Video of the Day

[Bill Dixon]

German online video-magazine (whatever you wanna call it) Bahnwelt-TV has a special episode on TT, showing 4 TT layouts, among others the Canada-layout by Michael Gruner:
https://www.bahnwelt-tv.de/BW127.html

I was just going to post that. Cool video with some well known layouts

My mind is thoroughly blown by the ferry operation at 18:30.

Some awesome modelling there and some very interesting equipment.
TTe (9mm using N-Scale track and mechanisms). TTf using I think, HOf models.
A TEE train (I want one), 0-4-4-0 Tank engines, Kitsons? Wouldn't mind one or two of those but I expect they are a bit out of my budget.
The CPR layout was nice. The only thing out of place there was the wooden trestle. Would have long since been replaced by something newer.

I only understood a fraction of the commentary but it was a great video!

Thanks for posting that.

[MacG]

Yes. This is a mind-blowing layout. The ferry and the truck are radio-controlled models. It's always nice to watch the train traffic.

@Bill Dixon: Are there no more wooden trestles in Canada that trains roll over every day? But it is still the case in your neighboring country.

[TheKnighTT]

Hey Bill, those TTf models are scratch built, they are not H0f models. Auhagen offers TTf models that do not bust the budget.
The TTe 0-4-4-0 looks like made by Modellbau Veit. Ready to run models should be about 900$, but you could cut that by half if you buy a kit.
It would also mean adding more rails to your multi rail track.

[ConducTTor]

It would also mean adding more rails to your multi rail track.

I wonder at what point a multi-rail track becomes a solid piece of metal

[Bill Dixon]

Yes. This is a mind-blowing layout. The ferry and the truck are radio-controlled models. It's always nice to watch the train traffic.

@Bill Dixon: Are there no more wooden trestles in Canada that trains roll over every day? But it is still the case in your neighboring country.

I suspect that there are still trestles on branch lines, but nothing on a mainline carrying heavy trains. Too much of a maintenance issue and not structurally strong enough for todays trains.

When the CPR first built through the Rockies, they used hundreds of trestles of many sizes, because they were cheap and fast to build.
As soon as the line was completed, stone masons followed and built many retaining walls or short stone arch bridges to replace trestles. Bigger trestles were filled in. The trestle shown in the video would have been replaced by a deck girder bridge many years ago.
Wooden snow sheds on secondary lines lasted into the diesel era. The southern mail line had several until it was closed. On the mainlines, if these were still needed they were replaced by concrete structures. Wood snow sheds had a distressing habit of catching fire and burning down. As well when they got old, a good avalanche would wash then away.
I do appreciate the craftsman ship in building a snow shed model.

[dileTTante]

An exception might be the trestles at the southern end of the Fraser River crossing, south of Vancouver British Columbia. The rail line goes from Vancouver to Seattle Washington. (Canadian National and BNSF) I have crossed it on Amtrak many times. One photo, looking south, shows the northern end at New Westminster, which is the municipality in south Vancouver. This wye approach is a sharp curve taken very slowly, and is steel construction. The river crossing is a swing bridge. The trestles form another wye (I think) across the flat land by the river.

There are probably other photos but I don't know the best terms for searching.

- Terry C

[AstroGoat760]

Here is what happens when horror movie villains join a boy band:

[Bill Dixon]

An exception might be the trestles at the southern end of the Fraser River crossing, south of Vancouver British Columbia. The rail line goes from Vancouver to Seattle Washington. (Canadian National and BNSF) I have crossed it on Amtrak many times. One photo, looking south, shows the northern end at New Westminster, which is the municipality in south Vancouver. This wye approach is a sharp curve taken very slowly, and is steel construction. The river crossing is a swing bridge. The trestles form another wye (I think) across the flat land by the river.

There are probably other photos but I don't know the best terms for searching.

- Terry C

Hi Terry

I had forgotten about those trestles.
Although technically they are on the main lines, I suspect that they are treated as yard limits.
They carry heavy trains, slowly.
Compared to the trestle on the TT layout, they are massively overbuilt and not very high.
If it was not for the tracks and roads under them, they would have been filled in years ago.
Going south, the track splits three ways off of the Fraser River bridge; CN to the left(East), BNSF to the right (West), and Southern Rail to the South.

As well as CNR, BNSF and SRY; Amtrak, Rocky Mountaineer, The Canadian, and occasional CPR trains use the bridge/trestle combination.

If the bridge or trestles were to be out of service for any reason, the next closest river crossing is the CPR bridge at Mission, 50km+ upstream.

[MacG]

Thank you for finding it, a Main Line Trestle Bridge in Canada. Mission is known to me, through one of the towing companies of "Highway Thru Hell".

[AstroGoat760]

Here is a video that I shot yesterday at the depot in Thief River Falls, MN. Soo Line 2-8-2 1024 makes a cameo in the beginning.