N-Scale Club Visit and Ops Session

[upguy]

This last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to visit with and operate with a group of folks in The Dalles, Oregon. I'll post a few pictures that I took while there. They model a portion of the the Columbia Gorge but without the river. They have staging yards that represent Pasco, Bend, Portland, and Vancouver. The main operating yard represents Wishram, Washington, and switching involves various industries that are typical of the region between Wishram and Bend, Oregon. The layout is totally DCC operated, so there is always some interesting operation. The first picture shows the main operating pit with Wishram yard on the right.

 

[upguy]

Here is a photo that shows the engine servicing portion of Wishram.

 

[upguy]

The guys have done a great job on the scenery that has been done so far. My camera doesn't do the scenery justice. The following pictures are an attempt at showing some of the layout detail.

 

[upguy]

I wasn't able to get out of my car fast enough, so I just got a quick picture of these engines before they got out of range heading toward Wishram.

 

[Matthyro]

Thanks for the tour Upguy. Great railfanning opportunities.
What DCC system do these guys use?

 

[upguy]

They use the Digitrax Chief.

 

[NSCALEMIKE]

Thanks for sharing UPdude...Love the pics...looks like a great layout...maybe I missed it, but do they have a website?

Mike

 

[upguy]

These posts are the nearest thing to a website that they have at this time. Here is a picture of the Bend and Pasco holding tracks right after a 7.0 earthquake. Someone, whose identity will remain undisclosed, bumped the table quite hard.

 

[upguy]

Here is the picture of the devastation that I could not add to the previous post.

 

[Matthyro]

If the table can be bumped and cause damage like that, then it ain't sufficiently braced. I made sure that this earthquake will not happen on my layout

 

[roryglasgow]

Is the epicenter holding the camera?

-Rory

 

[upguy]

Thankfully, no. Fortunately, nothing fell off the layout. Here is another picture showing the staging at Vancouver and Portland.

 

[upguy]

Here is another picture of the layout from the opposite direction--Wishram is to the left outside of the camera's view.

 

[NSCALEMIKE]

How much square footage is their room? It seems to be very large...looks like a great empire!

 

[upguy]

I don't know the square footage of the room, but they recently knocked out a wall so they have almost doubled the space available. Plans are being formulated to fill the additional space.

 

[Matthyro]

One thing that impresses me is their ability to lay straight track. I wonder what their secret is?

 

[Drew1125]

It all looks great upguy!
I really liked that grade crossing!