CSME Layout Tour Part #1

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funnelfan

funnelfan

Member
For a few years up till 1998 when I moved away to Idaho, I was a member of the Corvallis Society of Model Engineers model railroad club in Adair Village , OR. Adair Village, a few miles north of Corvallis, was at one time a Air Force boot camp. Housed in a old gas station building with attached automotive shop, CSME has called Adair home for the last several decades after being started in Corvallis. Recently I had a chance to visit and see what kind of changes have been made in the last 12 years. I was certainly impressed, the club layout has come a long ways in that time. While a few areas were still recognizable, many more areas featured vast changes.

The older part of the layout was housed in the automotive shop area. It was a innovative track plan for a club at the time of it's original construction in that it was a single track mainline with passing sidings with reverse loops at each end. That mainline still continues to be a fun place to operate multiple trains. Two yards at the time at Marysville and Mill City provided a place to switch trains, but there was no industry to speak of. An electric interurban line connecting those two points saw little use.

In the 1990's the club put an addition to the building for meeting and storage space, and expanded the layout into former lobby area of the gas station. Here terminals, engine shops, staging yards, and industries would be constructed. It was in the middle of this expansion that I moved away. So lets take a look at the layout today. Please be patient, I have 55 photos to post for just this first part, which will only cover the older part of the layout for now.

1. Cascade Pacific is the name of the mainline railroad on the layout. This is one of the club cars.

2. The dispatchers desk is just below the operators balcony. The operators balcony is a must for open houses when the main floor becomes packed with people.

3. The dispatchers panel, roughly laid out the way the mainline runs around the room. This panel only controls the track in this room.

4. Overall view of the dispatchers area. The CCTV provides the operator a view of main yard in the next room.
 
5. Looking at the west side of the room. The drop ceiling is a new feature. The spotlights are turned on when the layout is being shown to tours. The florescent tubes are on to provide enough light to work on the layout.

6. The east side of the room.

7. Looking down from the operators balcony, we are looking at the reverse loop and summit siding on the upper level. Mill city is on the lower level.

8. The middle part of the layout with Deception Pass siding on the upper level, and Santiam siding on the lower level with the former Interurban, now Yaquina Terminal RR running along the edge of the layout
 
9. The Yaquina extension, part of the Yaquina Terminal RR

10. A close up of downtown Yaquina.

11. Two trains are meeting at Boulder Creek Siding. The Logging camp is above the siding. Below is the town of Marysville.

12. Lets start the mainline tour at the upper Reverse Loop at Summit. Nice rock work in this area.
 


13. Mining proves to be a hard life for the occupants of this Alpine boom town of Summit.

14. A train holding short of west Summit.

15. High up on a ridge, loggers are busy getting the "sticks" out.

16. A CAT skidder has a log in tow. The operator better be careful so as not to have the stick roll onto the tracks.
 
17. A uphill train crosses the large steel arch bridge between Summit and Deception Pass. The bungee jumper cleared off just in time, but scared the crap out of the crew who thought he was suicidal. Crew below and fishermen watch in amusement.

18 Crews are starting to get nervous about this particular wooden bridge near Deception Pass.

19. As if the bridge isn't bad enough, strange things are happening up the valley.

20. The railroad has put the maintenance yard at Deception Pass up for lease, no takers so far.
 
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21. A high speed passenger train heads west through Deception Pass siding, starting down the steep grade toward the coast.

22. A few of the creaky old bridges on the mainline.

23. A eastbound train struggles uphill over a high Cascades ravine.

24. Halfway up the slope is Boulder Creek Siding. A old logging railroad connects to the mainline here.
 
25. The logging camp at Boulder Creek.

26. The fuel dealer at Helper is one of the few industries in this rugged country.
The tunnel on the upper level above the Anchor Gas cars hide a switch that allows "eastbound" trains escape to the main yard and staging areas

27. At the bottom of the steepest part of the grade is the siding of Niagara in the double track truss bridge.

28. Beyond Niagara the track is mostly hidden until comes out in another siding at Mill City. You can see part of the dam for the power house near the top of the photo.
 
29. The busy paper mill at Mill City loads several cars and trucks a day. The mill gets raw pulp from a Pulp Mill in Marysville, which is converted into paper.

30. Mill City was a long yard at one time with very little industry. Now the yard is primarily industry with a few support tracks.

31. The propane dealer seems to be doing well with a fleet of shiny new trucks.

32. Mill city is also the far east end of the shortline, Yaqunia Terminal RR. A grain empty hustles by eastbound heading for the hill.
 
33. Santiam siding, at the edge of the Cascade Foothills next to the Willamette Valley Farms, is one of the longest sidings on the system. Rolling meets here are common. The Mill City branch of the Yaquina Terminal RR is next to the farm.

34. The west end of Santiam Siding.

35. Westbound loaded grain train heading for the export facility at Toledo (will be shown in part 2).

36. The grain train at the approach block to Alsea Jct (lower reverse loop)
 
37. Alsea Jct is next to Marysville.

38. Marysville Jct is the point where the mainline passes to the new part of the layout. It's also the main connection point of the Yaqunia Terminal RR.

39 Rock Crawlers on the trail near Marysville Jct.

40. Mobile Home Park at Marysville.
 


41. On the "wrong side of the tracks", police and Haz-mat are busy with a meth bust.

42. A young couple is "busy" in the outhouse, and don't notice all the commotion going on outside.

43. The tail of a inbound train into Marysville.

44. Another view of busy Marysville, with a fruit packing house in the foreground, and a scrap yard in the distance.
 
46. A final view of Marysville with the flour and pulp mills in the distance.

47. The main offices and yard of the Yaquina Terminal RR at Yaquina. The line leaving to the left is the Mill City Branch.

48. Main Street in Yaquina.

49. Yaquina is a Seaport developed by the railroad, and is the west end of the line.
 
50. The Terminal building at the Port of Yaquina.

51. The port features a on dock railhead and a rail-barge operation.

52. Busy downtown Yaquina.

53. Some street trackage. Steam enthusiasts are busy restoring a locomotive in the shop.
 
Very nice!!!! Question, who owns the PNWR engine and caboose? I am wondering who made the decals for them as microscale only does the WPRR version.
 
Great looking layout you guys have there Ted. So many things going on everywhere from archeology to UFOs....amazing
 
TMLW said:
Very nice!!!! Question, who owns the PNWR engine and caboose? I am wondering who made the decals for them as microscale only does the WPRR version.
Click to expand...

More than likely it was Andy Epperly who made the Caboose. Andy has made all kinds of custom WPRR and PNWR items. He makes his own decals.
 


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