New Engines/GandersTrains.Com

SP&S GP-9 Freight Diesel
North Bank, Columbia River

Historic route of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway connecting
Northern Pacific tracks and Great Northern routes from Portland, Ore. and Vancouver, Washington
with Pasco-Kennewick and Spokane using the Washington side of the Columbia River.

New to the GandersTrains carpet layout: Spokane, Portland and Seattle (SP&S 150) General Motors Electro-Motive GP-9 locomotive (Circa 1954-59) one of just 36 of this O-Gauge model built by MTH Electric Trains in 2022.

SP&S built the first bridge of any kind
across the Columbia River in 1908.

Milwaukee Road F-7 4-6-4 Alco Baltic

Hiawatha Trainset, "Hudson-style" locomotive.
Prototype #103 operated from August 1938 to June, 1951. Coal-fired.

Baron Gérard Vuillet, a French railroading expert, once recorded a run between Chicago and Milwaukee where the locomotive reached 125 mph and sustained an average 120 mph for 4.5 miles.

Model built by Mike's Train House (30-1348-1)

The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
(Milwaukee Road)

Great Northern SD45 "Hustle Muscle"

Electro-Motive Diesel. GN 400 was the first turbocharged 20-cylinder engine.

Model built by Mike's Train House (2003)

Great Northern 400, Later Burlington Northern 6430

1934, The Original Streamliner:

The first streamliner, MTH Rail King model Video M10000 with 1940 photo of M10002
taken at Celilo Falls, Oregon

The "M10000 was the classic Union Pacific aluminum streamliner introduced in 1934 as the passenger train of the future by President Averell Harriman. The M10002, a later version, was used in service between Portland and Seattle in 1942. This model was produced by Mike's Train House for the RailKing line. The model comes equipped with Protosounds 2.

North Coast Limited
Northern Pacific F-3 Passenger Diesel
Seattle to Chicago via Stampede Pass
Historic route proposed for future Amtrak service between Seattle-Ellensburg-Yakima-Pasco-Spokane

NP North Coast Limited

The Northern Pacific Northwest routes are part of the Ganders Family History. Larry's great grandfather, JJ Ganders, came to Washington Territory in 1884 on a Northern Pacific (Oregon Railway & Navigation Co.) train at what is now Arlington, Oregon (now the Union Pacific track). He took a ferry across the Columbia to the Washington side and backpacked to the trading post at Bickleton. That Columbia Gorge route with a ferry at Kalama was a NP predecessor to the North Coast Limited route through Stampede Pass that began construction, also in 1884, with a route north of Bickleton from Seattle through what is now Mabton that served Yakima, Pasco, and Spokane before continuing on to Chicago.

Multiple Empire Builders

Double Daylight

Additional Locomotives in 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 Weyerhaeuser Timber Company model of a prototype 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.

Willamette Shay Left, is an actual operating engine using Shay technology. This locomotive is operated today by the Mount Hood Scenic Railroad in Elbe, Wa. The engine was built by Willamette Iron and Steel in Portland, Ore. in 1929. It is the only operational engine of its type in the world, originally owned by a lumber company in Klickitat, WA. It was operated from 1949 to 1962 by Rayonier Corp. in Sekiu, WA (Clallam County.). These Shay-style engines moved slowly but pulled huge loads with exposed vertical drive rods on the side that turned all wheels. Photo was taken in May, 2017.

Great Northern Rail Diesel Car

Added in February, this RDC is manufactured by Ready Made Trains and AristoCraft. it is a smooth operator with dual motors and directional headlights. The twin-motored car carries the Great Northern Empire Builder name on the side of the car. In its era, 1949-1962, the prototype self-propelled single-car train built by Budd Co. of Philadelphia served as a connection between rural stations and the transcontinental train stations. They were powered by twin General Motors Series 110 diesel engines, carried 49 passengers, and had a baggage compartment. These motored cars were sometimes linked together in two- or three-car consists. Great Northern had just one RDC car (GN 2350) which ran in the 1950s to stations like Helena, MO. The engine remains in operation today between Portland and Astoria, OR.. Larry rode a Via Rail version of the RDC car in Victoria, Canada. Six 1950s-era cars are being refurbished in Canada for continued operation.

Great Northern Rail Diesel Car, Feb. 2012

Union Pacific "BEEP"

Just 9.5 inches long, this compact fantasy O-gauge BEEP engine is based on a GEEP diesel, Geep is a slang term for prototype General Motors "GP" or "general purpose" locomotives that have operated on American rail lines for decades. This "Beep" is manufactured by Ready Made Trains and AristoCraft. In addition to being cute and about one-half true scale size, it is a smooth operator with dual motors and directional headlights. It pulls regular-sized cars, it is reasonably priced, and has some nice detail on the body.

Beep by Ready Made Trains

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

Double Daylight

Train Room

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, the prototype of 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.

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 SW1500 switcher, also in blue GN colors.

Old Toy Trains

Lionel Lines 2046 Hudson

This toy engine, previously owned by Karl Boehmke of Pullman, WA, survived flood damage. Made at the Lionel factory in the USA, this 65-year-old toy has been running with the original whistle tender and smoke unit. Lionel modeled its post-war toy train after a real Santa Fe 4-6-4 Hudson engine that was developed in the late 1920s for carrying more passenger cars. There were a number of builders of the Hudson that were initially designed for the New York Central Railroad (named for the river.) The Santa Fe Railroad version was probably built by Baldwin. Until the Hudson, trains were limited to about 12 passenger cars. There are operational Hudsons today, including in Sonoma, CA. The fact that the toy engine has a silver stamped 2046 number on the side is what identifies it as produced by Lionel in 1950. Other versions followed in 1951-3 but none had the silver number. It was an early toy engine that offered Lionel's patented "Magnetraction," That means traction on metal Lionel track was assisted by a magnetic pull from the wheels. The 2046 is shown above in a December, 2011 photo running around Larry's office.

The 2046 still has its original smoke unit
and it also has a whistle tender.

Christmas Train

A Lionel G-Gauge "Ornament Express" and LGB loco serves as the Ganders Christmas train.

For Larry's Pics of Prototype Trains, Click HERE

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Brassier Trains, Saginaw, 2019

Bob Brasseur, Brasseur Electric Trains
Saginaw, Michigan - 2019