This summer I met a new great friend, Duncan Cabassi. Since his visit I owe a lot of thanks to him for his inspiration. We're working on similar projects and it's great to be able to bounce our ideas off of each other.
I was contacted by Duncan in the spring of 2013 as he found this blog and wanted to visit while in Los Angeles. As a result, we rolled out the red carpet and I set up a progressive op session for him and his wife Narelle.
They arrived at LAX and they stayed at my house. From there, we started the railroad crawl by picking up Dave Sheehan and Jerry Rogers here in Torrance. We then went to visit BLMA in Fullerton, and after handing over a few bucks to Craig, we drove to Joel Morse's house to operate on his beautiful NYO&W layout for about an hour and a half. After that we headed to Mark Lestico's Cascade Sub layout to operate there and have lunch.
From Mark's we all headed back to my house for about an hour of operating on the CPRX. While we were doing that, the wives arrived and we all relaxed out in the back yard and enjoyed a BBQ expertly cooked by my roommate, Ken Chan. By the time we were finished eating, Joel began to entertain us with his banjo and railroad songs.
Honestly, it couldn't have been a better day!
The next day Duncan and I toured the area in search of prototypes. There are some photos from Watson, Dolores and the Harbor. After that we went to the Belmont Shore Lines RR and some photos as well.
I'm so glad to have met Duncan and his wife Narelle. Thanks for coming out to visit and being such great guests! Looking forward to seeing you again and to the N Scale convention in Australia in 2015.
Here are photos of their stay. First we went to Joel's.
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| Joel Morse, David Sheehan, Jerry Rogers at Joel's NYOW |
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| Narelle and Duncan Cabassi at Joel's NYOW |
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| Jerry Rogers and Rodney Ziebol at Joel's |
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| Duncan and David at Joel's |
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| Joel..."Hmmm...how can I rip all this out and make it better???" |
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| Frank Kenny (me) and Joel Morse at Walton on Joel's layout |
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| Joel, Duncan and Narelle on Joel's layout |
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| Joel Morse, Mark Lestico, Duncan Cabassi to the right. David Sheehan and Jerry Rogers in background. |
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| Joel and Duncan on Joel's layout |
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| Mark Duncan operating Walton Yard on Joel's layout |
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| The new addition to Joel's layout...detailed in a future post. |
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| Merrickville (lower) and Delhi (upper) on Joel's NYOW |
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| NOW ON TO MARK LESTICO'S LAYOUT...Duncan Cabassi on Mark Lestico's Cascade Sub layout |
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| Rodney Ziebol on Mark's layout |
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| Mark Lestico being the dispatcher |
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| Mark's layout, Springfield on the left and Klammath Falls on the right |
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| David Sheehan and Jerry Rogers on Mark's layout...do these two ever separate? |
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| Cush job! Mark being dispatcher. |
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| Narelle Cabassi, Duncan's boss and April Lestico, Mark's boss |
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| UPRR on Mark's layout |
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| Wicopee on Mark's layout |
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| Hampton on Mark's layout |
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| David and Jerry at CP600 |
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| Do their wives know they are inseparable? |
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| Fall Creek and the Wyerhauser plant |
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| Uh, no, that's a reproduction! |
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| Duncan at the far end, Rodney and Dave at the staging yard. Eugene yard is behind them. Where's Jerry??? |
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| Eugene engine facility on Mark's layout |
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| Apparently this is Chambers Street |
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| Another shot at Wicopee |
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| UP Roadrailers at Wicopee |
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| Oakridge CP580 on Mark's layout |
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| Near CP537 on Mark's layout. |
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| Guests of honor, Duncan and Narelle Cabassi from down under |
NOW AT MY HOUSE...We operated trains for a short while but them quickly got down to eating dinner. Awesome BBQ chicken by chef Ken Chan and lots of fixin's.
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| Waitin' for food in my backyard |
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| Rodney, Dee Morse (Joel's boss) and Jerry and his wife |
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| Craig Martyn, his boss Monica, and David |
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| Mark and April Lestico on the right |
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| Joel Morse playin' the banjo. This was great entertainment. |
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| Narelle, me, April and Mark |
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| Joel on stage |
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| What a great time this was |
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| Monica and Craig...Yikes! |
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| Awe, how sweet! |
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| Dee Morse, Ken Chan, our chef on the cooler, Albert Lopez, our drink
coordinator, Duncan and Narelle, and in the back Rodney and Jerry. All of us enjoying Joel's music and singing. |
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| Joel is pooped out! |
The following photos are at Fullerton when we visited Craig Martyn of BLMA.
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| Craig Martyn and Duncan Cabassi. Duncan is not really short, Craig is really tall. |
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| Craig and Duncan next to 'ol #183. We'll really get to say that one day! |
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| The new Metrolink cab forward cars. |
The following photos are on a prototype tour I took Duncan on to Watson, Dolores and the Harbor.
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| A couple of Gensets. |
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| Now that's cool! |
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| The famous Duncan Cabassi from down unda. |
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| Even on the prototype these look too long. |
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| New TTX logo on new gons. |
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| And new boxes too. |
We stopped by the Belmont Shore Lines RR too and here are those photos.
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| Tehachapi Loop |
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| Tehachapi Loop |
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| Duncan and the loop |
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| Monolith Cement |
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| Couldn't resist taking a pic of this sign. It's an old sign so the new number is 310-344-9145. Shameless plug! |
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| Guess who! |
Frank Kenny, CPRX, Central Pacific Railway.
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