Davis Junction Illinois July 2007

EJ&E steel coil cars and a DM&E gondola at Davis Junction.

Al Warren's HO Scale CNW layout

Some nice pics of a CNW layout here.

Dennis Storzek: Station switching in days of yore

Dennis posted this great picture of Cal Zephyr being switched at Oakland Mole in 1954. via Passenger Car List

CA&E Pictures

Some pics I had sitting on the computer. No idea from where I downloaded them. I remember them tearing down the gas tank in Forest Park. That's the tank in the background of the bottom picture.

Chicago and West Towns

A site with lots of pictures. Also Central Electric Railfans new book by James Buckly.

John Flinn: World's loftiest train ride a breathtaking feat

From today's Chicago Trib on the new Lhasa Express,

The atmosphere here holds between 40 and 50 percent less oxygen than at sea level. Extra oxygen is pumped into the unpressurized rail cars as they roll across the Tibetan plateau, but it's not clear that it does much good. All around me in the dining car, passengers were suffering the hangover-like symptoms of altitude sickness: throbbing headaches and severe nausea.

I was feeling relatively chipper due to Diamox, a prescription drug that prevents altitude sickness. Even so, I was lightheaded and a little dizzy. Back in my compartment, I plugged the oxygen hose into the wall and inhaled deeply. Almost instantly my mind cleared. But the effect lasted only as long as I breathed oxygen from the hose.

The surrealness was heightened by what looked like hundreds of enormous golf tees lining the tracks. They're an attempt to solve the railroad's most vexing problem.

Four hundred miles of the route lie atop a particularly unstable form of permafrost that thaws during the day and freezes at night, causing the tundra above it to rise and fall by inches. To try to prevent tracks from buckling and cracking, Chinese engineers elevated more than 100 miles of it and installed the giant golf tees along other stretches. These are cooling pipes that use solar energy to turn liquid ammonia into gas, chilling the ground and preventing the permafrost from melting.

Grinnell Railway Express Club

An M&StL doodlebug downloaded from the Grinnell Railway Express model railroad club.

I graduated from Grinnll College in 1976. The old M&StL line ran right through the campus.

Check their webpage and you'll see a nicely done model of the Rock Island and M&StL depot. It now houses a restaurant. The old Railway Express building houses the club.

Naperville - Prototype Modelers Seminar

Photo's here. Great stuff! Inspirational....

Small Illinois towns don't forget rail roots

Trib's Don Davenport today on railroad museums in Galesburg, Mendota, Amboy, Union, Thomson, and Rochelle. The IC depot at Amboy is very classy structure,

Even casual passersby pause to admire this beautiful two-story brick and limestone depot built in 1876. Onetime headquarters for the Illinois Central's Northern Division, the 19-room structure featured passenger facilities on the first floor and housed division officials and staff on the upper level.

As times changed, division headquarters were moved elsewhere; passenger service ended in 1939, and the depot closed in 1967. Freight trains used the line into the 1980s. The tracks have since been removed.

As disuse led to disrepair, concerned citizens began efforts to save the historic station. It has been returned to life as the Amboy Depot Museum, filled with railroad memorabilia and local history items.

The telegrapher's office features a variety of telegraph keys, timetables and photos of train wrecks that occurred at Amboy. Original benches grace depot waiting rooms; there are original railroad documents, photos, railroad lanterns, switch keys and a great deal more.

A steam locomotive, a 1920s-era caboose and a century-old IC freight house on the grounds are open to tour.

Sitting at East Main and South East Avenue, the depot is open year-round, 1-4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and holidays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Admission is free.

Amboy is about 110 miles from downtown Chicago. For additional information, call 815-857-4700.

Baghdad Hobby Club

What do some servicemen stationed in Iraq do to pass the time? Hobbies! Specifically, model trains! Here, Lt. Patrick Anderson works with some of our HO scale hopper cars. Patrick and a few others in the outfit have also built an operating layout using KATO UNITRACK.

And Kato has pictures of it here. (On the lefthand menu of the Web site of the Japanese model railroad manufacturer Kato USA, click on the Customer Photo Gallery and go to the Baghdad Hobby Club at the bottom of Page 2.)


via Allen Johnson

cross posted Bill Baar's West Side

Playing with trains

When I belonged to the Oak Park Society of Model Engineers many years ago, you couldn't say play with trains; it was instead operating the layout.

I'm older now. Playing is just fine with me.

Sam Posey's written a book about it and the Mcwetlog reviews it here.

Broadway Limited CZ Pass Cars

Model Railroader reviews them. They're stunning models.

Model Slums

Somebody models 'em. They look great.

Milwaukee Rd rib-side cabooses

The Milwaukee Railroader's First Quarter 2006 issues carries a story on building Milwaukee Rd rib-side cabooses from Cabooses Northwest.

Pictures of them available here.

Coincidence to see them because a few weeks ago I was talking at the hobby shop about scratch building some but hesitated because I thought putting the work into that would gurantee someone bringing them out (and doing a better job of it).

Looks like just mentioning the thought was enough to do the trick.

Bloomingdale Airline

Tremendous site dedicated to documenting C&NW and Milw Road switching districts in Chicago. This is just fantastic. Especially the part on the Bloomingdale Airline; one of my favorite pieces of railroads in Chicago.

C&NW Caboose at Proviso yard 1943

There are more C&NW pictures here at the Library of Congress's Bound for Glory online exhibit. This is one of my favorites.

And more here...

Rochelle, Illinois March 12, 2006

Chicago Aurora & Elgin RR substation in Elgin, Illinois

B & G Train World, Elgin, Illiniois, Feb 4, 2006

I spend a lot of time here. It's the only full service hobby shop in the area. Friendly helpful bunch of folks. All of them Model Railroaders.

Elgin's Watch Factory Station