Spring Open House at the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club
Spring has arrived, as always we’re working to add new details and upgrades to the layout. We decided to open our doors for one weekend in April to give the public a glimpse of the projects at work. This is a unique opportunity to see ongoing projects in the works while still having operations.
Where and When
As always our open house takes place at our clubhouse, right smack dab in Portland. The address is: 2505 North Vancouver Avenue, Portland Oregon, 97227. You can also search for “Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club” in Apple and Google Maps to find your way to us.
We have limited onsite parking, including accessible spaces and a bike rack, with additional curbside parking opportunities in the neighborhood. We are also easily accessed by bus via routes 4 and 44.
We’re open Saturday and Sunday April 27th and 28th.
VIP tours start at 8:30 AM each of those days, with the tour portion lasting roughly an hour, after which you’re free to view our layout as we open for the day.
General admission is open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Tickets
Online ticket sales allow us to create a better experience for everyone involved. Because we can control the total visitors in each time slot, we can ensure the room doesn’t get overly crowded. Please ensure you’re buying a ticket for the time you wish to visit us, as we will be enforcing the timed entry system.
Group Admissions
If you’d like to organize tickets for a larger group, please reach out to us directly at contact@cgmrc.com and we’ll do our best to make accommodations.
Prices
Although the annual open house is an opportunity for us to support the club financially, we are also serious about keeping the hobby accessible to all of our wonderful visitors. Therefore the prices are not changing significantly from last year:
VIP Tours (Guided tour behind the scenes of our club, roughly 1 hour) - $25 per person.
Adult (Age 12+) General Admission - $12 per person.
Child (Age 3 through 11) General Admission - $5 per person.
Children under the age of 3 come along free of charge.
What’s New
A lot has happened in the past year, from new carpets to HVAC systems, highlighted below are just a couple of the most exciting things we look forward to sharing with you:
Ballooning over the Crooked River
The skies over our model railroad have always been busy, from sunrises to aliens, there’s plenty to spot.
Starting this year, you might even notice some movement in the sky over the Crooked River bridge, and something else in the sky might be giving off a glow as well…
Dispatching in the 21st Century
A special for our VIP tour guests, this year we’re ready to show you how a computerized train dispatch system looks.
We’ve taken the layout through our very own digital revolution since last year. Will that cause the trains to run smoother? Only time will tell.
