Livingston Model Railroad Club Layout Cab Ride


montanan

Whiskey Merchant
Here's a video taken at the Livingston Model Railroad Club located in the basement of the old Northern Pacific Depot in Livingston, MT, which is now a railroad museum.

The layout occupies three rooms in the basement. Occasionally you'll see an a**hole in a blue Navy T shirt and hat, that's me. No place to hide. The layout isn't of any particular place with the exception of the Gardiner loop which was all built from scratch. It is near the end of the video. It was built using photos from the Museum of the Rockies and set somewhere in the late 20's or early 30's. Most of the structures were built using photos from the Museum. The Northern Pacific ran rail service from Livingston, MT to Gardiner, MT which is at the North entrance to Yellowstone Park to take passengers to the park and supply the town with goods. Service was discontinued in the late 50's.


Here are a few of the old photos of the station at Gardiner.

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Here's aphoto of the station at the club.

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Very nice video! I would love to have a club that is nearby, and have a layout this size to join. I see the second tunnel has a few inhalant's calling it home.
 
It works out pretty good Mike. At home, my layout is built for switching which I really enjoy and at the club, as you can see, the main line is fairly long and when we have 7 or * trains operating at the same time, it can make things interesting.

It is not really close by, it's about a 50 mile trip one way, but worth it. The club has been in existance for around 25 years and I didn't even know it until I heatd about a swap meet at the museum last year.
 
Chet, The second photo of Gardener show a double headed train and the lead steamer ahead of 2152 appears to be an oil burner. I have to admit that I did not know that the Northern Pacific had any oil burner steamers! Do you know what type and what the number was on this loco?
 
There were a few Mark, but I don't think there were many. Some were being converted to oil but then the NP was phasing out steam for diesels about this time. I have no idea what kind of locomotive is in the photo.
 
A question for both Chet and Mark about steam locomotives since you fellows are avid followers of the Northern Pacific. Of the two types of locomotives shown in the second photograph of Gardner, MT, which NP locomotive would be more economical or efficient to operate, the coal burning loco verses the oil burner?

There must of been some underlying reasons that the NP was converting coal burners to oil.

Just a question for the two experts.

Greg
 
You brought up a good question Greg. The NP ran right through the coal fields in eastern Montana where there was an abundance of "Rosebud" coal at their disposal. I did see a few oil burners when I was a kid, but coal was still being used for steamers, but steam was on its way out with the transition to diesel power.

Unfortunately all of my relatives who might have known about this have passed away. I am guessing at this subject now. Oil is easier to store and cleaner than coal emitting less ash. I imagine that some locomotives were being converted nut then the transition to diesels put a stop to that. Going through one of my books, "The Northern Pacific, Main Street of the Northwest", there are a lot of photos but very few pictures showed oil burners. Here is one that I scanned.

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I imagine that it is the same thing that happened to the Southern Pacific. Many of their steamers were converted to oil burners, but then the diesel locomotive came along. The NP was probably slower in the conversion to oil burning.
 
It may have only been an experiment. However, my expertise in steam only runs to the fact that I love the look and sound of steam and the whirling gizmos on the side.
 
I also like the looks of steam running down the tracks. I have been lucky enough to have ridden on the Union Pacific steam behind 844 and 3985 and have watched numerous videos of them and the Southern Pacific Daylight and just can't get over the thrashing side rods when they are running at speed.

 
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Cool video, and great pix of the Gardiner station, Chet.

DSM and DSKid no.2 and I visited Yellowstone in 2011. We stayed just outside the South entrance, but drove one day up to near the North entrance. If I had known we could have visited that station and museum, I might have insisted we check it out!

UPDATE: Oops, reread the earlier post and realized that I conflated Gardiner and Livingston. Never mind:rolleyes:
 
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I think so, not just here but everywhere. I'm old fashioned and those nuns back in Catholic grade school taught me spelling and writing, now lumped together (along with literature) as English. An example is BOGO. It took me a couple of years to figure that one out! I'm getting better. Google is my friend sometimes.
 
All I seem to do, is anger the people who insist on using abbreviations and acronyms, asking for an explanation. My New Years Resolution is to not care what they mean; nor, ask them for an explanation!
 
All I seem to do, is anger the people who insist on using abbreviations and acronyms, asking for an explanation. My New Years Resolution is to not care what they mean; nor, ask them for an explanation!
It doesn't bother me when you ask. I tend to use them a lot and forget others don't. I would have answered, but Willie took care of it. (Thanks, Willie!) So no worries. Happy New Year!
 



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