Rumors of the OWNRy layout demise are premature

Last fall, I sent an email to many freinds advising them that my layout might very well be torn down and that I would be holding one last operating session. Since then, the situation has changed and the layout for the forseeable future will remain. As you can see below, however, the layout room contains a 50 inch HDTV which can be used to monitor for my N scale camera car as it proceeds around the layout. The image on the screen, however, is not of my layout but one from the "Tracks Ahead" HDTV program. The Screen lives under the Pendleton switch and is very watchable while I work on the layout or work on a small project at my workbench to the right. It does not interfere with operating sessions.
2 full all day operating session will be held this year. One was already held in April and the other one will be October 27. Periodic 2-3 hour "fun runs"' will be held as interest is determined. Let me know if you want to stop by. Next fun run is Saturday June 30 from 9AM-Noon and August 25 from 9 AM until Noon.

I am adding 4 new trains to the lineup. 2 Grain trains and 2 reefer block trains. All are blocks of cars which should add operating interest in the Portland and Seattle yards due to the amount of handling necessary. Seen below are some diesels in Portland Yard. The SP diesels are pulling the Shasta Daylight. The UP diesels pulling a grain train and the NP diesels arrived with a block of empty reefers bound for California. The head end power and caboose will need to be swapped with SP power and caboose prior to departure.

meanwhile, an SP GP-9 and Santa Fe GP-9 are arriving from Eugene with a full block of produce which will need to be iced and get new power before heading east through Pasco and Spokane to destinations on the Northern Pacfic Route.

New SP&S NW-2 switcher waits on yard tracks for action in Portland.

Photos From Operating Session in April 2007

City of Portland rounding the Bend

John Benny brought his new Athearn 4-6-6-4 PCM steam which sounds great!!


Coach Yard near Portland Engine facility

Railfanning with Friends = Portola, Proto 48, Clio Trestle

This past weekend several friends came down from the Pacific Northwest area and we had a lot of fun. We toured a local Proto 48 layout where we also rode Gordon's larger train he has in his back yard. Then we ran trains on my layout on Friday.

On Saturday, we went up to the high part of the Feather River canyon. First stop we watched a train across Clio Trestle. (5 minutes). I had never seen one there before.

We visited Portola and the Western Pacific Rail museum where we operated a real Southern Pacific GP9 diesel engine.

Later we toured Williams loop and Keddie Wye but saw now trains. Just missed BNSF train . Will H. took some photos of it.

We passed Blairsden on way home and stopped for a coffee but the shop was closed. However we saw a green signal so stayed around for a while. Here is the footage of the auto train we saw.

Coming home over the high pass (6500 feet), we just got through as the snow descended upon us. The Mini Coopers did well. See photo slide show.

Sunday we toured Binney Junction in Marysville, then headed south to Roseville yard to watch the action. Later Jim and John headed home and the rest of us went over to see the new UPRR trestle. No trains there. Greg and I headed home and caught one last train going up over Donner. We found it in Auburn, then again at Cape Horn up past Colfax. The rainbow was incredible. A perfect ending to a really fun weekend.

You can view the videos on my mini Blog also

Running the Merced Local on the Yosemite Valley RR circa 1939

I was able to attend Bay Rails last week and ran on several layouts. WIll be posting some photos.
You can see videos on my tumblog

Check out this YouTube Video I filmed while running on Jack Burgess' Yosemite Valley RR.

YouTube video of OWNRy Northcoast Limited

I finally was able to do some editing of the very rough video we made last Spring during an Operating session. We used my camera car pushed on top of a flat car (it wobbles a bit) and I had to compress 30 minutes of running to below 10 minutes. It was recorded onto VHS tape then Ray transfered it for me to a CD and sent it to me. I edited it in iMovie then uploaded it to YouTube. The video quality suffers because it was recorded on VHS then transfered. There is no Audio

Click here to access YouTube Video

This will open up a new page and leave this one in tact.

It runs about 10 minutes and in the last part, you will see the North Coast Limited passing through Pasco Yard


Let me know what you think. Not great but I will do better next time.--Kent

Crew for OWNRy OP session Dec 4

On A wintery Saturday 11 crew members converged from Puget Sound, Bay Area, Sacramento and Oroville for this all day OPS. Local dispatching was done via FRS radios.
We began with orientation at 0930 and then the "serious" fun began. Below Bob is bringing up an Eastbound train from Walla Walla into the Pasco Yard while Tom works fast to ready the pickups



Jim (who came from Seattle area) works the westyard switcher while Portland Yardmaster Andy (from Bay Area) works the east end


Then there are the "non-serious" fun loving playful crew members... had to kick them out around 5 PM...

Op Session April 15

11 crew member arrived from various locations including the bay area and Sacramento. Die hard railroaders braving weather conditions and getting up early (thanks to Starbucks for being open at 5 AM) they found their way to the OWNRy layout room even arriving early. After a review of the layout for newbies, the Superintendent gave a geography lesson in where all the cities are. Using a white board and colored pens he then showed where the "worm holes" are..e.g. how one gets from Wallula switch to Nampa, Idaho in 6 inches instead of 250 miles. This seemed to help...some. Yardmasters were appointed for Seattle (Alan), Portland (Mark) and Pasco (John). 2 newbies in the yards.

Fortunately their experience in operating aided them in surviving. and after the first hour, as with most newbies to a layout (including yours truly), they were in the flow and trains were rolling even faster. Intrepid Dispatcher Jacobson figured out the JMRI dispatch panel (who better to do so?) and discovered the little gremlin causing problems then it was smooth sailing from there. All told we moved 28 trains including a couple of extra trains. THe only train not run was the Valley Flyer (RDC). Pasco, as usual, proved to be a fun experience, one John will definitely remember (Mark will pay later ).

IN case any of you doubt, Bob J is quite adept at using JMRI. In fact. last Saturday (4/15) he was seen at the dispatcher panel of the OWNRy hard at work.













Using Locobuffer and a long Loconet cable to the command station, he ran the Classic Dispatcher Panel to move over 28 trains during the op session. And everyone had a lot of fun!!!

Portland Terminal Yard

Main line and siding on the far right. 3 Arrival/Departure tracks, 5 classification tracks, run around track. Far end is coach yard and engine maintenance/storage.

Station on right.

Portland Union Station

Since the layout is based upon Portland, Oregon in the late 60's or 1971 where 5 Class 1 realroads used to come in, my freind Marty, scratch built this incredible structure for me. What you see is actually the front of the Union Station normally facing the parking lot but it is so wonderful that I have it currently turned around facing the passenger tracks.

Also please note that the log train is there temporarily whilst awating return to Eugene staging. Hey this is my layout!! And model railroading is fun!!

Operations on the OWNRy March 18

10 operators came to run trains on the OWNRy last Saturday, running a total of 24 trains during a 6 hour session (not including beans). We didn't have a dispatcher so ran ABS. The engines I had installed speed tables in seemed to run better than before.

Download the PDF slide show from my web site

The Northcoast Limited tours the layout around the Columbia River Bluffs.

Greg is moving an SP&S freight through the tunnel westbound to Portland from Pasco.

Mark, the Portland yardmaster switches a line of arrival on the West yard lead. Soon after, we lost the west end classification switches so he finished his work on the east end. Glad we had double ended yards.
Frank drives the Shasta Daylight across the Willamette River bridge northbound to Portland then on around the layout for a nice little tour.
Tom works with Seattle yardmaster, Mitch, to set out and pick up cars. All trains stayed on the layout and most stayed on the tracks, too!!
Everyone looks busy in the main layout room. Portland yard is on the right and Pasco yard is on the right.

Next operating session is April 14