SWAP MEET FINDS

 At the end of February, the Willamette Model Railroad Club held their annual swap meet in Portland.  Half of my regular operating crew are members of that club, so I chose to partake of the meet mostly as gesture of support.  I went with very low expectations as my purchases have become very focused on the railroad I have built.  

 I refrain from talking about purchases in this blog other than particular products that have a material impact on my railroad or its operations.  That all changed with this swap meet as I scored not one, but ultimately three significant swap meet finds that directly contribute to the “next chapter” of my railroad.  This was an extremely rare event!

 

The “next chapter” for my railroad involves a long-planned shift of operating era on the railroad from the current 1984 back into the 1950s.  That plan has been sitting in plain sight in a sidebar to this blog since its beginning.  I chose to commence operations in 2015 with “modern” (for me) SP equipment from the 1980s.  That refined to 1984 in short order based on equipment availability.  Ease of conversion to DCC (decoders into all motive power) drove that choice.  

 

I have a significant investment in DC-analog equipment that I used on the club layout I was part of in my working years in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Unfortunately, most of that equipment requires hard-wiring for decoder installation. For some well-loved equipment it might involve motor replacement as well.

 

With a developed and tested railroad (OK, lots of scenery to go plus “usual” electro-mechanical tweaks still needed), I have been longingly looking at backdating to the “rainbow era” of Southern Pacific operations—Daylight, Two-Tone Gray, Tiger Stripes, and Black Widow paint schemes.  I have been working through my motive power fleet of that earlier era, sorting out what needed to be installed and making decoder choices and purchases.

 

With that backdating goal in mind, I approached the WMRRC Swap Meet focused upon the potential of finding equipment that might fill identified holes or weak spots in my equipment roster.  I eventually made two locomotive purchases at the swap meet and then made second-hand caboose purchases at one of the two principal Portland model railroad shops—a trifecta!

 

Swap Meet finds at Cruzatte.  Two brass caboose models, an SP Black Widow F7 ABBA set, and a PrecisionCraft SP Daylight Alco PABA set will all find important places in my operating fleet as I back-date into the 1950s.

 

My first purchase was a PABA set in full Daylight paint.  The PrecisionCraft (affiliated with Broadway Limited) units are heavy and well detailed, well suiting my personal standards.  These should plug a passenger power fleet hole needing a powerful Alco PA set to pull my Shasta Daylight.  My Shasta Daylight is a brass Coach Yard set with car weights in the 11-12 ounce range and the usual blunt axle ends in coined truck frames (lots of friction).  My Overland PABA set needs a machinery repair in addition to fitting decoders, speakers and electrical wipers for DCC operation.  The PrecisionCraft set has the potential of getting me a working PA set for this train more quickly.

 

An added bonus for the PrecsionCraft PABA set purchase was from whom I got it.  Heather Clark is a custom painter here in the Willamette Valley.  She also is a former SP Brake-person.   I have known her since I arrived back in Oregon.  We have chatted at shows about topics we have in common including loco painting.  It turns out a mutual friend had been an early and long-time customer of hers—Ron Plies.  I knew “Rusty Ron” (as labelled in SP History circles) from my Bay Area days.  Ron and I shared a passion for SP passenger trains in addition to model railroad operation.  Ron passed away this past year and Heather has been handling much of his model RR estate, hence the PABA set.  I get a warm feeling knowing Ron’s PA set now sits in my basement preparing to pull my Shasta Daylight.  

 

As the swap meet ground on past noon, I finally was able to get over to Charlie LeCaine’s Whistle Stop table (one of the two major Portland model RR shops).  Sitting on that table was an Athearn Genesis F7 ABBA set at a decent swap meet price.  DCC decoder equipped and in Black Widow paint, this locomotive set will usefully augment my road freight power pool for the 1950s.  I already have the same set in my collection, but decals will take care of the loco numbers.  I now had two significant swap meet purchases.

 

Finally, while I was in Portland, I visited the other major model railroad shop—HobbySmith.  Sitting in the display case there were several Precision Scale brass SP cabooses, appropriate for the 1950s era.  Once again, these will usefully augment existing cabooses in my fleet—a fleet that needs to expand for my much larger layout.  I acquired C-30-2 and a C-40-1 models.  Yes, they need paint, but that is well within my capabilities.

 

I was very pleasantly surprised to leave Portland on WMRRC Swap Meet day with not just one, but three major additions to my operating fleet.  These purchases will move me much closer and much sooner to my planned era swap.

DERAILMENT IN TUNNEL 10

In the latter half of my February 7, operating session we suffered a derailment in Tunnel 10.  Tunnel 10 is the tunnel immediately RR-East (downhill) of Noisy Creek Trestle, the middle one of the three large steel viaducts on the Cascade Line.  This tunnel features rock sheds at both ends with the added complication of Noisy Creek Trestle being built on a curve and in a corner of my layout space.  

 

It has been eight years since I enclosed this area in scenery, fully forming the tunnel.  I recalled making a decision/choice when building the tunnels to provide removable tunnel walls from longer tunnels.  Looking at Tunnel 10, I thought this was one of the shorter tunnels that did not have a removable tunnel wall, so I proceeded on that basis.

 

We pulled the two halves of the train away from the scene of the derailment, but could not easily see into the tunnel.  Using a handy pair of light helper locomotives that were in the area returning to Oakridge, we gently ran them into the tunnel to confirm an obstruction—one that could not be cleared by simply powering up the locos to push it out of the way.  In my rush to clear the derailment, forgot to do some basic investigation, beginning with figuring out from the train consist just which car or cars were involved.  Initially, it appeared it was a single tank car, but in fact four tank cars were in that tunnel!

 

A quick (too quick as it happens!) inspection under the layout suggested the back wall of the tunnel was a slab of pink-foam terrain base.  Again, I was in a rush to clear the derailment, so I did not investigate that further.  More on that later in this blog post.  

 

With an assumed impenetrable tunnel wall (at least in short time), I quickly went to “Plan B”—trying to clear the derailment from the more open end of the tunnel on the downhill side (away from Noisy Creek Trestle).  Carefully climbing up onto the layout, I  investigated using a flashlight.  I could see a derailed tank car.  I grabbed a three-foot dowel and probed into the tunnel.  Nothing moved.

 

Investigating the derailment in Tunnel 10 from the RR-East end.

 

Unable to move anything in the tunnel, I wrapped the end of my dowel with blue painter’s masking tape (modest tack) and was able to fish out the nearest tank car.  A quick check with those handy light helper locos indicated I still had not cleared the obstruction.  Sigh.  Looking up the tunnel with my flashlight, I could see another car stuck in the tunnel, so in I went again with my tape wrapped dowel, extracting another tank car.

 

Using a masking tape wrapped end of a dowel to snare derailed tank cars in the tunnel.

 

Somewhere along in this part of the process, we finally thought to look at the train consist (car cards) and found that four cars were missing from between the ends of the separated train.  I continued to fish out the remaining pair of tank cars using my tape-wrapped dowel.  With four tank cars removed and taken to my RIP (Repair In Place) Track area, we confirmed the (now) unobstructed tunnel.  With that, the two train halves were rejoined and the railroad returned to operation—after a break of at least a half hour.

 

Mark K. wipes off my sweaty forehead after the very physical activity involved in climbing onto the layout and maneuvering the tape-wrapped dowel to snag the four tank cars.

 

Subsequent investigation found two of the four cars remain in decent shape that will put them back on the rails for the next operating session.  The other two may not make it, needing extensive repairs to the tank dome access ladders and handrail structure around that access dome.  Oh yes, for those who might think of such derailments on full-sized railroads, the tank cars were all “empty,” heading to the SF Bay Area for reload.  This was not a Hazardous Materials spill.

 

The four cars from the derailment.  The closest two have extensive damage to the center access ladders and handrails.  The rear two have more modest damage that appears easy to repair.

 

With a much clearer head, I investigated the derailment site and found first that the actual tunnel track was further up and closer to the wall than I thought when I was trying to clear the derailment.  Further, I discovered that I had installed a removable back tunnel wall/liner.  I removed that back wall and felt the track for broken off car pieces, but did not find any in the first pass.  I will run my TCS track cleaner with its vacuum feature through the tunnel before the next operating session.

 

In the future, I need to approach such operating problems by first stepping back and assessing the actual situation.  First figure out how many cars are involved.  Second thoroughly investigate for removable tunnel walls.  I “assumed” too much in my rush to get the railroad back in operation.  This was a tough learning experience….

EUGENE DEPOT PLATFORM – 1

As I work around the railroad bringing up the level of scenic detail, I arrived at the Eugene depot area.  This has long had a depot model plus several other structures such as the scratch-built Eugene Freight depot and several Eugene city businesses with rail access.  With the track painted in this area in the past year, I could at last begin the process of providing a passenger platform.

 

Eugene’s depot trackage had a typical layout for the Southern Pacific.  The mainline was separated from the depot by at least one other track.  In Eugene’s case, the track closest to the depot was the WP Siding, named for the original construction company that laid out the original Eugene depot and yard. 

 

The original Eugene yard was alongside what became the Coos Bay Branch.  That yard remained after the Natron Cutoff was completed (the modern Cascade Line that I model) and a new, much larger yard constructed.  The old yard became the Blair Street Yard, serving local industry in Eugene.  My classification yard is placed between the aisle and the depot tracks and serves much the same function on my railroad—support of the local industry operations.  

 

Meanwhile, I had a gaping blank space between the depot mainline and the WP Siding and then the depot.  SP filled that space with a broad platform, a feature I long have needed to model.

 

I chose black styrene sheet to form the platform.  I cut long strips of the sheet to fit between the mainline and WP Siding.  I used a 0.080-inch base and a 0.040-inch top to first match the tie height (about 0.080-inch high) and then provide a platform top lower than the rails, avoiding a number of model railroad operating issues.  I assembled the long strips into even longer strips with a slight overlap created at the matching ends.  This created three strips a bit more than five feet long with overlapping joints for the center section.  I used a lot of tube styrene glue to weld the top sheets to the bottom bases and then join four strips to create the longer sub-assemblies.  Once the glue set for the three long subassembly strips, I sanded the inner joints and shaped the long edges.  

 

The Eugene platform was paved with asphalt.  The black styrene was way too saturated (black) to represent even slightly weathered asphalt, but should any of the subsequent paint get scraped off, the resulting black undertone will blend with the scene.  I painted the platform strips with Rustoleum gray primer.  

 

Once the platform base coat set, I applied a center stripe for the platform, as seen in photos.  Note the current Eugene depot no longer has the WP siding, so the platform has been reconfigured for current Amtrak use.  I built a jig using styrene strip to guide the striping.  I used an acrylic paint pen from my local art supply store to apply the stripe.  I finished the basic platform treatment by scrubbing the platform strips with Bragdon gray weathering powder.

 

Applying the center stripe to the assembled platform strips.  My striping fixture is along the middle strip.

 

As with track laying, I installed the platform strips using DAP Dynaflex 230 adhesive caulk.  I used this for both the primary mounting to the cork roadbed sheets in the area and for the overlapping joints between the center and end platform sections.

 

Amtrak Number 11 pauses for its station stop at the newly-installed Eugene depot platform.

 

Much work remains in the Eugene depot area.  The Railway Express Agency depot is under construction as I write this, using another Walthers City Station kit.  This is a challenge to adapt the depot kit end hipped roof sections to form a single roof.  Following that will be expanding the depot platforms on the depot side of the WP Siding and then installing pedestrian and baggage cart walk-over platforms to get to the main depot platform between the two tracks.  For now, at least the main platform is present!

 SPH&TS TUCSON CONVENTION

 

I close out this year’s activities with a report on our trek to Tucson for the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society convention.  With my sister living in Tucson, the first SPH&TS convention I attended was there in 1992.  A subsequent convention was held there in 1998 and then the long break until this year, 2025.  The folk in Tucson put on a fine convention.  Too bad many semi-regulars chose not to attend, but the effort was worth it for the 110 or so of us who made it.

 

The convention featured an extra fare set of tours on the Wednesday prior to main convention hotel activities.  We were presented with an outstanding tour of the Port of Tucson which has extensive logistics facilities for a wide variety of products including both food and manufactured items passing through Tucson.  The Port facilities have an extensive rail network tied into easy access to the Sunset Line of the former SP.

 

Our first tour stop was alongside a warehouse and provided us an opportunity to inspect the leased yard locomotives seen in the background.

 

Port facilities were nearby the Sunset Line mainline.

 

The Port of Tucson handles a robust transportation modal shift between highway and rail for major freight forwarding companies like Schneider.

 

We toured a couple of the warehouses the Port manages including one cold storage facility.  Lots of shrimp was stored on shelves we could see.  One did not linger in the cold room!

 

Our tour took us by former El Paso and Southwestern facilities, purchased by the SP in 1926.  This is the former EP&SW depot, built in the 19-teens, but made redundant with the SP purchase.

 

Alongside the EP&SW depot was a freight house that the SP converted into a company hospital.  A feature of the hospital development was a fountain in a plaza.  That fountain remains as the rest of the property has been developed as a Federal courthouse.

 

Displayed on the former SP (now Amtrak) depot grounds is SP 1673, an SP Mogul (2-6-0 wheel arrangement).

 

Housed within the former SP depot is a display of the former Centralized Traffic Control machine used for dispatching (controlling train traffic) along the Sunset Route from Tucson.

 

With our touring done on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday had full days of presentations on many topics related to SP operations around Tucson.  Here, host Mike Bording is introducing Mike Jarrell who gave an updated presentation on the SP streamliner, the Sunset Limited, a topic Mike Jarrell has documented in an SPH&TS book.

 

Former SPH&TS President Paul Chandler (back to camera) opened up his home and model railroad to us on Saturday afternoon.  Paul’s layout is inspired by boyhood memories growing up in Lodi, California.

 

We had a good time in Tucson.  I hope our SPH&TSociety returns!

January 1, 2026 addendum:  I had problems uploading the pictures for this post on my current laptop.  I had to use my old machine with an older OS to get the pictures.  Sigh.  The computer age!

OLYOPS 2025

Catching up with posts on what was a VERY busy Fall.  Almost every weekend in September and October had a rail-related event for me—either model railroad operations or prototype railroad history.  After my usual October operating session on the first weekend, the second Saturday of October found a number of us invited to Olympia, Washington, for this year’s OlyOps.  OlyOps features six to eight local layout operations, with guests assigned to operate on two of those layouts with a morning and an afternoon session each.  

 

My carpool was assigned to operate first on Brian Ferris’ Port Townsend and Southern, a proto-fiction railroad operating much like the prototypic Northern Pacific joint line between Portland and Seattle, albeit single tracked.  I have operated on Brian’s layout several times before and always enjoy the return visits.  Most of the layout is contained within a single large room, with staging in the garage.  My jobs this time included one local freight on the mainline and then a switching job on the fringe of the one major yard.  Both of those jobs had me dodging higher priority traffic, whether higher class per the timetable or simply that I was a lowly switch job needing to get out of the way of traffic using the mainline.

 

Overview of Brian Ferris’ Port Townsend and Southern.  The train order operator (Rick A. with back to the camera) sits in the middle of the room with view of most of the mainline.

 

Switching the main yard on Brian Ferris’ Port Townsend and Southern.

 

Our carpool’s afternoon layout assignment was on Scott Buckley’s Tehama Valley Railroad.  Scot’s layout is another proto-freelanced railroad, set in California’s Sacramento River Valley and extending into the Sierra foothills.  This is another layout I have operated on several times.  In many ways, this year’s OlyOps was like “old home week” for me.  Scott’s railroad also occupies a single room.  The railroad is about half-scenicked and captures the look of a short line extending from the middle of the valley up into the foothills.  I paired with Craig Townsend, with whom I got acquainted via one of the on-line RR e-mail groups, but have also met in person at events around the Pacific Northwest.  This is one of the fun social aspects of these operating events—bringing together folk interested in model railroad operations and other aspects of model railroading.

 

Our local freight is returning to the main yard connection with the SP and ATSF, seen here crossing a long low trestle that spans a water course.  This scene is very reminiscent of scenes in California’s Big Valley (north and south).

 

Vic N. switches in an unfinished part of the Scott’s layout.  One does not notice the lack of scenery much when operating a train.  More important is “where does that car go?”

 

The last couple of OlyOps have concluded the Saturday operations with a banquet held at a local golf club.  This brings most of the day’s participants together in a social setting where the discussion often covers model railroad topics as well as some side discussions among event organizers.  I look forward to each Fall’s OlyOPs, hoping it does not conflict with other railroad events held in October.

FURTHER FOREST SCENE DEVELOPMENT AT PRYOR AND MONTIETH ROCK

This year my major scenery development has been in the area of Monteith Rock (aka, “Rooster Rock”) and the adjoining “Pryor” area of forest.  I have developed this in steps, building up literally from the rock to the trees.  Indeed, the later stages of the effort have been paced by my tree production.  August and September saw major advances on the tree front such that the scene is now approaching “completion.”  

 

The 01-EURVY climbs the Cascades under Montieth Rock, now surrounded by forest.

 

As I finished off the forest on the hillside above the track in the area, I realized I needed more trees on the downslope from the track.  I needed to ballast the track in the area before closing it in with trees.  That diverted me to adding ballast to a couple of areas.  I began at Westfir because it was very open and accessible and then continued on to the entire stretch of mainline between Tunnel 21 and Montieth Rock down toward Oakridge by way of the Salmon Creek mainline bridge and up to the Beech Street road crossing at the geographic east end of Oakridge.  

 

The beginning of ballast at Westfir.  My first step involves gluing a base strip of ballast on the outside of the ties.

 

Ballast at Salmon Creek.  The bridge has a ballasted deck—that finally got ballast during this effort.  I needed to remove stray ballast rocks from on top of the ties and along the rails after the ballast was applied outside the ties and then brushed and shaped inside the rails and along the ties.  A putty knife and half of a tweezer set (a favorite tool created after the tweezer “handle” bond failed) were very handy for removing stray rock.

 

Once the ballast was cleaned up from the track, I used a Woodland Scenics steel rail paint pen along the vertical edges of the rails.  The rail paint has been applied on the right side of this photo.

 

My previous month’s effort left a gap of trees that needed to be filled with the correct height trees—this month’s effort.

 

The tree gap was filled with another 15-20 trees.

 

With the tree gap filled, I returned to the adjacent corner scene to add more trees.  I also began adding trees on the aisle side of the track.

 

The completed scene with tree groves on the aisle side of the track.  Photos of the prototype scene show the downslope side forest is sparser than the hillside above the track.

 

With the forest filled in on the backdrop side of the track and groupings of trees now located on the aisle side, this scene captures the look of the railroad’s climb up over the Cascades.

VanRail 2025

One of the major regional model railroad operating events of odd years occurs in September with VanRail.  This event brings model railroad operators, generally from the West, to Vancouver, British Columbia for a delightful array of railroads graciously hosted.  I have attended since 2017 and have enjoyed it every time.  This year I put my bids in for a couple of railroads I operated on in the past plus one more open slot.  That “open slot” often produces a new delight for me.  This year did not disappoint.

 

My first layout was Greg Madsen’s Spokane and British Columbia Railway.  As the name implies, this was a cross-border railway with historic antecedents.  Greg applied “proto-fiction” to bring the historic S&BC into the 1950s.  Greg’s railway features two yards with through trains doing block swaps with the yard switching crew plus separate local industry switching jobs.  I drew Greg’s major yard and promptly brought the railroad down on its knees.  Credit that to not studying Greg’s switch-lists long enough to recognize the pattern he created.  Still, the session was sufficiently laid-back with our guest crew that we all had a good time.

 

Greg Madsen’s Spokane and British Columbia layout as our guest crew looked around.  The yard I served in is on the right.

 

Another view of Greg Madsen’s layout with a mainline train proceeding on the left.

 

One feature of operating events is that it often represents a gathering of peers—model railroaders with similar interests and driven to create layouts focused on operation, especially individual car movements.  That led to several interesting discussions dealing with issues we face in creating our dream empires.  I was struck by this as an after-session discussion with Greg in his shop led to a fresh perspective for me dealing with model paint, prompted by the demise of our most common model railroad paint a decade ago.  Greg explained to me what he learned about using modern acrylic model paints and the changes in tools and techniques he has employed.  

That was valuable to me as I currently embark upon fresh model projects.

 

Following the first day’s operations, overall event coordinator Scott Calvert and his wife Margot hosted a reception for all participants—guests and layout hosts at his house.  This gave me an opportunity to directly observe progress made by Scott and his crew in bringing his vision of the Canadian Pacific Boundary Division into life in HO-scale.  I have operated a couple of times on Scott’s railroad, so I was eager to see what he had done since my last visit.  Scott and I both have larger layouts so we have exchanged e-mail discussions of challenges we face.

 

Scott Calvert’s CPR Boundary Division layout.  Scott has been adding the upper deck to the layout with the mountain summit at Fallon on the left and more mountain track on the upper right.  Below is the major yard at Nelson.

 

My second day’s layout was John Green’s 1950’s era Coquihalla (Kettle Valley) Railway.  This was my second visit to John’s operation so I had at least a little prior experience.  Although the aisles can be a bit cramped with choke points, we all made allowances and moved the traffic.  I drew a road crew job and traversed the mainline a couple of times with both an Extra and a scheduled (regular) freight.  

 

Dick Z. operates a train at Hope, BC, on the upper level of John Green’s Coquiahlla Valley Railway.

 

Following a through freight on John Green’s Coquihalla Valley Railway.

 

Our second evening found guests and hosts gathered at the restaurant alongside our central event hotel for an evening of cross-table discussions.  This gave me an opportunity to continue discussions begun in the hotel lobby concerning future operating developments on my railroad as well as sharing perspectives on other challenges.  

 

After dinner, we moved into a hotel meeting room for a presentation on railway less-than-carload (LCL) traffic.  LCL traffic lasted longer in parts of Canada as it took longer to develop the highway network that eventually doomed the rail traffic.  Still, LCL is an interesting topic and is applicable to my own favorite prototype of the Southern Pacific which successfully carried LCL traffic into the 1960s with a combination of rail and the SP’s Pacific Motor Transport trucking subsidiary.  

 

My final layout assignment was on Anthony Craig’s Canadian Pacific Railway Kettle Valley Division, set around 1950 with all-steam operation.  Just as my first experience with Anthony’s layout some years ago, I split my time between work as a pusher (helper) engineer and then as the Train Order Operator at the major yard of Brookmere.  

 

Our guest crew gathers for Anthony Craig’s briefing in the aisles space in front of the major yard of Brookmere.  Rob K. serves as the first trick Train Order Operator at Brookmere (seated, just beyond the roundhouse), the operator position I filled for the second trick (after our session refreshment break).

 

Our three-way meet on Anthony Craig’s CPR Kettle Valley Division.  I was the pusher engineer at the rear of the train on the left.  We followed a First Class train already in the siding.  The opposing First Class train was supposed to have been met by both the train ahead of us and us (We had meet orders.) at Coquihalla.  We used a flagman and found a way to do the saw-by.

 

Anthony Craig describes himself as a modeler first and operator second.  He is at a very high level for both of those activities.  His layout is beautiful with lots of scratch-built structures.  His locomotives and cars are well detailed and run very well.  He has a well-defined operation that showcases use of timetable and train orders for train movement management.  All of this makes for an enjoyable experience.  

 

VanRail features wonderful operating layouts with most gracious hosts.  I look forward to my next trek north to visit my friends in the Vancouver, BC, area.