The Oregon Lower Valley Railroad (OLVRR)

  We lived in Newfoundland for less than two years. Next, we moved to Chicago. It had a whole new set of wonderful landmarks to explore; museums, libraries, parks, swimming pools, and amusement parks. The city’s elevated train (know as the EL ), ran right behind our second story apartment. Its rattling, thundering song became part of the background of my life. We didn’t have a car, but got around by EL. That wonderful train ran above ground most of the time, but occasionally the tracks dove beneath the streets. Without warning the train car would go pitch-black and the train noise would become deafening. I always took those opportunities to sing at the top of my lungs. It fascinated me that no one could hear me because the train’s loud noise drowned everything out. I tried not to get caught singing when the train raced back above ground.   The summer I was eight my family went on the magnificent California Zephyr train from Chicago to visit my grandmother in Cambria, on the Ca...

Don has asked me to write about my early train experiences. Whereas his were all train-watching experiences, mine involved the thrill of train travel. In 1952, when I was five years old, my family moved to Newfoundland. We lived in a rented house in Stephenville next to Ernest Harmon Air Force Base, where my father worked as a civilian for the United States Air Force. At age five I had already moved with my family six times. Each move was exciting to me. Together with my sister and brother, I would explore our new home to find out all about it. In Newfoundland in the winter there were huge drifts of snow in which to dig snow caves. There was a light house that had a revolving beacon. It made waves of white and red light on the ceiling of my bedroom. There were rocky, cold beaches where men huddled around fires to keep warm. There were moist bogs with a startling variety of wildly colored mushrooms. One of the fun things about this new place was the railroad and the giant trains tha...

Here, I must digress from trains. As I have mentioned, anything with wheels has always attracted me. When I was a kid I loved toy trucks too. I received several wonderful trucks in my early years. The first one was a yellow Doepke toy road grader. It was exactly like my older brother’s, except his was orange. He had allowed me to play with it occasionally. I was ecstatic to get one of my very own. With my new toy I became quite the civil engineer, creating roads in our back yard with pavement made from dirt and water. After a few days of playing, some paint on my new toy chipped off, and I discovered orange paint under the yellow - it was my brother’s orange road grader! I guess he had out-grown it My Dad was co-owner of the Marshall-Wells hardware store in Ashland, and sold these big sturdy toy trucks. I would go with him when the store was closed. He would let me play with those wonderful toys. He must have seen how much I loved them because over the next several years I was gifted a...

When I was six years old I got an American Flyer electric train for Christmas. The set included an ‘Atlantic’ steam locomotive, which has a 4-4-2 wheel arrangement. It had three ‘New Haven’ cars ; including t wo passenger cars, and a railroad express agency car. Here are pictures of the engine and the cars from an American Flyer catalog of the era. However, my passenger cars were green. The locomotive had a headlight, ‘choo-choo’ sounds, and puffed smoke. The passenger cars were illuminated. Back in the day one could get an American Flyer or Lionel catalog in the mail for a quarter. They were my “wish books,” and would quickly become dog-eared. The next Christmas the same train was packaged as a new present, this time with added switches, track, and a caboose. This made new possibilities! With my fourteen year-old brother’s help (or perhaps I helped him) a layout was created in our basement using our ping pong table and a heavy work table joined by a truss bridge built out of my ...

I had planned to write blog entries when notable achievements were made on the train layout, mixed in with entries about my early interest in trains and previous progress on the layout. I decided (with input from Sami, my wife), to instead start from the beginning and catch up to where I am at now, and not jump back and forth. I think that will make the blog more readable and understandable. I have always had a strong interest in trains, both real and model. I’ve always been intrigued by mechanical things and things with wheels in general. That is why my career was spent in tooling and manufacturing engineering with Freightliner, a manufacturer of large trucks. Real trains are marvelous mighty things. They are big, long, powerful, noisy, and colorful. They are made up of locomotives and cars that can be coupled and uncoupled and rearranged. They can be made to switch tracks. They can leave cars at stations and industries. They can haul different kinds of loads (products and peop...