SOUNDRAIL 2026

One of the major West Coast regional operating events is the biannual SoundRail event held in March in the Puget Sound region of Western Washington state.  Operating layouts from Olympia north to the Canadian border are featured during the three-day event.  This year, we mixed with operators from all over the country with a number of prominent folk in the model RR operations interest area present.  I had a chance to touch base with my former San Francisco Bay Area colleagues plus others I have met online from across the country.  That “people” aspect is an important part of these events in addition to operating on some superb model railroads.  In many ways this was a preview to the operations that will take place alongside the NMRA National Convention to be held in Tacoma in August, 2027.

 

I drew three wonderful layouts for my operations.  The first was on Chuck Lee’s Colorado Front Range railroad.  Chuck fills his basement with operations out of Denver with a major branch line west to Golden, CO.  The layout is double decked and has fairly complete scenery—all done by Chuck in eleven years while working.  His “youthful” (compared to me—wink) energy shows with a far more finished railroad than mine in a similar time-frame.  In addition to the railroad physical plant, Chuck has a working CTC (Centralized Traffic Control) system.

 

I drew the Golden Turn, a train that runs from Denver to Golden, switching along the way and delivering traffic to Golden which then forwards much of that traffic to the large Coors brewery operation.  This was a plumb assignment.  My train effectively began the session and ended it with me working continuously.  In addition to switching cars at industry spurs along the way, I needed to sort and block cars for the final run up to Golden which had limited space and appreciated the two car blocks (Golden and Coors) I delivered there.  

 

Denver North Yard below and Golden above.

 

Commerce City below and Arvada above.  My train switched Arvada on its way back to Denver from Golden.

 

As a local freight, I needed track and time from the Dispatcher while clearing up for other trains.  The Dispatcher was able to release switches to my control and then would signal me to contact him by lighting up the call light on top of the signal shelters at either end of the siding I was working at.

 

My second layout operation was on Burr Stewart’s Burrlington Northern – Seattle Region layout, marking my second time operating there.  Yes, Burr spells that first word that way as a play on his name.  My first time was almost a decade ago.  Burr’s layout features operations among the many yards in the region inherited by the BN merger of 1970.  Locomotives and rolling stock represent the “rainbow era” of early BN operations with equipment painted in all four of the original BN component railroads’ colors plus early BN paint.  Each of the yards also had local area switching to perform.

 

Burr took advantage of my height to assign me to the Burlington, WA, yard in the north part of the region, with switching there and in Anacortes.  This yard was on the upper deck of the double-decked layout.

 

Burr Stewart briefs the crew at the beginning of the session.

 

The aisle I worked in with “my” Burlington Yard on the upper left and the South Seattle Stacy Street Yard below.  The Everett Bayside Yard is on the right.  A lot of action is represented here, as with the rest of the layout.  The Dispatcher’s desk has the TV monitor in the bottom left corner.

 

Typical of this sort of model railroad operation, we crewmembers spent an hour or so getting acquainted with our yards and the operations required.  Around the time of our lunch break we all noted we were just beginning to understand what was needed and how to accomplish that.  

 

My third day was spent on Tyler Whitcomb’s Tenino Western, a magnificent N-scale layout featured in a number of articles in the national model RR press.  Although I have found difficulties with N-scale for my older, weaker eyes and untrained fingers (for rerailing), Tyler’s operation was wonderful!!!  

 

Tenino Yard, one end of the railroad.  I ran transfer runs between here and the mid-point Lake Yard.

My train departing Tenino on its way through South Union and Tumwater on its way to Lake Yard.  The railroad is effectively “finished.” In detail.  Amazing!

 

Continuing on toward Tumwater and then around on a peninsula just out of view on the right and then into Lake Yard.

 

Lake Yard.

 

Tyler Whitcomb’s operation is well thought-out and a joy to operate.  Running through finished scenes inspires me to keep working toward that same goal on my own railroad.

 

SoundRail is a major event with many superb operating model railroads.  National visitors are in for a treat at next year’s NMRA National in Tacoma!