The World According To Alan

Meadows & Lake Kathleen Railroad

Last week, I got a trouble report about a website we host at Peak: The Meadows & Lake Kathleen Railroad. The trouble turned out to be a non-issue, but while checking it out, I had to view the site, and thought "Wow! Way Cool!". An ex-railroader is building his own little mini railroad in his own private valley between Eugene and Florence. I emailed him and asked about visiting, and he said "sure!" and emailed me directions. The extended entry is the trip report...

It's a *long* way to almost-florence ;-)

I emailed Ray Robinson last week, and then talked to him on the phone Friday and he emailed me a map. Marc and I headed down this afternoon. Partway there, Marc said "let's put the intersection of roads where he is on the map into the nav system". So we did. I think we were around Junction City at the time. The first amazing part was that it actually had his roads in it, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising given my experience out back of Mary's Peak. Then it said we still had an hour and a half to go. Ouch. OK, whatever. Partway there, it says "turn right ahead". Marc says "I think it meant back there at that dirt road." "No, it's up ahead" Then it goes into "you missed the turn, recalculate directions" mode and tells me to turn around. It really did mean that dirt road. We go back and head up it a little ways and it's looking like a power line access road, at least there are HV towers above and clear cuts around. Since it's 3ish already, while it would be fun to follow it and see where it takes us, we decide to go back to the highway, go a ways and then tell it to find a new way, which it then does quite nicely and we get there around 4:30 or so. I was remembering the goat trail it had tried to take me on out behind Mary's Peak...

Photos from visit to M&LK Railroad

They had a work party going on, as he'd told me, but we were welcome to walk the track and ask questions. We weren't expecting to get a ride, but it was at the end of the day, and they were just finishing up --- they're working on a "teardrop" that will let the train turn around instead of having to run backwards. Anyway, Ray said they would be taking the diesel/hydraulic out and we'd be welcome to take a ride, so we jumped at the chance.

The property is 41 acres in a valley surrounded by national forest on 3 sides --- they see elk almost daily, have seen mountain lions 5 times, otters and beaver in "Lake Kathleen" and had a couple elk doing battle for about 45 minutes in front of them once. Pretty much paradise ;-)

Just as we were leaving, he gave me a loaner VHS tape of a segment Oregon Field Guide did on his setup last summer, which I just got done recording on DVD and making some copies to send back with the tape. It says he was a brakeman/conductor for 17 years with Southern Pacific if I remember right. Now he's a landscaper --- he learned concrete sculpting working on the Oregon Coast Aquarium construction and now does that and landscaping to pay for the building of the railroad, along with contributions --- while we where there, a guy drove up with a new multi-switch assembly he'd just got done building for the setup. The rail though, he said was $134 a piece now --- I'd say about 10' or so. They've got 4000' laid down now, and when finished will be 6000'. As he says on the video, "there's a lot of european vacations here" ;-)

On the way back we were getting pretty hungry, as we'd waited on lunch until after as we knew if we took the time for it before, we'd be too late to see anything when we got there. So it's 7-7:30 now. Marc says Mazzi's in Eugene would be a good place to go, so I put that in the nav system and it says an hour and a half! Oh well.

Following its instructions back, after a short ways, it says "turn left ahead". That turns out to be Nelson Mt Rd, and looks an awful lot like it's heading up into the hills that it had tried to send us on to on the way down, so we pass it, then stop and zoom out the map, as we'd done before. It said there was only about 10 miles of it, and it cut a large loop out through Mapleton off, so I figure well, what the heck, maybe it's actually right. It started off ok, paved even, then turned to gravel after a while, and somewhat low end gravel a bit after that, but then didn't get any worse. After about 30-45 minutes, lo! we came out right where I thought we would (Walker Creek Rd, where it had tried to have me go before). I think it actually saved 15-30 minutes... I have to wonder if the nav systems in their regular cars try to route them over roads like that though... The 640x480 version of photo #1510 has been photoshopped so you can see the road (it was dark --- just headlights lighting). Color artifacts aside, it actually looks a little better than it was.

Anyhow, we got to "Mazzi's" and found instead "A Taste of India", which the nav system also had in it, both with the same address. Indian sounded good, and I have to say, the tandoori chicken was mediocre, but I had the best papadom and samosas I've ever had there. I forgot to try the gulab jamon, as I only ate half the chicken as it was, and it was 9:30 and we wanted to get back. Though Marc decided he was in an ice cream mood, so we found a baskin robbins nearby and *then* headed back, arriving home around 11pm. I thought that was probably a bit late to swing by Gary's ;-)

So, that's the tale of the day's adventure...

Oh, one more thing: they're basically having an open house the last weekend of June, and he'll be running the *live steam* engine pretty much constantly then --- apparently quite a few people show up for this once-a-year doins. It's invitation only, but if you send him email expressing interest, that's about all it takes to get one...

M&LK Railroad

Posted by abatie at March 10, 2005 09:24 PM | TrackBack