Rich Blake
On July 14th and 15th 2018, your newest PNR 4th Division module club – the Pacific Northwest On30 Modular Group, participated in the “Clamshell Days” celebration honoring the narrow gauge Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company history at the Pacific Columbia Heritage Museum in Ilwaco on the Long Beach peninsula. This is an annual event where a small model railroad exhibition is provided with several modular displays, railroad centric kids activities and tours of the various historic structures along the original line of the IR&N.
Vintage shot of the last run of the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company No. 2 hauling a mixed freight Sept. 1930.
The IR&N was a 36” gauge railway that ran along the coast in the late 1880s to the 1930s from near the north side of what is now the Astoria bridge on the Columbia River to the town of Nahcotta on the Long Beach Penninsula. It is a unique and fascinating railroad worthy of continued research and preservation. The museum houses many artifacts from the IR&N and the main attraction for prototype railroad fans and historians is the preserved IR&N passenger car “Nahcotta” built by Pullman in 1889 which is stored at the museum and open for touring exclusively during the Clamshell Days event.
Partial wide view of the Pacific Northwest On30 Modular Group layout in Ilwaco, WA at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum.
Olympia Station module. The station is a completely scratchbuilt replica of the original Olympia and Tenino station by Alan Murray.
Details around the engine house on the Bay Lumber Company “Camp 4” module by Rich Blake.
Taking inspiration from European style modules, Cliff Aaker constructed this very versatile sector plate for active staging. This is a clever means to provide a lot of storage in a compact space.
Mine shaft detail on Cliff Aaker’s mining module. The mine rail is On18. Note the little V-dump car deep inside the shaft.
A couple rod locos ready for service. These were detailed and painted by Rich Blake.
Our group may be new to the NMRA PNR 4th Division Modular Clubs but we have been participating in many shows as an independent organization since 2010. The PNW On30 group has displayed modules in the Ilwaco event since 2012 and remains one of our favorite venues due to the beautiful scenery, beach activities and of course a fantastic facility to set up our layout. A huge thanks goes out to Betsy Millard and her staff at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum along with local model railroader and PNW On30 Group charter member Mark Clemmens that makes this fine event happen every year.
Looking towards Cape Disappointment just west of Ilwaco.
The Shelburne Hotel in Seaview, WA is an original structure that once served the passengers on the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company 36″ gauge line. Now it is a popular tourist destination and restaurant.
Other than the fact that our group is one of the rare organized narrow gauge modular groups in the country, we also are one of the very few module groups that enjoy operations on our layout providing interest for participants as well as spectators. We had a point to point arrangement with yards and turntables at each end. Several industries along the line were serviced and also a branch line with mining and logging spurs. JMRI Operations Pro is utilized to produce car forwarding switchlists and works quite well to keep crews and yardmasters busy. The layout size was quite adequate at 25’x30′ and provided many hours of interesting operations. Special thanks goes to Cliff Aaker who took on the responsibility as dispatcher/trainmaster for the show.
Mark Clemmens and Alan Murray switching cars at the Willapa Cranberry module.
Yard operations at “MC Yard” on the east end of the layout. Left to right, Paul Vaughan, Chuck Ricketts, Alan Murray and Jim Elder working the yard and building trains. Paul was our Yardmaster for the majority of the show and did great job organizing and classifying trains on arrival and departure.
Cliff Aaker as Dispatcher managing the computer driven operations for the layout using JMRI Operations Pro. JMRI is not only for programming decoders, it also has a very powerful operations feature for car forwarding that is more random and arguably easier to control than typical car cards once set up.
PNW On30 Modular Group crew, left to right: Ed Konchar, George Normandin, Budd Lather, Cliff Aaker, Mark Clemmens, Rich Blake, Chuck Ricketts, Alan Murray, Jim Elder and Paul Vaughan. (Not shown – Patrick and Daniel Bentz)
All told we had a great time running trains, eating at the many fine restaurants and enjoying the spectacular scenery and settings that is the Southwest Coast.
Learn more about our group from these links:
No Comments Yet