The Name is Dolores

It is interesting that the name Dolores is a Spanish baby name. In Spanish the meaning of the name Dolores is: Sorrow. From Maria de los Dolores (the Virgin Mary, or Mary of the Sorrows.). So this leads us to how Dolores, Colorado got named. From the history of the Town of Dolores:  The Dolores River was named by two Spanish Catholic priests, Francisco Anastio Dominguez and Silvestre Valdez de Escalante, as they passed through the area in 1776. On their journey to find a route from the missions of Santa Fe, NM to California, they discovered the river and called it "Rio de Nuestra Senora de las Dolores" or the River of Our Lady of Sorrows. In 1891 the railhead was established at the present site of the town of Dolores. The inhabitants of Big Bend moved everything lock, stock and barrel, to the new site at 6,982 feet elevation and named the town after the river that passed through it. So our pictures today come from the Mapleleaf Mafia Module - a long, long module that tells the Dolores railroad story.

Train Rides while the Great Pumpkin swings by in space

The news tells us that there is an asteroid dubbed "the Great Pumpkin" travelling through space and it will make a close flyby on Halloween.  It has been nicknamed "Spooky" because we didn't know it existed until Oct 10.  It is twice the size of the Toronto Rogers Centre. We look at a little more of the Sundance Layout today, enjoying a train day.

Remember the Trains

Today is an historic day.  Just as people remember where they were when John Kennedy was assassinated, so people remember where they were when the twin towers were attacked. However, we are looking at a different story today.  We're on the railroad.  Our second photo shows Gramps tank cars.  These are famous tank cars in the modelling realm. The name is said to come from the nickname of the oilfield owner William Hughes.  To please his grandchildren, he had is name painted on the tank cars of the Union Tank Car Company. There is also reference to known Gramps Oil and Refining - perhaps he was on a roll with the name,  The tanks were shipped to Alamos, Colorado for transfer to the narrow gauge.  Then they were on to the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. This bought them their spot in history.  I can think of no railroads more beloved to modellers than those in Colorado.

Train Day

Hi everyone,
It is a train day today, and these are pictures from the 2012 train convention in Seattle.  WHen we look at the photographs, it is hard to tell they are scale replicas.  Standing at the layouts, everything appears so real as though we are Gulliver travelling in a special world.