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| Panorama of the main room of Mat Thompson's Oregon Coast Railroad. The Swift Meat Plant is in the foreground |
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| Some of the many boats and ships on Mats layout. This scene was featured in my latest book on Waterfront Terminals |
On Saturday I drove out to Gainesville for a model railroad double header. The first stop was Mat Thompson's HO Scale Oregon Coast Railroad for an op session. I joined about 12 other folks for an enjoyable session.
Mat teamed Marty and I to work the Swift Meat Packing plant that is visible in the foreground of the lead photo. The job is an interesting one as the reefers and meat cars must make several intra-plant moves from inspection to icing and then meat loading. Stock cars also come with cattle and leave empty. Mat uses timers to regulate how long the cars remain at each location. The icing takes the longest time, about 40 minutes real time. So as plant train crew, you spend some time waiting for cars to cool. But there are other tasks you need to do, so it makes for a very interesting job. This was the first time I have switched a meat plant and it was a lot of fun.
Mat's layout is full of beautiful models. He has dozens of craftsman structures. He also built many boats and ships. All of these helped contribute to his attaining Master Model railroader certification from the NMRA. Speaking of that, Mat presented to me the NMRA certificates for Author and Volunteer. Mat is our local Achievement Program rep, as well as the organizer for layout round robin op sessions.
Mat teamed Marty and I to work the Swift Meat Packing plant that is visible in the foreground of the lead photo. The job is an interesting one as the reefers and meat cars must make several intra-plant moves from inspection to icing and then meat loading. Stock cars also come with cattle and leave empty. Mat uses timers to regulate how long the cars remain at each location. The icing takes the longest time, about 40 minutes real time. So as plant train crew, you spend some time waiting for cars to cool. But there are other tasks you need to do, so it makes for a very interesting job. This was the first time I have switched a meat plant and it was a lot of fun.
Mat's layout is full of beautiful models. He has dozens of craftsman structures. He also built many boats and ships. All of these helped contribute to his attaining Master Model railroader certification from the NMRA. Speaking of that, Mat presented to me the NMRA certificates for Author and Volunteer. Mat is our local Achievement Program rep, as well as the organizer for layout round robin op sessions.
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Mat has built dozens of craftsman structures for his layout that
helped him attain Master Model Railroader certification
The second phase of the doubleheader was a work session on Marty McGuirk's Richfield Branch of the CV. Orville, I mean Stic, Harris and I joined Marty for the session. Paul Dolkos also stopped by for an inspection visit.
Stic installed track lights, while Marty and I installed more fascia. The track light work well with the high ceiling in Marty's layout room.
I used my track saw to cut the pieces in the back yard. While I was out there, a wood chuck came to check on my progress. Molly and Beauregard, Marty's Basset Hounds, didn't do much to scare the woodchuck away.
After finishing the back fascia on the back wall, we adjourned to the crew lounge where we put Marty's new 85-inch 4K TV through its paces.
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