2018 Happy New Year

2018 Happy New Year to All!

Merry Christmas to all. May we have a peaceful year to come which also brings us happiness.

It's been a time since my last Post and many things have happened since the last one. Toward the start of August my wife and I went on a vacation to the Canadian Rockies. The trip was on the Rocky Mountaineer Railroad (RM) which is a privately owned tour company RM utilizes Canadian National Railroad (CN) owned tracks.

The majority of the Canadian Rockies are in British Columbia (BC). Freight service on the CN tracks in BC is provided by the BC Railroad. RM has its own passenger cars and diesels. RM service is strictly for tourists and the passenger service is not local.

The vacation was fabulous. But, we were warned ahead of time about the forest fires and the smoke. I took about 100+ photos per day. There were 11 vacation days to give you an idea of the number of photos taken. The effect of the smoke on some of the photos can be seen.

Eventually we were left the smoke filled, affected area. The most striking photo (actually set of photos) was taken in the morning at Lake Louise from our hotel window.

The window frame was left in the picture so you can tell this is a photo and not a painting or reproduction. The red things in the center are red painted canoes. A set of photos were taken about 5 minutes apart starting about 6 am local time. Each photo has a slightly different color and emphasis on the scenery.

As for my layout and track building and overhead wire, trolleys do run on it. Scenery is slowly being applied. 

One major problem with the below 0F temperatures we have been having is the effect the outside temperature has on the interior of the area where the layout is located. The room has a sliding patio door which faces north. The winter wind blows from the north. The location of the patio door plus another odd problem in the room makes for a cold north end of the layout. It's not fun to work on this end of the layout!!

We refuse to cover or do anything else with the patio door due to the amount of light we get through the door plus the beautiful outside scene outside. We plan to have the window re-worked when the temperature is more reasonable.

Let's see if I can keep the typing up to do another Post to show you some of my work on the layout including an unusual model.

Cheers,
Ed