At Goshen College, No More Using Trains as an Excuse for Being Late for Class

Soon students at Goshen College won't
have to race to beat the train.

In 2010 I wrote about how students at Goshen, Ind. College could use a unique excuse for being late for class: They were held up by a train.

The College, which dates back to 1903, is bisected by the Norfolk Southern Marion Branch, a busy mainline that sees between 8-10 trains a day. The tracks have defined and shaped the school since that time.

But soon students won’t be able to employ that excuse; the school is building a tunnel underneath the line. The tunnel will also address what has become a serious safety concern as students race across the tracks to beat the train—or worse, as they jump between cars on trains stopped on the tracks.

Norfolk Southern, which owns the line, will shut down traffic for only 24 hours on July 4 to allow for the construction of the tunnel. The construction company will be fined $5,000 for every hour beyond that amount of time.

As for the students, well, some may mourn the loss of a great reason for being late for class.

Click here to learn more about the tunnel and take a virtual tour.

Click here for my earlier blog post about the trains and the College.

Click here to see photos from the University of North Dakota, which has a BNSF line running through campus—but which wisely built a bridge over the line.

Great Canadian Model Railroad: Dan Crowley's Yellowhead Pass Division

Dan Crowley’s CNR N scale Yellowhead Pass Division is another Great Canadian Model Railroad.

The layout, which represents CNR operations between Edmonton and Jasper, Alberta in the late 1950s, occupies a 12 by 18 foot room. Total mainline length is 70 feet; track is a mix of handlaid and Micro Engineering code 55 flex track. The grades are relatively flat, since the line follows the Athabasca River.

Trains travel west from Edmonton to through farming country before entering the foothills and the towns of Edson and Hinton. The line then crosses the Athabasca River and follows it to Jasper, where locomotives are serviced.

From Jasper trains proceed to Lucerne Lake. From there the trains “magically” reappear as westbounds coming into Edmonton from eastern locations.

Dan uses extruded Styrofoam for a subroadbed in the rural areas. He also uses it for scenery; the background mountains are carved one-inch Styrofoam placed vertically against the wall. After carving, he sprayed it with stone texturing paint; before the paint dried he used an eraser to provide a stratified look. After that he painted it gray, followed by a thin wash of black to highlight the detail. It provides a lot of depth in a small space.

Dan makes prairie grass by pressing fake fur into wet plaster—with the backing up. When dry, he rips off the backing, leaving many individual strands of fur stuck in to the plaster. He then cuts these to length and adds ground foam. According to Dan, it’s a lot easier than planting the grass one strand at a time!

I worked with Dan in 2001 to help get his layout published in Train 10, Track 6 of Canadian Railway Modeller. Click here to see more photos on his website, along with model railroad tips. More photos of Dan's layout are below.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Upside-Down Ceiling Layout: Not An April Fool's Joke

This is not an April Fool’s joke.

At least, I don’t think it is—although I checked the date on the Daily Telegraph article two or three times to make sure. (It was published Dec. 1, 2008.)

According to the article, Keith Beadle of Crewe, England, has found a way to help model railroaders who lack space for a layout—use the ceiling.

"I am always short of space for my layouts and it makes me a bit unpopular at home if I've got trains running around the living room,” said Beadle.

"So I looked at the ceiling and realized that it was an empty space just waiting to be filled.”

His system? An upside-down train that uses a series of carefully balanced magnets to hold the locomotives and rolling stock in place. It took him three years to perfect it.

"I started playing about with the idea and realized that we don't have to be restricted by gravity all the time,” he said, adding “when people see it for the first time it comes as a bit of a shock, but they soon get used to it.”

The system works thanks to a series of magnets on each of the locomotives and all the rolling stock. So far he’s made three layouts, including a figure eight.

"It is a question of getting the magnets just right,” he said. “It was trial and error at first but know I have got it down to a fine art."

Not only did Beadle invent the upside-down model railroad; he has patented it, and is looking for a manufacturer to turn it into a commercial product. (So far, no takers

He does admit there is one problem with the system; he hasn’t figured out yet how to incorporate switches—they interfere with the magnets.

"Space is at a premium these days in every home and that's why I think a model railway that runs on the ceiling is a winner,” he said. "I think it has got real commercial potential and the possibilities for applying it to all kinds models is virtually endless.”

Personally, I can see a few flaws in the system, beginning with all the neck problems you’d get from watching your trains. Real loads of coal or other materials are out, too, and ballasting will be a trick.

And if a train falls off the tracks—look out below! (Something that Beadle acknowledges has happened once or twice.)

On the other hand, you don’t have to worry about dust settling on your models—or worry about cats.

Read the original article here. Read another one here. And another one here. (I'm just trying to prove I'm not making this up.)

Click here to watch a video of one of Beadle’s upside-down layouts.

The View From Above

The theme of this year's photo contest at the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club is "view from above." The idea is to submit photos from an angle we don't usually see--above the trains.

I'm not much of a railfran photographer, but I do have a few photos from above. Like these ones, taken in the mid-1990s while on a railfran trip to Duluth, MN and Superior, WI. We stationed ourselves at the top of Proctor Hill, above the tracks of the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range leading down to the harbour below.

There are lots of great train-watching spots in North America, and plenty of scenic places to take pictures of trains, but I think this is one of the best.

Looking back as the train passes by.

Another above shot at a different location.

Train Geeks and Trackside Treasures

A visitor recently commented on an old post about two blogs I follow. Since posts are easy to lose in a blog, I thought I'd highlight those two blogs again: Confessions of a Train Geek and Trackside Treasure.

Confessions of a Train Geek, by Steve Boyko, is described as a blog about “sightings, photographs, and links for trains, especially in Canada.” In his very first post, in 2005, Steve wrote that it would be a place for “train sightings, and general musings about railways and related subjects.”

It is all of that—and there’s lots of it. Steve is an energetic blogger; since starting seven years ago he has published 2,077 posts. Although he lives here in Manitoba, he also has posts and pages about railways in New Brunswick and other places across Canada.

Click here to visit Confessions of a Train Geek.

Trackside Treasure was started by Eric Gagnon in 2008. His posts are well-researched and comprehensive, featuring the Canadian prairies, Ontario (especially around Kingston) and VIA Rail.

In his first post, Eric noted that not everyone might see his posts as treasures, but “they are to me, and I hope they might be to you. I've heard lots of people say, ‘I watched and photographed lots of trains, but I wish I'd written some of this stuff down.’ I did, but what's the use of keeping it to myself, if it might interest someone else?”

In addition to Trackside Treasure, Eric has published a real book—on paper and everything! It’s called Trackside With VIA: The First 35 Years.

Click here to visit Trackside Treasure.