What's New

Currently I'm in the process of updating and rebuilding this site. I'm also attempting to learn Deamweaver CS4 with minimal success. Some links may not work or take you to the wrong place. For these I apologize and wish to advise you that they are being fixed as I find them.

June 15 , 2010

Reconfigured opening page, adding an OSW stop and moving Links to a new button below.
Added New Grand Tour Page having pictures of layouts visited. See oSW Page
Added a complete new page on painting G.N. diesels. See Models Page
Added pictures of my GN O gage locomotives and the corresponding GN prototype on the Models Page
Added to the GNLINES Page
Added more pictures in the Friends section after the March Meet in Chicago. See Gary E, Charlie, Victor, Phil and Lee pages.

There have been changes to pages and new pages created such as GNLINES with rare pictures of the the Main Line in 1949 . The MODELS pages is new also.

Explore to see what you may find!

Febuary 14 , 2010

Added a complete new section called BONEYARD to list excess items I have to sell at great prices home Page
Added pictures of my unique GN O gage locomotives and the corresponding GN prototype on the Models Page
Added a link to prototype GN structures on the GNLINES Page
Added much more prototype information, and pictures to the VANCOUVER LINE page. There is enough information now to do a reference sheet. I'm sharing the information I gathered while research ing this line for my current model railway. There are links between this prototype info on the GNLINES page and the current O gage layout plan on the Layout page
Reorganized may pages are took down obsolete pages.
Added an HO track plan and comments to the KETTLE FALLS page GNLINES
Added two entirely new sections GNLINES and Models. Both are accessible from the home page 'track plan' menu bar

Febuary 3 , 2010

Back on track

I'm staying on O gage after breifly considering a change to HO.

Little has been posted in the last several months. But things are getting back to normal. regular updates will be posted.

June 6 , 2009

There have been changes to the layout plan. As mentioned in March, I decided the current layout was not meeting my expectations. I drew up a new plan that was posted on the layout page. It now seems that the City feels that thier silly utility easement is more important that the requirement to expand the train room. I have therefore decided to keep most of my O scale models but to build a new layout in HO scale. This will permit an operating railroad that would like to run. In the process I've decided to sell my excess O and HO stuff on eBay. After reading so many eBay listings whinning about Paypal I now understand the reason for the complaints and added a new page to rant about Paypal . In the future I may list the stuff I want to thin on a separate page before it goes on eBay.

Added New HO track plan. LAYOUT Page
Added a new page on Paypal at the at Layout Page - for lack of a better place to post it

Click here for the HO track plan

This is a June 1969 picture of the International stopping at Blaine on the International border with Canada. The square white object to the left of the locomotives is the Peace Arch located on the boundry. The roof of the depot can be seen above the 4th passenger car.
GN's coast line around 1939-1941 between Seattle and Vancouver is the setting for my new HO layout See the Layout page for more infomation.

March 26 , 2009

Unfortunately, it has been a while since I last updated the ol' web site. There have been changes on the layout. After operating the layout for several months, and a visit to my friend Lee's layout, I decided the current layout was not meeting my expectations. Specifically, I wanted a longer mainline, allowing meets with other trains as well as having more switching locations. I have drawn up a new plan that is posted on the layout page. The only problem is that it calls for a larger space, which means an addition to the train room. I'm finding this is a slow process obtaining permission from the home owner's association, applying for permits from the city and then picking a contractor. Silly me, I thought it would only be a few weeks so I have already torn down the existing pike.

Added New track plan. LAYOUT Page
Added pictures of the 2009 OSW meet on the FRIENDS Page
Added more pictures to Charlie's layout page. FRIENDS Page
Added more pictures to Wes' Chicago Traction layout page. FRIENDS Page

June 15 , 2008

Added model pictures to the "Locomotives of the Empire Builder'. Articles Page
Added more pictures of Barry's now painted Rio Grande L-131 locomotive FRIENDS Page

June 2 , 2008

Added pictures taken by Dave and Charlie during a recent visit. LAYOUT Page
Added pictures of Barry's scratch built Rio Grande L-131 locomotive FRIENDS Page
Added more pictures to Craig's Rio Grande layout page. FRIENDS Page
Added more pictures to Wes' Chicago Traction layout page. FRIENDS Page

May 7 , 2008

Added pictures taken by Charlie during Dave's recent visit. LAYOUT Page
Added a new page of my friend Gary E's layout. FRIENDS Page
Added a new pictures to Barry's Rio Grande layout page. FRIENDS Page
Added a new pictures to Craig's Rio Grande layout page. FRIENDS Page
Added a new pictures to Wes' Chicago Traction layout page. FRIENDS Page
Added a new page entitled Locomotives of the Empire. ARTICLES Page

March 7 , 2008

Added pictures taken by Charlie and Dave at the recent OSW meet.
Added a new pictures to Barry's Rio Grande layout page.
Added a new pictures to Carl's Cascade Northern layout page.
Added more pictures of my railroad.

December 18 , 2007

Added a new pictures to Carl's Cascade Northern layout page.
Added a new pictures to Craig's Rio Grande layout page.
Added more pictures of my railroad. This time on the recent open house and progress at the town of Fidalgo. Find them on December 2007 icon on the LAYOUT PAGE .

November 2, 2007

Added new page on the layout's progress. Go to the LAYOUT page
Added a new page for Eric V's models. FRIENDS Page
Added new pictures of Lee's pike. Also on FRIENDS Page
Added pictures from our summer trip to the Northwest, like the one left, on the BOOMER Page.

July 2 , 2007

Added more pictures of my railroad. This time using 'imported help' installing decoders. Find them on July 2007 icon on the LAYOUT PAGE .

May 5 , 2007

Added new page about The Kettle Falls Branch. Click here or go to the ARTICLES page
Added a new page for Jerry Mc's models. He is 'between layouts'. LAYOUT Page
Added pictures from our recent trip to the Middle East, like the one left, on the BOOMER Page.
Added more pictures of Wes' outstanding pike on the LAYOUT Page .
Added a picture of recent visitor to Charlie's pike on the LAYOUT Page .

March 3 , 2007

Added new page for Phil's Gila Mountain Railroad
Added a new page for Craig's Rio Grande layout.
Added a new section to the FRIENDS page for some non-O gage layouts. The first layout is Barry B's G gage pike.
Added pictures taken by Charlie Morrill at the recent OSW meet.
Added more pictures of my railroad. This time on painting some electric locomotives. Find them on Feburary 2007 icon on the LAYOUT PAGE .

Feburary 23 , 2007

Posted new watercolor pictures of GN Y-1 electrics in the Cascades and a P-2 Mountain.
Added new pictures of Charlie's and Victor/Carl's pikes on the FRIENDS page.
Though no photos, I have been busy converting to EZ DCC. I'm very pleased with it.

November 28 , 2006

I get no responses to the quiz so I reformatted the MAIN Page back to the way it was. Posted new picture of a GN Rotary plow in action at Marias Pass.
Added new pictures of Lee's, Charlie's and Carl's pikes on the FRIENDS page .
Added more material to the Caboose page.
Added more pictures of my railroad after the November 2006 open house. Find them on December 2006 pictures on the LAYOUT PAGE

November 1, 2006

Reformatted the MAIN Page by adding a quiz. This will be a regular feature, unless I get no responses.
This month's quiz asks the date depicted in a painting of a set FT's hauling new Plywood boxcars near Glacier National Park. GN published many publicity of that train on Walton Hill, crossing Two Medicine Trestle and of new plywood caboose X-244 bringing up the markers.
Added new pictures of Lee's pike on the FRIENDS page, after pirating them from the most recent issue of the Narrow Gage and Short Line Gazette. That fine publication is listed on the Links Page.

October 11, 2006

Added new picture to MAIN Page of FT's hauling new boxcars near Glacier National Park. Also a picture of the interior of caboose X- 220.
Added new pictures of Charlie's pike on the FRIENDS page, after a pleasant trip to the Badlands (where Charlie lives).
Added links to Craig Brantley's and Barry Bogs sites on the LINKS page. Both are building outstanding standard/narrow gage pikes. Craig's is O/On3 gage and Barry's in G/Gn3 gage. Links to more local web pages are planned.
On the ARTICLES page, added new section on GN's cabooses. The page provides pictures for modeling, including interiors.
Added more calenders, timetables and other goodies to ARTWORK section.
Added October progress pictures to the LAYOUT page .

August 10, 2006

Added more layout pictures LAYOUT section. Look for the August picture icon.
Added new picture to MAIN Page of S-1 skirting Glacier National Park and cover from a Scenic Northwest brochure,

July 1, 2006

Added new page in FRIENDS section for Wesley M. When I first met Wes he had an beautiful On3 pike. After moving to a new house he has begun traction modeling, doing it equally well.
Added more layout pictures LAYOUT section. More soon to added after ballasting.
Added new picture to MAIN Page of S-2 skirting Puget Sound and for the Fourth I added Red White and Blue Goats

May 22 , 2006

Added new pictures to MAIN page of S-2 skirting GNP and cover of 'Call of the Mountains' brochure.

Added more calenders to ARTWORK section.

Added new pictures to FRIENDS section.

April 5 , 2006

Added new pictures to main Page of O-8 and dining car service.

Added recent pictures to layout section.

Added new pictures to FRIENDS section.

February 18, 2006

Added O Scale West page to FRIENDS section.

Reorganized FRIENDS section by splitting into four pages so that it will load faster.

Added a picture of F-8 to main Page. The loco placed first popular vote contest at OSW in the steam loco catagory.

Added more information to chinaware page in Artwork section.

January 9, 2006

Viewed page in Internet Explorer and corrected several glitches that do not show up in Netcape.

Added more pictures to layout section.

Reformatted several pages in Artwork section.

Added more links

Reformatted Articles page.

Updated several articles to present a more uniform appearence.

Converted links within site. The basic design is now complete. Hopefully, future updates will only be made monthly.

December 26, 2005

Adjusted menu bar to make roll over section easier to read.

Reworked several articles and added new pictures on the Articles page

December 22, 2005

Added pictures of Lee's layout to Friends page.

Added O Scale West and O Scale Kings to Links page

Added new link on the Articles page for 1924 Oriental Limited containing complete text and B&W pictures.

Added South American railroad pictures to the Boomer/About Me page

December 18, 2005

Redesigned home page eliminating the two former opening pages.
Added a new navigation bar intended to resemble a dispatcher's panel.
Added Friends layout section with the first pictures
Added new pictures to home page.

December 14, 2005

Added the last remaining Articles pages - structures article and layout pictures. This site's Structures page covers Reference Sheet 35, issued in 1977, focusing on the Republic Washington depot.

Again, I visited the design of several pages to make them easier to understand and navigate. That included a major change to the layout page.

In the future, I plan to add more pictures of GN structures taken in the 60's and early 70's that may be of interest to modelers.

December 10, 2005

Converted text of all GNRHS articles. Before posting, the text of each article was edited and condensed.

Added more images GNRHS articles.

The initial decison was to post only color images with each article. I've reconsidered and the plan now is to add black and white pictures that had not been included in the article.

December 8, 2005

Redesigned several pages to make it easier to understand and navigate.

Added new pages for artwork, GN Items, track plans for both new and old layout, and Photoshop enhanced pictures from old webpage.

Added pictures to the GNRHS articles pages but still have not figured out a way to convert text.

December 2 2005

Posted Christmas card greeting on front page.

Added track plans for both new and old layout, plus pictures of old layout that had been posted on the old website.

Added pictures to the individual GNRHS article pages but still have not figured out a way to convert text.

The Oriental Limited page is up and running. A temporary notice and link has been posted on the main page.

Once upon a time there was a group of modelers who called themselves the Houston O gage Society

about 15 years ago the some of the HOGS gathered at my layout .

November 15, 2005

Up loaded pictures from the layout open house and placed on a new page.
Began serious work on this site, creating pages for each article and the current layout.
Set deadline of December 1 to have the Oriental Limited page finished, in time for it's 100th Anniversary on December 5.

November 2, 2005

Conceived the bacic design of this new site.
Imported some photos as well as images to be used as navigational icons.
Updated the links page Imported the shell of several articles written for the GNRHS but could not convert text written for the Goat articles. The articles were written on a laptop in a Wordperfect program.
Two problems converting the files are the laptop does not have a disk burner and is a PC configuration. This website is being developed on a MAC desktop that has neither a floppy disk drive nor a Wordperfect program.

September - October 2005

I finally took the bull by the horns and began to learn the Dreamweaver software. Imported a few images and basically started work on this site.

Imported the old links page.

December 2004

New website up and running.

It was received as a Christmas present from son as well as dreamweaver software. He imported images from the old site and basically started this site.

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