The 470 Railroad Club will be running its annual Crawford Notch Excursion on Saturday, October 28, 2023. For details and reservations please visit https://470rrclub.blogspot.com/ and click on Crawford Notch Excursion.
The 470 Railroad Club Blog
P.O. Box 641 Portland, ME 04104 Email: moreinfo@470rrclub.org
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Railroading at Cumberland Fair from September 23 to 30 2023
Please visit the 470 Railroad Club at the 2023 Cumberland Fair. It takes place from September 24-30 at 197 Blanchard Road, Cumberland, ME 04021. The hours are 9am-9pm daily. For details please visit https://cumberlandfair.com/. Please visit the 470 Railroad Club at the old Yarmouth Railroad Section House. For more information please visit https://470rrclub.blogspot.com/ and click on Cumberland Fair.
Sunday, February 19, 2023
Touch-A-Train Event on August 19th at New England Steam and Downeast Scenic in Hancock, Maine on August 19th
Touch-A-Train 2023 sponsored by New England Steam at the Washington Junction Yard, 8 Railroad Siding, Hancock, ME 04640. Hours 9am-1:30pm. This event includes both the restoration of of Maine Central Steam Locomotive #470 and the 1:30pm departure of the Down East Scenic excursion train. For details please visit https://www.touchatrain.org/or contact Hanna Brooks via email at hbrooks@newenglandsteam.org.
see a 12-foot-long wooden model of Maine Central steam locomotive #470 built by Wooden Alchemy
blow a real steam locomotive whistle
chalk a message on Maine Central #470’s original tender
take a 12-mile, 1-hour and 45-minute train ride on the Downeast Scenic Railroad at 1:30 PM
Friday, January 20, 2023
Prototype Modelling on the 1951 Maine Central by Richard Gibson at the January 2023 Membership Meeting
The January program will be presented by club member Richard Gibson. Richard will present prototype modeling on the 1951 MEC: a mixture of accuracy, guesswork, and compromise. Richard’s current HO scale layout is a circa-1951 representation of the Maine Central (MEC) Rockland branch, located in coastal Maine northeast of Portland. The aim of constructing this layout is to (1) model key portions of this scenic line so that they are recognizable and (2) to reproduce the operational experience of the prototype. Construction began during 2015 in Billings, MT and the layout was moved to the Denver area after 16 months, where it was re-assembled and expanded to occupy a roughly 1000 sq ft space. In this presentation, Richard will briefly outline the prototype setting and his criteria for layout design. Then, we will take a photographic tour of both the prototype and the model as a basis for discussing the research, uncertainties, and compromises inherent in prototype layout design and construction. Finally, Richard will cover operational aspects, including train control, scheduling, and car forwarding.
Colorado Railroad Trips in 2019 by Michael Ditkoff at Membership Meeting in November 2022
This program covers one of his trips to Colorado. In June 2019, Michael rode the rails of former Denver & Rio Grande Western. He rode Amtrak’s California Zephyr round trip between Denver and Grand Junction, going through the Moffat Tunnel. The next day after returning to Denver, he drove to Glenwood Springs, paralleling the railroad as much as possible for photography. After spending the night in Georgetown, a Denver suburb, he rode the Georgetown Loop Railroad round trip between Georgetown and Silver Plume. In the afternoon, he drove to Canon City along the former Joint Line operated by the Santa Fe and D&RGW. The next morning, he rode the Royal Gorge Scenic Railroad as far as Parkdale - - in the engine, on a regular excursion. The tourist railroad operates on the now closed Tennessee Pass. The Pass is the original route to Salt Lake City
Colorado Railroad Trips by Michael Ditkoff
Railroad Photograpy from 2018 to the present by Andrew Dale at the November 2022 Membership Meeting
Club
member Andrew Dale will be showing how
he got into trains and eventually photography, the presentation will show the
development of Andrew’s photography from 2018 to now.
Monday, January 2, 2023
Steam Engine at the Amherst New Hampshire Mall Entrance
The Trains on Tracks crew just finished refurbishing and installing a large scale steam engine near the Amherst NH store/mall entrance. The engine weighs 3000 lbs. The effort was led by Ray Dellovo, a long time Maine 3Railers club member, and his friend John. This project took over two years.
Article and pictures courtesy of Rick Hills