Railfanning Meets BAR Modeling

I hope the fine folks at Micro-Trains don't mine me using this shot to point out another use for their terrific product. I'm going to make one of these converted troop sleepers into a Bangor and Aroostook caboose. A nice blend of wandering the countryside looking for trains and the more sedentary pursuit of model railroading. The one prototype car I have many detail photos to go by is C-87 which is on display in Frenchville at the local historical society. The DT&I Fan and I saw it last October on a quick tour of "The County".

It may require a bit of work but I have assembled the main ingredients, namely the car pictured above and an old bay window caboose to cut up for parts (steps, stovepipe and bay windows). I'll worry about the red paint and decals if I get that far. Thank heavens the model troop sleeper comes with the correct trucks. Allied trucks are readily available anyway but there's always some hangup with length of the coupler extension. My layout is nearly all talgo style couplers, not body mounts.

Here's another shot of the prototype.

I'll have to revisit other photos when I get closer to actual modifications. There may be some missing details and some things that changed with time. A lot of putty or styrene will be needed to fill in all the windows and vents. Cutting out doors ought to be fun. This guy doesn't have any roofwalks or high ladders. That could be because the old troop sleepers didn't either or the BAR modernized before cabooses were discontinued. Anyway, if I get far enough for paint, it will be close enough for me. The latest operating session at Brandon Kulik's gave me the inspiration to dive in. He has an HO version made from a troop sleeper turned baggage car. He cut in windows, the opposite of what I'll do. I'm doing this one in N scale so the whole car is only about 4 inches long. One of those magnifier visors will come in real handy for these old eyes.

BC

March Photo Worth A Thousand Words

After all the prior postings about New York and Connecticut, I thought this shot of a true landmark was worthy of note. How many of us have seen it as we battle traffic through Waterbury on I-84? Many of us know it is the clock tower at the Waterbury train station just north of the highway. Some of us may have been fearing for our lives as we dodged the other cars and not had a chance to really look at the tower though it isn't difficult to spot.

After years of passing this large landmark, several of my railfan adventures actually led to leaving the highway to poke around. I never did it alone but having a navigator and some extra security made the detour more likely. This was among the last photos of 12/28/2005 adventures. The McGuiness painted SLE unit and train are to my left. The Wheelman and I chased it up from Ansonia.

Having spent a couple of years in CT as a youth I was familiar with this landmark already. In the late 1960' and very early 1970's this town was bustling with industry, though I suppose it was on the wane. It was the home of Timex; you know, the watch that "takes a licking and keeps on ticking" according to all the TV commercials featuring assorted stunts to test a watch. I grew up believing that clock tower was a Timex clock. Maybe that was part of it's original inspiration. Anyway, as you know, Timex pretty much produces everything overseas now. About all that is left now is a museum called the Timexpo Museum.

Despite the impact of time keeping devices, Waterbury is known locally as "The Brass City" because it's foundries used to produce every conceivable object made of brass. Other products were made in the city too but that's the important one. Foundries still litter the landscape though the surviving buildings often have other uses now. The Wikipedia articles had lots of neat details that were new to me. This also explains the extensive, but now largely idle, rail yards in the area. The depot in the photo is also large because it used to be quite important to local commerce. Now it is a terminus for Metro-North's Waterbury Line. Railfans could find some odd power on this line including FP10's, FL9's and those new Brookville BL20-GH gensets.

Behind the station area, the remainder of the building is the home of Waterbury's local daily newspaper. This is curious to us now because it is (or was, judging by the health of newspapers these days) a customer for rail shipped newsprint. In the photo, but obscured by the big tree, are two MMA box cars, at the time newly painted maroon from the Derby shops. The B&M, now Pan Am took over some old New Haven RR lines in the area from Conrail. They switch the industries of the area. So, you can imagine the long journey (time-wise) that those cars made from Maine or Quebec with their cargo. But that's a whole can of worms I'd rather not go into.

That's enough tangents for this one. "A Thousand Words" comes from the old saying, not my intentions.

BC

Variety On CSX's Mohawk Sub 2005

In December of 2005, the Wheelman and I traveled to the west of Albany, NY to visit the Mohawk Subdivision of CSX and Broken Knuckle Video's Ken Buckman. Being the old NYC "water level route" helped lure us there too. While we both took tons of photos, I chose a few of the more unusual sights while we had the local guidance of Ken.

You might say this post was all "locked up" since we spent a good deal of time along the Mohawk River, route of the Erie Canal lock system. Most railfans are familiar with Lock 10 near Amsterdam or Guy Park in town. Above and below we are at Lock 13, which is west of our base at Canajoharie/Palatine Bridge. It is public but only accessible from the New York State Thruway. The locks themselves are closed for maintenance and repair during the winter. We bunked down the previous night at the Rodeway Inn Motel at Palatine Bridge (also the base for a prior post) which features a fabulous, though less than ideal for stills, view of the tracks.


The photos aren't spectactular but it might be useful to see what the lock area looks like from a railfanning perspective. If you like broadside views, this place, like some of the other locks, is pretty decent.




We actually started the chilly morning at Fort Plain, just up the road after meeting Ken for breakfast. Here we had a very handy detector that would give us an audible warning most of the day. With the Wheelman and his famous luck along on this trip we naturally caught this nearly original Santa Fe Warbonnet on the point of the first eastbound we saw through the detector equipment. Looking the other way we see the old freight house (owned by a New Jersey railfan) as a westbound double stack approaches. We caught a good sampling here but decided to push on to the locks. It was also tough to stand around in the snowy cold with little warning of what was near. Radio signals were scarce in this spot and the car too distant to rely on the rumble only. Access to Ken's scanner feed would have been awesome if it was around then.


We moved around quite a bit between these places and Fonda. This is a line known for it's parade of trains. Mornings here can be very busy. On the way east we caught an eastbound from the since replaced old bridge at Palatine Bridge. In the photo you see Lock 12 which was closed for the season and under repair. The Fort Plain detector is around the bend and the tail of this train has just been given the blessing to proceed with no defects. The shot isn't that spectacular but shows important detail. One of these days Lock 12 might be a good place to just relax and watch the action roll by. Over on the Canajoharie side out of view is a small downtown with some restored remnants of the old West Side line and a great diner across the street from the Beech Nut Foods plant.

Well, we couldn't sit still and expect to get a good feel for the area. Moving further east we went by some interesting railfanning spots as we approached Fonda. Fonda itself was good spot since there is a courthouse park and a Subway right at a crossing where one can sit and watch the action. However, the place where we spent a lot of time, on this trip and subsequent trips, was a mile or so west of town at a fairly open stretch featuring crossovers. I couldn't help but find this ex-BN SD40-2 on the point interesting enough to include. My previous posts might help explain the facination with these once common units.

As the day wound down and the light started to go, Ken determined that as work was being done and trains were avoiding a work zone, we should hang out at the other set of crossovers further west. He correctly figured that we might see the CN train in the mix. Boy did he nail that. We saw several trains stack up waiting their turn through and sure enough the CN west/northbound was one of them. Having our lucky charm helped too. The leader was a BC Rail unit. That turned out to be a bit of a news scoop for Ken. The remaining trains seemed to be a let-down after that, but were not ignored. Back at Ken's he copied my photos for his listservs and we bid him farewell.

This did not end the adventure. The Wheelman and I decided to extend the trip another day so the next morning we were in Canaan, CT at the MEC Caboose for a trip following the Housatonic RR. Maybe I'll get to that adventure next. We then ended with my first trip to the museum in Danbury and a chance meet of more New Haven heritage in Ansonia which I posted already.

BC

MEC Caboose #658

I stumbled onto this shot while I was looking for inspiration. This is restored #658 sitting next to the wye in Canaan, CT on 12/28/05. The Wheelman and I were watching the Housatonic RR get ready for their morning run south. While the proceedings were in full swing, we stopped in for a cup of coffee and to warm up a bit since it was only about 7:30am and there was a chill in the air. The people running the coffee shop were friendly and had all kinds of information about the restoration of the half-burned depot in the background (all done now). They seemed reasonably proud of their Maine caboose too. It sure looked good.

Indirectly related to the caboose, but still fun to mention; The Wheelman may have taken the last photos of the unique 'L' shaped depot in Canaan since one wing burned down a day or two after he visited. He returned (the light was better the second time) on his way back to find charred remains. This caboose was among several parked on the old CNE tracks near the depot before the fire.

BC