I'm now at the famous Izaak Walton Inn, built by the Great Northern Railroad in 1939 for rail workers and later passengers. The Inn is in the heart of the Glacier National Park and in winter is a mecca for cross country skiing . It's also right on the BNSF transcon mainline between Chicago and Seattle, so plenty of trains round the clock. Scott, a friend from you-tube has driven all the way from Seattle to show me his favourite filming locations!. Unfortunately, my dream run with the weather has come to an end, so we are sitting in the Inn watching trains from the balcony and from inside by the fire :-).We have spent 2 nights in a beautifully fitted out BN (Burlington Northern) Caboose....how cool is that!! , and the next 2 nights in a trackside room at the Inn. The upsides there has been track work traffic is very low so we're not missing many trains, but we managed to fim a few on our first day here.
I caught the "Empire Builder" from Seattle to the Inn and it was a great trip in one of Amtrak's huge Superliner sleeper cars. From here Scott is taking me to his favourite locations in Mullan Pass, not too far from here.
Hooroo for now ,
Cheers Gregg.
WHAT!!! Stuck inside a warm pub, drinking toddies and watching the trains go by? Then staggering back to a caboose to the sound of turbochargers in the crisp still night air! That's it young Gregg, you get your arse back to Aus right now young man!!
ReplyDeleteYes Richard, life's tough and no chance of me coming back soon!! The grade past the Inn is only 1% , so they don't work to hard but you can hear the GE turbo's !!!
ReplyDeleteVery nice in person I must say!! Must go, another Whisky waiting..LOL
Cheers Gregg.
Hello Gregg. I'm Colby Priest but on youtube I'm Priestbroslines.
ReplyDeleteSo I live in southern California in Riverside county which I know you will be around. So if you have time there are 3 attractions I would recommend.
1. The Orange Empire Rail museum in Perris is a really cool place to visit, preferrably on a weekend. They have a large collection of engines and rolling stock you can climb on.
2. There is a rather large yard in Colton that is neat to drive around and see all the sidings of cars and engines.
3. There is a really cool area for railfanning outside of the city of Beaumont. You can follow the trains on a road that parallels the rails up Beaumont Hill in an area called San Timateo Canyon. These are Union Pacific lines but every so often I'll see NS or CSX engines.
Again there is nothing incredibly spectacular about these areas but they are places in the area and they don't have to take all-day long.
Here's hoping you have a good trip seeing the motive power that built this country
Best,
-Colby
Hi Colby, thanks for taking a look at the blog! Yes I will be in So Cal, but not for a few weeks, so I will check out your suggestions when I get there. Thnks for the ideas and maybe see you trackside!
DeleteCheers Gregg.
Gregg
ReplyDeletecaboose looks cool,great footage of the bridges too.They have too give you a taste of the bad weather too you know. Have fun.I see some of your favourite loco's are there too.
Hi Bevan, the Caboose was great, but a bit tricky to climb down from the cupola for a midnight loo visit..LOL. Weather is clearing today but they are doing a retail on the other side of the pass , so no trains until about 16.00!
DeleteIt is a bit weird to see my models idling right outside my window! The scenery is amazing and the bridges are right out of a good layout. I'm getting used to the new camera and tripod, got some nice footage but will have to wait till I get home to upload it,
Thanks for taking a look!
Cheers Gregg
No worries mate.Understand you mean rerail.Glad you get to see every thing in full scale/real life you will have lots of memories now, not only for modeling landscapes now.Enjoy. The boys at work are are putting some photos up on the beam in the office for everyone to drool over.
DeleteGregg
ReplyDeletecaboose looks cool,great footage of the bridges too.They have too give you a taste of the bad weather too you know. Have fun.I see some of your favourite loco's are there too.
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ReplyDeleteThis place looks awesome, I need to break away from reality and go there for a while. It sounds like a lot of fun, can't wait till you get down to Nebraska where it is flatter for running really long trains.
ReplyDeleteYes Robert, it's a magic place and has some fantastic locations to film trains, even with the rainy days and daytime closures, I managed to get quite a few good catches! Nebraska will be a total different ball game for sure, looking forward to it.
DeleteCheers Gregg.
Hi Gregg, hows the trip so far? By the blog looks awesome.
ReplyDeleteJames, the trip is going well, mostly thanks to the great guys taking time to show me around! It's a bit hectic trying to plan things on the fly,especially hotels and train tickets! But I'm having a great time thank you.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like the blog too.
Cheers Gregg.