Wordless Wednesday #21

Model railroad-styling meets real life in Bellow Falls Vermont. 

BNSF Breaks Ground in Sandpoint

- Photo via Bruce Kelly

Looks like the BNSF Railway got their paperwork in order and have begun work on a second bridge crossing Lake Pend Oreille at Sandpoint.  This bridge will allow the railroad to relieve some of the congestion of trains having to wait their turn to cross the nearly mile-long span. Additionally, this new bridge should open up the opportunity for more rail traffic through Sandpoint while reducing delays for local motorists at grade crossings.

POVA on the Cover of a Magazine

A friend in the hobby pointed me to the February issue of Railfan & Railroad where the POVA is featured on the cover of the magazine!  The article itself is very cool and very informative. I learned a lot I did not know about the railroad's history. I also finally got a good, clear sense of day-to-day operations on the modern POVA railroad. This helped to confirm that my freelanced approach to this railroad is indeed prototypical and should serve to re-create the feeling of modern shortline railroading in the pacific northwest nicely.

I must say, it is a bit overwhelming to have such a surge of information arrive on my doorstep after spending years and years trying to slowly piece together the puzzle that is this railroad from various blog postings, pictures, google maps, etc.

New Power on the MFR

I really should endeavor to keep this blog more updated, but it seems that Youtube and Instagram are the go-to places for keeping in touch with the online community these days. (also facebook for some... not me, but... some.)

Back in July of last year, I pre-ordered this SD40-2 from Scaletrains.com. After a long and impatient wait, it arrived and I couldn't be happier.  The model is beautiful for sure, details are great and accurate, but the real surprise was how nice the NCE Loksound Decoder pair with a decent capacitor and speaker enclosure was. Not only does it sound absolutely incredible, but it runs extremely smoothly and reliably as well.  This has very quickly become my favorite locomotive on my layout.

This will now be the main workhorse on the MFR. It will stay painted in it's patched BNSF paint scheme for a while but eventually, it will be weathered and patched for the MFR along with some additional detailing including rear ditch lights.

I hope you like it as much as I do 'cause you'll be seeing a lot of this guy in the future for sure!