My layout assignment on the last day of Soundrail was the Olympic Model Railroad Society (OMRS). This club layout is located in the basement of a building on the Thurston Country fair grounds and open to the public on occasion.
There are many really neat scenes on this layout. The scenery is very well done and looks great. I'm showing a selection below.
Canoes on the river near Marvin's Bluff
Effective use of forced perspective in Marvin's Bluff.
From the upper level trains take a helix down to the main level.
The double-track main line has remote controlled turnouts and is fully signaled. Unfortunately, there were some gremlins in the detection logic which messed up signal indication at times. Seems like every layout that deploys signals has this kind of problem sooner or later. Seeing the signals in operation at OMRS reminded me of the pending signals project at Silicon Valley Lines.
Signal bridge at South Shops near Seaport
South Shops roundhouse
Diesel servicing facility
Seaport Union Station and the associated freight and industry tracks occupy a good amount of space on the lower level.
The rear end of my train is waiting in the foreground for clearance to get into Halfmoon Yard.
The saw mall in Hill City is under construction, but already looks very nice
Diner in Post Falls near the steel mill
After lunch I took over the dispatcher seat and spent the next couple hours guiding trains on the main line to and from their respective destinations. Verbal track warrants and signal indications were the tools of the trade.
A big Thank you to the OMRS members that hosted us and made for an enjoyable day.
[ Three Tunnels and Winter ] Kandersteg station has the control tower right on the platform at track 1. However, it appears the big control table is no longer in use. Instead, everything's controlled via computers in a back room. Here's the line diagram schedule. This photo was taken through two windows and blinds, so unfortunately it's hard to make out train indications. However, I believe the rather tight column of red lines in the middle of the screen represents the auto transport trains traversing through the Loetschberg tunnel. As soon as the sun disappears behind the mountains, it gets cold. I didn't want to stand here for another 30 minutes until the RegioExpress to Bern was due, so I decided to take the RE 4275 through the Loetschberg tunnel to Goppenstein, where I'd have about 5 minutes to get to the other platform for the return trip and on to Bern. While waiting for the RegioExpress, this KLV train with double-header DB class 185 barrels through the stat...
In case you were wondering what I have been doing lately, here's part of the answer. Not only was there a lot of reading material on a recent transatlantic flight , but also this puzzle (Ravensburger No 16 726 5, "Danzig"). Didn't look too hard, so I started it on the living room table last week. The house fronts were fairly easy once I zeroed in on colors and window styles. Filling in the roofs and surroundings was an exercise in occasional frustration. However, with persistence and patience I eventually finished it. It was a slow-going slog for most of the time, except today. The last 100 pieces almost placed themselves.
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