Last Saturday my friend Ron Findley and I drove up to Jackson, Louisiana to watch the steam-up scheduled for the day.  This is the home of the Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroaders, and one of the club features is a nice elevated loop for the live steam buffs in the club.  This day was host to a number of folks from out of state, and we delighted in seeing several new faces at the event.

Just heading out on the mainline after our arrival was this beautiful F scale D&RGW K-36 2-8-2, pulling a short passenger train over the line.  An F scale (1:20.3) steamer is quite large, and the sounds are awesome!

Shortly afterwards, a Great Northern class S-2 4-8-4 took to the rails, seen here hauling a freight train with several perishables in tow.  She had to make speed to arrive at her destination in a timely fashion!

Perhaps the most interesting thing run yesterday was this Schnabel car.  It appears to be a model of the Westinghouse car, WECX 800, which I believe to be the largest Schnabel car in service.  She sports 36 axles!  These cars are used to transport very large and/or heavy loads.  The car splits in the middle and the load is placed between the halves.  In essence, the load virtually becomes a part of the car.  The model was built with the aid of 3D printing, and is almost complete, with only the need for lettering and perhaps a detail or two.

And below we have a tidy little passenger train being hauled by what (I believe) to be a British 2-6-2.  She is running on the portable loop seen in the background of a photo above, and was a sweet running little thing . . . a pleasure to see.  Trevor, if you’re watching, this one’s for you  🙂

These are just a few of the locomotives performing during this day; quite a few others ran as well.  I’ve posted photos previously of others that I’ve seen in earlier years, and a search should yield those posts if you would like to see them.

-Jack