed location' on the layout. Through the miracle of Photoshop, the Cascades appear instead of plain benchwork. As noted in the captions, several other pictures have also been retouched in Photoshop. |
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The reefer train passes Cashmere, where it passes a work train. The future roundhouse is on the right. The temporary backdrop painting is actually a Masonite panel given to me by my good friend, Charlie Morrill when he dismantled his outstanding layout. |
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Another view of the reefer train at Cashmere. A close look at the caboose's platform reveals an SP, not a GN 'Safety First' herald. There is a story, but it is too long to relate here. |
A tank car on the O-8's manifest freight streaks past the work train at Cashmere. The work train is preparing to start ballasting the right of way. |
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The 410, a 4-8-0 leaves at dawn with a peddler freight. This is another retouched picture. See below for the untouched picture. |
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Titans, past and present. The peddler passes a mightly 2-10-2 that has stopped because of a hot box. When delivered, to 'Conquer the Cascades', the G-1 was the largest and heaviest locomotive on the roster. By the end of steam, the Q-1 class 2-10-2 held that title on the GN for non-articulated locomotives. |
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. Y-1 electric motor number 5016 passes Spokane yard with the heavyweight Empire Builder. This photo was retouched in Photoshop to remove the benchwork. The blurry locomotive in the Spokane holding yard is the 3216, a class O-4 mike. |
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An S-2 Northern now pulls the heavyweight Empire Builder. This photo was also retouched in Photoshop to remove the benchwork. I sort of went crazy with the grass tool. Someday real soon there will be actual scenery along the line! |
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Finally the 2003, an N-3 2-8-8-0, passes the 2125, a Q-1 2-10-2, whose engineer is oiling the running gear. This backdrop was also created through Photoshop and 'pirateware' off the web. I actually found the picture on Dave Frary's scenery page and thought it looked fantastic. Hope he doesn't mind. |
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