Trains – Page 2 – Not Your Average Engineer

December 25, 2013January 2, 2014

The 2014 Van Bossuyt and Lee Family Christmas Trains

This year we had a family Christmas with the Van Bossuyts and the Lees gathering together. I decided to bring the trains out of their storage boxes and setup all six gauges of trains plus a gondola. This is the pseudo-G Gauge train that my grandfather gave me many years ago.

This is a wind-up train that would fall somewhere between N and HO Gauges.

This push train is a bit smaller than N Gauge.

The N Gauge train next to the push train.

The HO Gauge train coming out from behind the Christmas tree.

The O27 Gauge Lionel engine. I need to find a replacement tender for this engine because the original was lost some years back when it went out for service and never came back to us.

Some of the newer cars in the O27 fleet

All of the trains together.

The trains all run around or near the Christmas Tree. In years past I was able to get all of the trains to actually circle the tree but not this year.

The Swiss-made gondola.

It is a pretty fun toy.

Here is a video of all of the trains running.

June 22, 2013September 23, 2013

Prineville Trains

Prineville has a long and proud history of running its own railroad. When the railroads built south from the Columbia Gorge to Bend, they bypassed Prineville. The town of Prineville, never one to be left behind, built their own spur line in order to be connected to the outside world.

December 19, 2012November 15, 2021

B&O Railroad Museum

Heather and I went with one of her friends and her friend’s two young boys to the B&O Railroad Museum. I visited this museum in 8th grade. It’s even better than I remember it.

The beautifully restored roundhouse. Between my previous visit and this visit, the roof of the roundhouse had collapsed under a heavy snow load and was rebuilt.

This American Freedom Train wasn’t kept running like the 4449 Daylight has been. Too bad.

The first stone laid on the first railroad in America.

The original style of railway coach used in America.

An O gauge train with an aquarium car!

I love the design of the interior of the roundhouse.

An incredibly old steam engine.

The Christmas train layouts were all setup in the roundhouse.

An interesting machine used to check the interior dimensions of tunnels.

Looking up into the dome.

An old car converted into a rail car.

Caleb got a ride on the kids train.

A transformer on a flat bed car.

A troop train car.

In the old repair building. Now it is filled with historic locomotives.

A streamlined steam engine.

Some serious machine tools! They remind me of what I saw where Steph worked in Sydney.

Just look at those mechanical things!

I meant to go to school to become an engineer. Instead I ended up as an engineer. Maybe next life I will read the fine print before I get too far into things.

Love that iron!

So many knobs!

These engines are HUGE!

A fireless locomotive. It would be filled up with superheated steam from an industrial source and could run in a switch yard for several hours before it would need to recharge again.

So many great old steam engines. It makes me sad that they aren’t in running condition. I hate to see the grand mechanical marvels of yesteryear slowly rust away into nothing.

Back in the main roundhouse.

A Camel engine. The cab is directly over the boiler but the fireman has to stand outside in the weather.

A Civil War-era steam engine.

There was a modular N-scale layout setup to one side of the roundhouse.

Slumbering beasts. Hopefully one day they will be able to reawaken.