This past winter the Candlewood Valley Scenic Railway entered negotiations with the Rockwall Canyon Railroad to discuss an exchange of surplus cars that would further each railroad’s mission. The CVSRy is happy to announce that the negotiations were fruitful and a car-for-car deal was reached. The CVSRy sent two cars East; a well used Reading & Northern 100 Ton hopper seen here in Ballast Service in 2006…

And a fully restored 40 Foot Frisco Double Door Boxcar seen here in one of it’s rare trips over the CVSRy in 2014…

While the ex CVSRY cars were preparing to head East, The Rockwall Canyon sent two cars West that better fit the primarily narrow gauge mission of the CVSRy. A Pacific Coast wooden flat and a Side Dump Gondola lettered for the Rockwall Canyon RR. Both cars are seen here on their first shakedown run as part of a CVSRy inspection train passing the new Wall Station earlier today…

This was a win-win for both railroads, The new to the CVSRy cars are in excellent shape needing only minor brake hose work. They will be put to work in freight operations this season.

Photo Note: Many of these photos are high-res. Use your browser’s View Image function to see them full size.

Neat John. ground here is either still mushy or under 6" off ice. the snow has finally melted of the last location, but operations here will need to wait until the ground firms up some. took the cars that needed lettering removal apart today and sandblasting the lettering away is the way to go. a little messy as the cars didn’t exactly fit in my Ho era sandblast booth. thinking I may break down and letter them for the home road.

Al P.

Cool idea. Glad the weather has improved for you and you can get out running again.

Shawn Viggiano said:

Cool idea. Glad the weather has improved for you and you can get out running again.

It was windy as all get out today, but I’m sick of being house bound so I got out there and cleaned all the debris off the track. I ran the inspection train caboose first so George could keep a close eye on the track. There are lots of places where slow orders will be needed until the track crew can get to them, but I was quite happy to find that all the track was passable as-is without derailing.

Tomorrow we are at the BIL’s for dinner. I’ll negotiate a utility trailer rental from him so I can get a half ton of ballast from the stone plant. I’m clean out and the railroad really needs it.

I felt the same Jon. the wind wasn’t going to stop me especially since the ground was snow free and thawed out. I couldn’t take another day indoors. Im paying the price now. I used muscles i forgot i had. (Shut up Rooster)

Oh yea. I am hurting a bit too for working on the track gang, but 1/3 of may railroad is now in class one shape. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)The other 2/3ds, not so much.(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-frown.gif)

Nice pictures John, the layout already looks great this year! I hope you are happy with the cars!

John’s hopper and double door boxcar finally made it to Rockwall Canyon today after they were held up due to winter conditions. Also being recieved today is former PRR coach “Journal Square” formerly of the Larry Otis RR. Over the winter, various New England railroads took their turn in storing the cars while their rail systems remained frozen. It was just as well, since Rockwall Canyon hadn’t turned a wheel in 2015 anyways! Today, RCRR 1055 with a B&M combine and D&H caboose set off for the interchange and brought home the winter’s new acquisitions.

Here we the equipment extra making its way into the Rockwall Canyon rail yard.

Looking good Jeff! Wow - you still have quite a bit of snow. Glad you were able to get a train running.

Thanks Jon,

I was pretty excited to get things running this year after having so much snow…think we had nearly 3ft deep at one point. The track is a bit rough, so I did add a bit of crushed stone to a few soft spots, but the train did well. It was a good hour-long run (after work last night)…sorry about the dark photos as a result!

Very cool guys …catching up on stuff !