Rose City Garden Railway Society: Summer Tour

The Rose City Garden Railway Society held its annual open house this weekend, a great opportunity for me to hop down to Portland for a day of touring garden railroads. This is an annual event the club holds each year on the Saturday of Father's Day weekend. This year, 14 railroads were open for visitors and I was able to make it to eight of them during the seven-hour open house. I was very happy and excited I had the opportunity to see so much in one day, but the downside is that I was at each railroad for only 10-20 minutes before getting back into the car and driving another 20-30 minutes to get to the next one. Next year, I'll try to see those I missed this year, and hopefully move at a slightly slower pace.

There's no better way to say, "Welcome to Portland!"

At one point during the day someone asked me which railroad of those I had seen was my favorite. But I couldn't choose, in part as it wouldn't be fair to single one out, and also because every railroad I saw had unique and wonderful features that set it apart from the others. Collectively they demonstrate the wide variety of styles and themes and approaches to garden railroading. Aside from the 45 mm gauge track, there was little else that was a common denominator among all the railroads.

I took about 400 photos and a few videos as well, and of course I want to share some of them as I have with other garden railroads I've visited. But a single blog post covering all of them would be out of the question -- it wouldn't be fair to share just one or two photos to capture the feeling of a garden railroad. So I think I'll spread out the photos over several blogs posts and highlight one or two railroads in each. This will give me more time to select photos that illustrate the scope of each railroad and highlight the aspects of each that I found the most appealing.

And since my photos are sorted chronologically, I'll share them in the order that I visited each railroad. That means today we'll start with...

Crooked River Railroad

This was the only garden railroad on the tour north of the Columbia River, which made it a natural first stop for the day as I was driving from Seattle. This railroad was squeezed into a somewhat limited space, but more than made up for it by filling that space with an enormous amount of detail. It's a reminder for me that I should stop worrying about how small a space my railroad currently occupies, and start focusing more on filling that space in.

I liked the variety of landscapes and how so many different kinds of features were able to fit in. I especially liked the number and variety of meticulously trimmed trees and how well they've been cared for. I have a lot to learn to be able to trim trees as well as this! The theme of this layout is a small western town, Mapleton, along the Crooked River near the end of the 19th century.

Overview of the Crooked River Railroad showing the town of Mapleton.

Another overview looking the other direction. The Crooked River runs through the center of the layout from a waterfall down to a lake you see here at lower left. From this view, Mapleton is mostly hidden by trees.

D&RGW 228, a 2-6-0 Mogul, emerging from underneath a gorgeous Japanese laceleaf maple, trimmed to allow just enough clearance for passing freights.

This locomotive is on the turntable, heading out from the engine barn.

Lumber mill, with a grain mill, flume and waterfall in the background.

Another view by the lumber mill, showing logs being offloaded from skeleton log cars into the mill pond, while a flat car loaded for lumber is waiting to head out on the next train.

I spotted a pair of deer near the top of the waterfall. Are the checking out the view, or are they admiring that beautiful bonsai?

A high trestle connects the Silver Lining Mine entrance with the ore processing mill.

The main line crosses the lake on a curved trestle, while in the background a siding provides access to the ore processing mill. I saved this photo for last as it also includes my favorite tree.