Another great visit! 2016 marks the 12th year we’ve operated on the IPP&W. An even dozen visits - and it is always a great time.

This year we drove up on Thursday and headed over to Fred’s on Friday morning for a narrow gauge operating session.

Friday

It looks like the Sludgeworks is doing fine…

Jean and I take a walk around the layout to check everything out. Here Jean has Cedarrock on her right, and Spruce on her left. You can just barely see the new station in Spruce (lower left).

The first thing to do is to get the car trays out of the shed and start distributing the cars. Nelson Yard is in the center of the picture, with Bell in the background against the fence.

The new signals are in place and they ended up working out VERY well.

Once the cars are in place, it’s time to choose a train - there’s a signup list and a clipboard for each train.

Jean and I took out train #301. It starts in Craig Leigh and terminates in Nelson Yard.

Craig Leigh is busy this morning. That’s Ken and Mike in the middle.

Our first stop is at St. Helens, and we only have one setout.

Then it’s on to Ironwood.

Eventually we get to Nelson Yard - it’s a busy place as well.

We get a new train. One of our stops is in Bell. It’s a 3 way meet, but there is room for our train…as Steve and Seanna look on.

Once the other trains leave, we’re able to complete our switching.

Eventually we get to Douglas Yard in Fir Grove.

Unfortunately my Shay broke and I had to run the next train with my RS-3. (Anybody want a Shay???)

After we run a few trains, there’s time to relax and socialize.

And, since the crew was still hungry, we decided to have dinner at Montana’s steakhouse.

Saturday

Saturday was standard gauge operations.

As always, there’s a bit of setup to do. Here, Jim prepares to take his locomotives out of Craig Leigh.

One of our trains today is #318 - going from Glen Hammond to Craig Leigh.

There’s a bit of work to do in Glen Hammond before we can proceed.

After we switch Block House, we head up the grade to Spruce.

We take the siding while Seanna’s train passes.

Once her train clears we can do our switching in Spruce.

We have to wait until Ironwood is clear before we can proceed. Mike photographs the progress while Nicole looks on.

Once they leave, we get clearance to Ironwood and start our own switching.

Then it’s on to St. Helens for some more switching before we terminate the train in Craig Leigh.

In between trains, Ric gets a chance to show me his plans for his ride on live steamer. It looks to be quite the project.

Later, Jean and I take out the passenger train (#1/#2) - it runs the length of the railroad in both directions.

Here’s the train coming into Peter’s Pond. We stop for 1-2 minutes at each passenger station on the layout.

It terminates in Craig Leigh, then turns and goes out in the opposite direction.

This is the train coming to the station in Ironwood.

Next, it was time for a casual dinner at “Local Heroes”, a sports bar.

Sunday

We head south a bit to operate on Doug’s Northland Railway. (Ken, Gaetan, John, and Doug)

Doug’s been busy building a new garden.

I’m taking train #211. There’s a bit to learn.

And, a bit of work to be done.

First, I get the cars off of the car float.

Moving along…

It’s VERY lush…

Headed up the grade towards Rosseau…

It’s a long stretch of bridges…

Going by the station. It was built in 2004 and still looks great!

My RS-3 stops working (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif)(and now won’t charge past 12.9 volts (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)- anybody need an RS-3???), but I get another locomotive and continue my run.

Putting everything away means all of the cars go into storage sheds. It’s easier to run them along the track rather than carry them.

After a great lunch we say good bye and drive down to New York.

Monday

We visit the Finger Lakes Live Steamers. They have a #1 gauge track, and two ride on tracks: 1" scale, and 1 1/2" scale.

We get a ride on Ric & Jan’s 1 1/2" scale railbus.

Jean goes first with Jan driving.

Then, they decide to trust me and I get to drive around the loop. I snap some pictures along the way…

There’s always something new being built…

Later, Jean finds a juvenile Cedar Waxwing in the bushes…

It wasn’t sunny all day. Rain interrupted the operations several times, but shelter is nearby.

After one of the storms, Jean and I operate on the #1 gauge using Car Cards.

Ken and I head out on the 1" gauge…

It’s pretty much just follow the track as the switches are set for the correct direction. They’re sprung, so you can easily go through them in the opposite direction.

Our destination is the interchange. Here they have set up an Inglenook siding switching problem.

The object of the Inglenook Sidings shunting puzzle is fairly simple, the order for the crew being: “Form a departing train consisting of 5 out of the 8 cars sitting on the sidings”.

There’s 8 car cards in a bin nearby. You randomly draw 5 cards and must build the train in the order the cards are drawn. Naturally, it’s different each time.

This time, I’m the engineer and Ken is the conductor.

It’s a lot of fun as it requires one to think ahead a bit. It’s very different operating in the ride on scale as you REALLY have to take momentum into account.

After we complete the puzzle, Roger took us over to a new section of the “layout”. They plan on more operations in the future.

Then Ken asked if I wanted to do the puzzle again and I enthusiastically agreed. This time, Ken was the engineer.

I really enjoyed it and look forward to more operations in the ride on scale!

On the way back to the motel, we drive by the gorgeous fields of sunflowers.

It was sure a great four days of operations!

Thanks for the pics, Bruce. Great memories!..(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Yea, that Inglnook puzzle was fun, confusing at times, but a lot of fun.

Nice Pictures… Thanks for posting… Looks like it was a great weekend…

Thanks! There’s even more pictures over at Mike’s blog.

Bruce Chandler said:

The new signals are in place and they ended up working out VERY well.

I see that they haven’t been fixed yet. The red aspect is still on top.

And, it was not your weekend for motive power, was it? You broke a Shay AND an RS3.

Why fix something not broken? Near as I can tell, they accurately follow the IPP&W prototype…

Yeah…a bad week for motive power…

Railroad signals with red on top?

Very nice story on your trips, Bruce C.

Thank’s for all of the photos to.

David Maynard said:

Railroad signals with red on top?

Do you have a point, or are you just trying to beat a dead horse?

Love the pics guys !

The ride on stuff looks awesome!!

Great pics. Bruce, hope to see you in a few weeks

Bruce, I always really appreciate your pictures. You find great angles that really tell a story. And what a story! Looks like a great event with something for every one, especially those that are into operations. Sorry about all the loco troubles, they always seem to misbehave when the most people are present. Thanks again for the great documentation.

Bruce Chandler said:

David Maynard said:

Railroad signals with red on top?

Do you have a point, or are you just trying to beat a dead horse?

I didn’t know I needed one.

Mike has updated his blog with even more pictures of the Invasion. Very nicely done.

That’s one reason I quit taking pictures. Mike and Chris Lyon do an excellent job of documenting the occasion.

I typically forget I have my camera with me…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-embarassed.gif)