Changing operating era and equipment back from 1984 into the 1950s naturally required removal of all of the more modern era equipment that has run on my SP Cascade Line for the past decade plus. My regular operating crew recognized this and…
One of the most critical locomotive types on an operating model railroad is switchers. When I began my quest to backdate my operations to the 1950s, I moved with confidence in my switcher fleet. My 1950s Southern Pacific switchers were well…
As I developed my 1950s locomotive fleet, I concentrated first on the road freight power. My study of SP locomotive assignments in the 1950s plus text in books on the Shasta-Cascade Route by Signor and Austin and Dill points to a heavy conc…
The time has come for me to shift the operating era of my SP Cascade Line back into the 1950s. Such an era shift was always part of my plan for the railroad as I had interests and equipment in both the 1980s and 1950s. The 1980s interest re…
It seems a bit hard to believe, but I am closing in on hosting a hundred operating sessions on my railroad. As I do so, the itch to change eras has gotten very strong. As seen in a couple of the preceding blogposts this year, I have been ma…
When I originally brought my railroad into operating service in 2015, I had to make an era choice. Although I had considerable 1950s equipment, almost all of it was DC-analog. Further, much of the 1950s locomotive fleet would require hard-w…
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 t…
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 t…
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…
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 Lin…
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 b…
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 t…