Get on Track

Published 5:00 am Saturday, October 13, 2007

All aboard, model railroad lovers.

Two of Central Oregon’s model railroading clubs are hosting a joint open house this weekend (see “If You Go” on Page B7) and both have miniatures to marvel. The difference is scale.

Inside the clubhouse of the Eastern Cascades Model Railroad Club is an HO-scale railroad with more than 1,900 feet of track. HO scale, which means “half of O scale,” bears a ratio of 1 to 87, or 1 inch on a model equals 87 inches on the real-life equivalent.

In other words, an entire world, including towns, logging camps and railroad yards, has been shrunk to dimensions roughly suitable to a Matchbox car.

Outside the clubhouse is a much bigger model railroad, with engines powerful enough to pull passenger cars. This is the domain of the Central Oregon Area Live Steamers, a club within the club, who run steam engines and gas-powered locomotives at 18 scale. Visitors can hop aboard and ride through a forest and across to-scale trestles on an outdoor track that courses more than 1,500 feet around the club’s property east of Bend.

Whichever your favorite, it’s easy to appreciate the devotion to detail.

Inside, entire towns have been reproduced, from Main Street to the rail station. Although fixed to the table, cars drive down roads and stop at filling stations. People mill about and factories whir (if you use your imagination).

For example, one factory includes a huge (to-scale, mind you) pile of real sawdust. It also boasts a working rotary dumper that tilts the model rail cars in order to dump their sawdust freight. (The cars don’t carry any actual sawdust, but the club members pretend they do when they meet every Wednesday and act as if the models are working lines, making stops at different locations and pulling freight cars from one destination to another.)

There are several logging camps, including one with a Brooks-Scanlon steam engine.

There are nine towns in all, each evoking the 1940s and ’50s. This was the transition era, said club President Bruce Blanford, when railways were moving from steam engines to gas-powered locomotives. The lines on the club table use both.

The HO layout was designed by Ernie George, who started building the track in 1989 in a Bend storage unit. He spent approximately $10,000 on it, Blanford said.

George died in 1996.

The club was formed in 1993 to help pay for the railroad, and it was subsequently moved to a new, 1,650-square-foot home built on property belonging to club member Larry Barker.

Barker died in 1994 and donated his 20-acre property to the club. Its roughly 30 members now keep the place running. Dues are $10 per month, with a $25 initiation fee.

Warren Root, 21, is one of the younger club members. He’s been a member for seven years and likes the club because “it keeps me out of trouble.”

Root does like some risk. He runs a long, stacked train consisting of three locomotives that pull freight cars double-stacked with containers. In all, there are 33 cars on the train, and it’s the longest on the table.

There is also a bullet train that Blanford operates. It moves fast, which means it can be the only locomotive on the line.

The table has two main lines, going north and south, and hundreds of sidings and pullouts. At the open house, numerous trains will be running at once. Club members man stations at each of the towns and communicate via headsets to make sure trains don’t collide.

The open house is free, but donations are accepted. It’s a way to raise funds for the club and its long wish list.

High on the list is a 2,000-foot expansion for the outdoor track. A path has been surveyed, but members are now stockpiling material for the build-out.

Inside, money is used to upgrade scenery and maintain the track.

“A scale model railroad is never finished,” quipped club member Todd Hansen.

The engines and locomotives are individually owned by the members. Many have been upgraded by the members, who will paint or stencil the name of their favorite railroad, such as Southern Pacific or Virginia and Truckee, onto the engines.

The outdoor engines are all hand-built. There are five that currently “play” on the club’s tracks, including one steam engine. The rest are powered by small gasoline motors.

The open house is also a way to recruit members. Interested individuals are not required to have any modeling experience, and membership is open to all, including children.

If You Go

What: Eastern Cascade Model Railroad Club and Central Oregon Area Live Steamers 12th Annual Open House

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and Sunday

Where: 21520 S.E. Modoc Lane, Bend

Cost: Free, donations accepted

Contact: 317-1545 or www.ecmrr.org