Charlie Comstock (Bear Creek & South Jackson) and I (Joe Fugate’s Siskiyou Line) have been thinking of having a special ops weekend one of these days, open to all who would want to attend and run trains using prototypical op practices. We’re located in the Portland, OR area … the question is, how many would be interested in attending such an event if we had it?
Charlie Comstock’s Bear Creek & South Jackson (web site link)
I would do it…I only live about 8 hours away…I think…a bit of a hop, but…I’d love to have the opportunity. It would be a good education for me, and probably a nice drive, too. [:)]
Unfortunately it’s bit of a far drive from my home in New Hampshire, but as a concept, I would definately want to participate in a weekend long ops session!
I would definately attend if it wasn’t for the fact that I live in western Kentucky. I don’t think the folks would let me fly to Oregon (or drive, for that matter) for a “silly” train thing (NOT my words!). To have the opportunity to run a train on such an amazing layout is awesome to me. I’m sure many others will take you up on the offer, though.
We both live about 30 minutes out of downtown Portland. Charlie is about 30 min west of Portland, and I live about 30 minutes due south. We’re about 45 min from each other if you cut cross-country on side roads.
I live in the Tri-Cities area, and would really enjoy attending such a session, but my summer is pretty booked,. However, if you held it sometime in the fall and gave several weeks advance notice, I could probably make arrangements to attend.
I’d love to attend an op session at either (or both) layouts, but I’ve never run any part of a model railroad before (I’m just now wiring my own layout**), and would relegate myself to “observer” status for fear of either damaging the layout or obstructing a constructive op session.
The last thing I’d want to hear while participating at a session would be “Wow, I’ve never seen anyone do that before,” followed closely by “How much do you think that’ll cost to fix, Joe?”
** In fact I am still practicing soldering wire to rail on scrap pieces of flex-track before touching the layout track itself.
It would be great to run or even brake on the Siskiyou Line, but like so many of us on the East Coast that 3000 mi is just too much of an obstacle.
With so many in the east, we should consider an Ops East. I wonder if those in my club, in Massachusetts, would be game. We have had many combined Ops in the past with other area clubs.
This sounds like fun! If the timing works out right, and I can use frequent flyer miles to get a ticket, I’d love to come. Of course that’s a couple of big ifs, but I do have enough miles for a ticket on two airlines, so it might work. Also a wife graduating from nursing school and a son from marine boot camp in the next few months, but I’m all ears to see when this turns out to be!
I don’t think I could make it without wings, it’s only a 22 hour drive, each way!
