On Thursday morning we had some serious touring to do. Our first stop was at the Oregon Pacific Railroad. This is pretty much a family operation. Dad, the owner, does anything from sales to track repair. Several sons run trains and fix stuff. They had lined up several of their engines and pieces of rolling stock on a track that parallels a street and we got the rundown on each piece from the owner. Several engines have been repainted into their original colors simply as a way to do some historic preservation with working equipment. Then they pretty much gave us the run of the place as we climbed on engines, cabooses and passenger cars.
Next we visited the old SP Brooklyn Roundhouse where the City of Portland keeps its steam engines. The SP 4449 is probably the most famous but it was being readied for an excursion trip and all we could do was look. The SP&S 700 crew was more than happy to take us up into the cab and provide a simple lesson in running a steam loco. They were also more than happy to sell us SP&S 700 souvenirs and I'm afraid I got a little carried away. It's for a good cause though.
Thursday evening was the live auction and I had some good luck. I put one item in the auction, a brass caboose that I won in the NSC raffle several years ago. I've been trying to sell it ever since. As it turned out, it was the very last item auctioned and it turned out to be a sleeper. After a few questions got answered it went for $100 dollars even though I started it with no minimum bid. I was pleased.
Friday morning was a slow time for me. The swap meet was open and I found several items to buy and I sold two covered hoppers. Friday afternoon and evening I was a little anxious about. We had a trip up the Columbia River Gorge planned and because of my fascination with the gorge and especially with the great floods at the end of the last ice age, I had volunteered to be a Bus Host who's job was to provide some commentary on the area we were in and assist the bus captain. Well, at least that's what the web site said. In fact, I ended up being the bus captain AND the bus host. I had still prepared notes to give a little talk about the floods but it was not to be. The bus driver shared his life story with us all the way up the gorge and I didn't get a chance to say much at all. And besides the PA system had a very annoying buss. Oh well. The ride on the Mount Hood Railroad, especially getting to ride in a Great Dome, was great. Thanks to bus #4 we were pretty late getting home however.
Saturday was another slow morning. I spent some more money and took a nap. Saturday evening was the banquet. Having good luck at a previous banquet raffle I bought sixty bucks worth of raffle tickets but only managed to get one engine for my $60. The food selection at the banquet was easily the best I have ever seen at one of these affairs.
Sunday manufacturer's breakfast at the NSC is a new fairly thing. The breakfast was originally part of the National N-Trak Conventions. During a period when when NSC and the N-trak conventions shared a venue, the NSC adopted the breakfast idea. Now it remains even though the N-Trak convention part is no more. I remember when you could expect some genuine product announcements at the breakfast and the Q&A period sometimes produces some surprises. Neither of those has happened in a long time and the breakfast has sort of lost it's appeal for me. Good food though.
