The good old days

In 2008,  with my friend Ralph and my grandson David, we went to the National Model Railroad Convention up in Chilliwack, Canada. Part of our adventure was watching Canadian trains passing by.

One of our tours was the Othello Tunnels that were built by the railroads back in the day through a winding canyon by the railroad wanted to go straight.

They accomplished it by drilling 5 or 6 tunnels with bridges between a very dramatic canyon.

Each tunnel was more dramatic than the other. The current bridge was not a railroad bridge but

made it into a hiking trail.

Look at this canyon. an you imagine King Kong coming up the river?

Another adventure that same day was Hells gate where we took the tram down to the river where there was a restaurant and viewing spots to enjoy. No skis were needed!

 

Did I mention that it was a model railroad convention? Some fantastic modeling was on display as well as sale tables to get good stuff!

Whose railroad is it anyway?

Our Canadian brothers get their time on the Evergreen club layout as we have 2 members that favor the Great White North. We used to have 3 members.  Spike has his 2 Dash 9s crossing famous Beaver canyon.

Great Northern steam put in time in running the rails as Skip has put together a very nice set of models to go with his good running 4-4-0.  Say.... they look like my boxcars?

The once great Milwaukee Road is well represented on the layout with Don Carnegie running modern diesels in their final days as a valid railroad.

Tom Kirk has a rare combination running on the Green branch to prove that big power can operate on the light curves and tunnels.

Burt Whitney with modern diesels? What is this world coming too? One compensation to his Camas Prairie railroad in the 30s is this Union Pacific F unit set.  There's still hope for this boy!

Claudiu tries his luck with a set of new F units on the Green branch as it works its way on to Chuck H. trestle in the north side of the layout.  Nice rock work for a bunch of kids! Its always Christmas Eve on Mt. Whitney!