Larry's Training Center
 Olympia, Washington
 Fall 2009 Edition 
www.ganders.net

Above,  the Amtrak stop in South Olympia, Larry meets Thomas The Tank Engine at Hood River, Ore. Below Left, 4449 Daylight visits the "Centennial Station." Middle, Ryan Arreola with the SP Daylight he calls "Steam Cloud." and, right, nephew Andy Rohrback with an engine from his famous John Deere collection.
Welcome To Folks Interested
In Northwest O-Gauge Model Railroading
This is a great hobby and I like to share some of the fun with you. My name is Larry Ganders and I live in Olympia, Washington, USA. My e-mail address is: lganders@theriver.com

Daylight in Vancouver

Left, the mighty 4449 rumbles into Vancouver, WA,  Amtrak Station on May 22, 2007. The Daylight is doubleheaded with a Union Pacific 4-8-4 Challenger. Right, Martin Adams is secretary of an association that painstakingly is restoring this 1925 Baldwin 2-8-2 locomotive at a quonset shop near the Columbia River waterfront in Astoria, Ore. They are working on the former Santa Maria Valley Engine No. 21,.they intend to paint it up in a historic Astoria roadname and operate it on about 30 miles of track. He gave Larry a tour in March.

Diesel Switcher at Kauai Plantation

Hawaiian Training. Above, Larry inspects a General Electric diesel engine at a former sugar plantation near Lihue on the Hawaiian isalnd of Kauai. The engine purchased from an Arizona owner is displayed and operated for tourists. It is a locmotive that was similar to those used in the peak of sugar production. Larry visited the island in September, 2009, just as C&H Sugar was closing down sugar cane production forever. 

Below is  "Tollie," the Simpson Lumber Co. Shay locomotive in Shelton, WA. Right, Larry with his model of Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. No. 5 at Christmas, 2006.


The Burlington Northern Family

Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway 

Northern Pacific Switch Engine 

Burlington Northern Santa Fe SD40-2

Great Northern F-3

Burlington Northern Dash 8


Southern Pacific, Milwaukee Road and Interurbans

Southern Pacific GS4 Northern Daylight

San Francisco Streetcar

Milwaukee Road
GE U33C

Milwaukee Road
Hiawatha Steam

Milwaukee Road
Hiawatha Observation


The Union Pacific Collection

UP "Doodlebug"

EMD SD90 Diesel

U.P. FEF Northern

U.P. EMD E-3 Passenger

U.P. Switch Engine

 

 
 

 

A Hobbyist Enjoying Northwest Roadnames in O-Gauge Three-Rail

I specialize in Northwest road names such as Great Northern, SP&S, Northern Pacific, Milwaukee Road, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Burlington Northern, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and so forth.

 I grew up around some of the great Washington State rail lines. I watched steamers switching at Mabton in the Yakima Valley. I saw and rode the SP&S 4-6-6-4 Challenger at Wishram and watched trains lumbering through the Columbia Gorge. I heard the horns of the great diesels running along the cliffs of the Hangman Valley near Spokane. I rode in the orange Empire Builder cars. As a one-time newspaper reporter, I wrote and photographed the last of the hobos at the Pasco hump yards. 

Most recently, I've enjoyed the new Amtrak Talgo that runs through South Olympia. There's nothing like the rumble of the Genesis engines by Safeco Field during a Seattle Mariners game. I like trains and I have modeled in O-Gauge since I was a youngster. 

My updated layout utilizes features of the Mike's Train House (MTH) Digital Command System (DCS) and Lionel Trainmaster Command Control (TMCC) operating schemes. I also have QSI and conventional locomotives.

 

 

Check Out My Proposed Train Room

Work begins in 2009 on an all-new O-Gauge model train layout at a new location. Spectators will be able to lounge in a couch while watching three main lines of conventional and command control trains run around the room. Watch here for updates!

 


Update:
New Engines to the Ganders Livery

 Weyerhaeuser Shay

Above, This three-truck Shay logging engine pulls six cars. It is an MTH model added at Christmas, 2006. This is a model of a prototype Western Maryland built in 1944. It is of one of only six Shay engines built after 1930, mostly for logging. There were 2,770 Shays produced from 1880 by Lima Locomotive Works with development by a Michigan civil war veteran and saw mill operator, Ephraim Shay. This locomotive powers its wheels with a drive shaft and beveled gears displayed on one side of the engine.

 

The Shay pulling into Larry's MTH Weyerhaeuser Depot.


GN S2 Diesel
This GN Premier Diesel has a sweet sound system and churns out smoke.


Sounder
Sound Transit's commuter train between Tacoma and Seattle.

Milwaukee Hiawatha

Put into service for Thanksgiving 2005, this is a replica of the famous 4-6-4 Hudson steam engine on the Milwaukee Road flag.

 


Great Northern SD-45

.The first twenty-cylinder diesel ever produced, the EMD SD-45 "Hustle Muscle" set new standards in power and performance in the very competitive diesel market of the mid-sixties.


Great Northern 080

This MTH engine features four drive wheels on each side and was added to Larry's collection in the October of 2005.

Northern Pacific
FT ABA Diesel

The FT was the diesel that changed American railroading. First built in late 1939 by General Motors. It was outfitted with a 16-cylinder, 1,350 horsepower engine that was about 48 feet long. They often appeared in pairs (AA) pulling trains around the country, an early nail in the coffin for steam locomotives



Featured Locomotives


The Western Star:
 Great Northern FT Diesel

 This model train by MTH sports the classic Great Northern colors that marked such passenger trains as the Empire Builder and the Western Star.


The favorite in my collection:
 SP&S Challenger 910

Originally ordered by the Union Pacific Railroad, this "Challenger" steam engine model (above) was first pressed into service in 1936. It was distinctive in its 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement  (two sets of three drive wheels on each side of the engine)  It handled unprecedented loads at 50 percent faster speeds than previous engines. Union Pacific's order to Alco for more locomotives was interrupted by the War Production Board for World War II. The board allowed production of the locomotives but insisted that they be delivered to other roads like the "Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway." I saw the original SP&S No. 910 engine in Wishram, WA along the Columbia River when I was a boy in the late 1950s and a Wishram photo of that same engine is below (Note the six drive wheels and the 910 number.) The "Rail King" model, by Mike's Train House surprisingly of the same exact 910 prototype, is shown above pulling into the village siding on Larry's attic layout. Below the 910 is a July 2006 photo of a Burlington Northern westbound freighter holding at Wishram.



1934, The Streamliner:



My featured collection addition is the "M10000." This was the classic Union Pacific streamliner introduced in 1934 as the passenger train of the future by President Averell Harriman. The unique aluminum hull was used to promote the opening of Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State by traveling through a large penstock. This model was produced by Mike's Train House for the RailKing line. The model comes equipped with Protosounds 2.




Feeling Blue In The 1970s

Great Northern had a blue paint scheme in the final years before merger into Burlington Northern. Here's a Mike's Train House Rail King model of the Great Northern in blue. The engine at left is modeled after the turbocharged GP-20, a common sight in the Pacific Northwest that was built by General Motor's Electromotive Division (EMD.) The prototype was last built in 1962 but operated through the 1970s.

There's even a blue caboose. The engine at left is Larry's new SW1500 switcher, also in blue GN colors.

 



Larry is pictured near Sandpoint, Idaho, at the bridge of a General Electric
C4404AC Dash 9 Locomotive operated by the Union Pacific Railroad

Larry's Recommended Web Links

Click for the Ganders Family Website Click for Larry's Ebay Auction Site

Larry's Favorite Model Train Manufacturer & Dealer Links

Woodside caboose at historic Garibaldi, Ore., station

 

 
Thanks for Visiting!

Scale railroading colleague Andrew Rohrback helps Larry carpet train a vintage 224E Lionel steamer.

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Nothing runs like a deere!*

 

* Larry's Training Center - Olympia is not affiliated

 with Washington State University or John Deere but we're huge fans.