Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club in November 1997

I originally posted these pictures on my old website on February 9, 2008. I have rescanned them and added some that I hadn’t included before.

(NOTE: This is NOT the club's official website; to contact the club, visit www.cgmrc.com)

Easily the most well-known model railroad club in Portland, the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club was formed in October 1947. After initially leasing space in the basement of a store on North Williams Avenue, the club purchased a vacant lot and built a 30' x 80' masonry building at 3405 North Montana Avenue in 1948. In this building the club built a 20' x 50' HO-scale layout with a double-track main line, single-track mountain division.

In 1982, the club sold their property to the Kaiser Foundation and built their current building at 2505 North Vancouver Avenue, moving in on January 1, 1983. The exterior of the building is designed to resemble a railroad depot. The interior features a club meeting room with a kitchen, restrooms, work areas, and a 60' x 70' layout room. The club's HO-scale layout consists of over three actual miles of track in the Mainline, Oregon Trunk branch line, Logging Line and multiple yards and sidings, and is designed to replicate actual locations on both the Oregon and Washington sides of the Columbia River Gorge, including Portland Union Station, Portland's Broadway and Steel Bridges, Multnomah Falls, Crown Point, the Deschutes River Canyon and the railroad town of Wishram, Washington. The visitor aisle passes through the middle of the layout, generally representing the Columbia River. The club's layout has been featured as a cover story in Model Railroader magazine.

Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club 50th Anniversary Cake

The Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club of Portland, Oregon, celebrated its 50th Anniversary in November 1997. As a former member, my dad was invited to the anniversary celebration and brought me along. Here are some pictures from the event of the club’s permanent HO-scale layout.

Here is a specially painted E8A pulling a Columbia Gorge streamlined passenger train near Hood River.

This is the club’s scale model of Portland Union Station with the coach yard beyond.

Here is another picture of the Columbia Gorge Lines streamliner.

This is a model of Multnomah Falls on the left and the Multnomah Falls Lodge on the right.

Here is a model of the Southern Pacific's Overnight, being pulled by a black 4-8-4 steam locomotive and a Black Widow GP9 diesel.