Finger Lakes Live Steamers, 2009

Took advantage of a beautiful day head out to the Finger Lakes Live Steamers' annual open house in Marengo, NY (near Clyde). Lots of action and happy faces as folks got pulled around by live steam and faux diesels.

View it in better quality at Papphausen2 on YouTube.

New Reichsbahn Motive Power

Added to my "collection" of DR motive power in the form of a 58.3 (the reconstructed versions of the old G12/BR58) and the VT172 Ferkeltaxe, a railbus. The 58.3 is Gützold's newest steamer, the 58130 for AC. Says it can go through radii of 380mm, got it through some of my 360mm with a little complaining. Turnouts are mostly ok, interestingly enough more trouble tender first then forward. Although it comes with LOPI 3, I run it analog and driving properties are quite smooth with good pulling power. So that the distance between axles could be kept prototypical, RP25 wheel profiles are used. Rather than being held in place with a screw, the pilot at the front has a mechanism not unlike that for couplers. Front coupler pocket is the standard NEM, rear has a swallow-tail into which one can slide a Roco Universal or Fleischmann coupler if the standard provide hook and loop is not provided. I believe that this solution was selected due to the lack of space inside the tender.



The other item is Brawa's BR172 Ferkeltaxe, the DR's version of the Railbus. Other nickname was Blutblase (blood blister) for the deep red color and the curved front end. It can be seen in the group shot at top. There is more info in German at <http://www.ferkeltaxe.de/>. The model is by Brawa and "replaces" the Era 5 version with the mint green striping... Mint is something I wouldn't even impose on mutton...



Still waiting for Brawa's DR BR65.10... That one should be out in the next month or so...


Back to the layout for some more running.

Trainspotting off the Willis Ave bridge in Solvay (Syracuse), NY

After a four-week break decided it was time to go trainspotting again and this time headed West to the Willis Ave bridge in Solvay, a part of greater Syracuse. This location in interesting because there are great views of downtown Syracuse through the trees, Onondaga Lake (our local Superfund site and beautiful in spite of it), as well as some larger local industries and a power plant. 5 trains in almost 3 hours isn't bad (The first train arrived as I was parking - a boring westbound stack train) and the Finger Lakes Railway GE B23-7 with a (very) short freight was a treat. Below an overview of the location.

View Larger Map

And here some stills...

Here a video of the morning... from my YouTube site
Click here to watch video with better quality

Steamcourse and Video Digitization

Been spending lots of time converting old VHS based tapes to digital, among those from various railfan trips to Germany, Maine, and elsewhere. Also gathering various silent clips shot with a plain old digital camera and uploading them to YouTube as well.

A big theme was the steamcourse I took at the Boothbay Railway Village in Maine during the Fall of 2003. A complete report is here.

There are six videos total of the experience starting with introductions and firing up and going all the way to parting shots as I had to head back to Syracuse after what would be an amazingly long, wonderful experience... The smell of anthracite followed me all the way home and still lingers in the gloves and lumps of coal I grind up to use on the layout.

Below video 1... Click to view the video at YouTube and see all the rest too. Several other videos from Boothbay and the Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway (WW&F) there too.