Tag: n scale

Sound Rails 2022

A little bit different this week. I am traveling but using a plane and car. Flew to Seattle area for long weekend of running model trains on very sophisticated model railroad layouts in people’s homes. This has been a life long passion of mine and i used to have my own large model railroad layout(s) with operations. We downsized, went full time RVing for awhile and moved back to our home at Ananda Village. Many friends asked if I would build a new railroad empire. NO WAY! Been there, done that, have the tee shirt. Now i just get to visit and enjoy other people’s train layouts.

Early morning flight made better with 1st class upgrade
Alaska Air going green or paper.
Nice to be back

First stop in Olympia was Mud Bay & Southern Railroad.

We flew in early to go down to Olympia for lunch and running trains. Layout builder and owner, Jim Younkins, has been a friend for 30 years and one of the best modelers I ever met. He used to come up and help me on my layout. I ran his Elma yard, one of several yards on the railroad.

Amazing scenery in N scale. 1/180th scale
Rochester yard
Elma yard, in the garage where I worked today
JB, me, Jim, Phil

We visited another layout in North Seattle in the evening. Interstate 5 from Olympia to north Seattle is real fun ( understatement). Kirk Reddie publishes a model railroad magazine and his layout is based upon Milwaukie Railroad in Puget Sound along with Great Northern and Northern Pacific. Features King Street Station, and cascade mountains.

New scenery
Can’t see it but this is the Portland Inion station from my layout now residing on Kirk’s layout

Friday we are headed to Mill Creek NE of Seattle to operate on the Everett & Monte Cristo RR. A beautifully crafter HO scale layout based upon a gold mine 68 miles up in the cascades. Trains ran from Everett to service the mine and towns along the way. We are running in the 1890’s here. The “good old days”

Yours truly and Phil in Everett yard
Monte Cristo Gold mine
Long view
Do Voss, layout owner

Late afternoon we drove over to south Issaguah to see a beautiful Great Northern railroad in south Issaquah. Beautiful northwest scenery.

Delta yard, Everett, Wa
Diss creek trestle in Cascades

Our hotel was in east gate area of Bellevue. Nice accommodations and centrally located while still affordable.

Saturday found again up in north Seattle at Burr Stewart’s basement HO layout modeling the old Burlington Northern railroad in the 1970’s.

Burr Stewart
Stacy street yard
Main room area
Me switching Argo Yard

Sunday we drove

down to Tacoma to run on a beautiful N scale railroad (1/160thcscale), called the Tenino Weayern RR and owned and operated by Tyler Whitcomb who works for Union Pacific Railroad. Beautiful scenes as Tyler originally was an art student before he drove real trains.

Tyler giving us orientation at Tenino yard
Kent running the mill job.
Someone is Flirting at the local coffee shop

All in all it was a wonderful weekend of running trains and visiting with long time friends and acquaintances. now back to Ananda Village for Springtime at Ananda during April.