Eurowest 2016

As in many previous years at the end of July, today I made the trek to San Carlos for Eurowest 2016 organized by the West Coast chapters of the European Train Enthusiasts (ETE). I keep going there primarily because this is the only opportunity to find used, or low-priced, european-themed model railroad equipment and supplies in a non-online setting. While there is EBay and several online stores, they don't compare to seeing the actual thing before buying, especially for used equipment.

The second-hand tables, as well as the very large table of AC Eurotrains in Sacramento, and chatting with various people kept me busy for a couple hours.

There were modular Maerklin layouts from the San Francisco and Southern California ETE chapters.

A very nicely done loading scene on the SoCal modular layout. 

Maerklin's model of a DB Gesellschaftswagen ("Entertainment car") was parked in a siding on the modular arrangement of the San Francisco chapter. The car has built-in, digitally controlled LEDs and speakers to simulate a dance floor with lights and music.

A nearby campsite -- probably railfans -- right next to the tracks.

Bauernhofszene on a SoCal module

I very much liked how this scene with lots of junk behind the roundhouse is coming together. I'm planning something similar (without crane or track) for the area behind the roundhouse in Emsingen.

Today's catch. A bit more than planned, a couple impulse buys, and I ended up not buying several items that were in the wrong era or locale for my layout. Pricing was very fair on most items.

I could not resist the catenary repair car set ("Turmtriebwagen"), even though the model is from the wrong era and locale. I just say the Turmtriebwagen hasn't been repainted to yellow yet.

Gbkl 238 (ex. Glr 22) - Maerklin 46163

Another addition to the freight car fleet on the Welztalbahn is Maerklin's new rendition of a Dresden Glr in Epoch IV as type Gbkl 238. Comparing the car to the drawings in Stefan Carstens' Gueterwagen book series ("Gedeckte Wagen, Band 1") shows that Maerklin did a pretty good job to capture the prototype. Not many of these cars survived into the 1970's, since their parts were used as basis for a rebuild program into type Glmms 61 and Gltmms 62 in the early 60's. Thus, this car will remain the only one of its kind on the Welztalbahn. This should be a fun weathering exercise at some point in the future, since by the time the layout is set in, the car should look fairly shabby ...

Since I have reached the maximum number of cars that this layout can reasonably handle, I will need to decide which other cars will be replaced by the new additions and taken out of service for now.

KL606

KL 606 is getting ready for boarding

 Franziska is going to Germany for the next few weeks. This year it's her turn to fly unaccompanied.

Guten Flug!

Wildlife on the Commute

Hey, what's that? ... A wild pig in broad day light.

Looks like a large boar. Hanging out at Hellyer and Silver Creek Roads.

Not quite as exciting as bears in Yellowstone, but still nice to see. I guess, the hills are getting dry ...

SVL S4 ready for operations

For now I'm done with the S4 switchers for Silicon Valley Lines and will take them down to the club for inspection and approval to run on the club layout.
I used Pan Pastels to give the units a tad of weathering, but found that Testor's Dullcote reacts with the pastels and tones them down dramatically when applied at full strength. Light overspray results in visible blobs when looking closely. The rattle can also has a tendency to "spit", and I now have a fat blob of Dullcote on one of the engine hoods with does not make me happy at all. I had good results with Dullcote so far, but in the future I will use an airbrush to get a finer, more consistent spray.

The weathering on the greens and the trucks is much less visible than on the yellows. After re-reviewing prototype photos on rrpicturearchives.net, I noticed that the sides of these units tend to be cleaner than I had them, so I ended up toning everything down a bit.

Below are some more in-progress shots.

The front unit has its first round of weathering applied, the rear unit is still untouched.

Both units weathered. Time for Dullcote to mess it all up.

Best of Yellowstone Animals

We took a lot of animal photos during our Yellowstone trip. Here's a selection of the better ones. Yes, it is a good idea to bring a tripod, and when I go again, I will do that.

We encountered this Grizzly mom with her cub one morning along Dunraven Road, just before Dunraven Pass.

We saw bisons on the street every time we were on the road early in the day.

Nice shots of deers were rare.

The tricky part with photographing bison is -- just as with steam locomotives -- the contrast of the dark animal to its surroundings. The morning sun helped tremendously in this photo.

Just as with deers, we rarely got close enough to elks to get a really nice picture.

Whereas bison are everywhere, here at Sour Lake near Mud Vulcano. 

On one day Hayden Valley was full of bison. We counted at least 200 animals. The next day we saw only a couple here and there.

A group of Trumpeteer Swan could always be found on the Yellowstone River at Alum Creek.

Canada Geese, too.

Elk herd at dusk at Alum Creek.

Here's an example why binoculars and a tripod are really helpful when visiting Yellowstone. Most of the time the action is a little bit further away, like the Bald Eagle on the tree branches down by the river, and the Elk herd in the background.

We did see a wolf, but she was so far away that she's only a shaky speck in the photo ... tripod ... long lens ... helpful ... just sayin' ...

45th parallel

North of Mammoth Hot Springs is a road-side marker for the 45th parallel.

For whatever reason, the top board of the sign was loose, so we got to have some fun with it...

Norris Geyser Basin

While there weren't many really large active geysers at Norris Basin, we enjoyed the views of the hottest geyser basin at Yellowstone, and took our time strolling through the back basin.

Grand Geyser

Yellowstone's Grand Geyser is the tallest predictable geyser in the world at a height of over 180 feet. Grand has a period of about 8-10 hours, with a prediction has an accuracy of +/- 90 minutes. Unless you get very lucky, it takes some patience to see this. I ended up waiting almost 3 hours to see the show.
The physics of geysers are fascinating in how water, pressure, and heat interact with fissures in the earth to produce super-heated water, which eventually shoots to the surface.

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Among the many neat shots we took at West Thumb Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, this one stands out. I love the clouds and the contrast of the forest with the colorful deposits around the drain of Black Pool.

Oxbow Bend

A very easy and nice place for wildlife watching in Grand Teton National Park is at the Oxbow Bend Turnout. It's conveniently located along the Snake River, plenty of parking and over the course of a few hours we saw deer, elk, pelicans, even a river otter ... and some light rain.
Since we came with the RV, we had dinner right there on the river to envious looks from other wildlife watchers.
 

We heard from others that evening that they saw a moose cow with calf at the nearby Willow Flats turnout. There's plenty going on and to see here. It takes a little bit patience, but you won't get bored.

Most of my wildlife photos are a bit blurry due to being taken at dusk. When going on a trip like this, remember to bring your tripod ...

Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park is one of these places that you rarely hear about until you are planning to go nearby. It is incredibly pretty and the photos don't do it justice.

There is boat service to hiking trails on the other side of the lake. However, due to construction, parking at South Jenny Lake was very limited, and we would have to be very lucky to find a reasonable parking spot with the RV, so we spent the afternoon on the East side of the lake, enjoyed the views, and had a great time.

Wolf Creek

Wolf Creek Campground is in the Snake River Canyon between Jackson Hole and Alpine. It's basic, with no hookups, but quiet and comes with nice scenery. We relaxed here after a rather adventurous whitewater rafting trip down the Snake River.

Alpine, WY

We have arrived at our stop for the night. Greys Cove RV Park in Alpine, right after the Wyoming state border. A neat little RV park on the banks of the Snake River.

Time for dinner!

I did not see THAT coming!

When you drive from downtown Twin Falls, ID to I-84 north of town, the road is lined with stores, shops, light industrial, more stores, coffee-to-go places, car dealerships, the Magic Valley Mall, really nothing special...

Suddenly the buildings give way, and you're on a bridge with the most spectacular view:

We're crossing the Snake River, flowing peacefully deep below us in a canyon. The bridge goes straight from one side of the canyon to the other. Once we recovered from the surprise, of course we stopped and walked back to admire more of the view.

East Humboldt Mountains

I woke up early today despite the long drive and alcoholic beverage ingestion yesterday. I went on a short walk through the neighborhood and enjoyed the view of the East Humboldt mountain range. We are at over 5,000 feet. The three snow covered peaks are over 10,000 feet with the Hole of the Mountain peak in the middle at 11,306 feet (3446m).

Wells, NV

We arrived at Angel Lake RV Park in Wells, Nevada. A very nice, neat and clean RV park near the freeway. We're going to stay the night and will leave Nevada behind us tomorrow.

California Trail

I-80 is roughly follow the California Trail taken by early settlers. While it takes us only a few hours to get from California through Nevada, the settlers mostly walked the same distance in about a month. I'm having trouble imagining what it was like, but it surely is more convenient today ...

Lovelock, NV

Lovelock, NV is a little rustic town along I-80 where we stopped for lunch in a small city park near the freeway. They have a nice downtown business district, and I particularly liked their the restored SP station building.

Nevada

The point of a road trip is to experience the vastness of the country. ... If only some stretches weren't this booooooring.

Gold Run

Before the climb to Donner Pass, we're stopping for breakfast at Gold Run.

"HEY LOOK! We found a dinosaur!"

Road trip

We are all set for our road trip. RV is loaded. The house is in good hands. Weather forecast is looking great.

First train servicing the Hallelujah paper mill

Engineer Jim Gifford and conductor Bob Stetson have arrived at Hallelujah Paper with train #380 delivering the first cut of cars to service the paper mill on the lower level at Silicon Valley Lines.

Wildlife on the commute

I barely missed this gopher snake while cycling home today. It was on Coyote Creek trail right under the Silver Creek Valley bridge. I convinced it to get off the trail, just in time before a Mountain Biker came barreling down the trail.

It's the President!

While President Obama was visiting Yosemite, we visited the President at Sequoia National Park.