5: Staging at the “Clackamas club” is split into Albany
and Bend areas representing the west and east ends of
the modeled railroad. Returning cars are sorted onto the
shelves according to type, and then assembled into new
trains according to traffic demand.
5
MRH:
“Since Oregon has a tendency to grow rocks . . . ?”
Rick:
(chuckling) “Yes, we had quite a few that were rather huge.
Luckily we were able to expedite the project when one of the
members had a friend who had a pneumatic jackhammer. If we
couldn’t have used that, we would’ve stayed in this room and just
have a different layout.”
“We took out some major rocks. In fact, we have four of them
out in the courtyard. Those are the significant rocks -- the last rock
that was taken out of the back basement and the last rock that
was taken out of the front basement.”
MRH:
“David – about how complete is the layout?”
Columbia Cascade and Western - 4
‘Recipe cards” tell mole operators how and when to
build each train. This is the Bend side; the Albany side is
behind the photographer. Upper level staging is usually
used for unit trains.
David:
“The layout is about three-quarters complete. We will have
about 500 feet of mainline when we finish. Currently there is 350
to 370 feet operating. As you can see in the video, we’re currently
finishing the last quarter of the four quarters of the rooms.”
MRH:
“And when it’s done, 500 feet – that’s mainline only?”
David:
“That’s just mainline only. We have two major yards, we
have a major helix for moving out of the staging yards, and of
course there are many spurs and short lines everywhere.”
MRH:
“What sort of staging is this going to be?”
David:
“The railroad runs from Albany, Oregon, to Bend,
Oregon, and beyond, and we stage from those two towns. We
MRH-Feb 2013
