SoundRail 2026

Last week was another fine return of the SoundRail operating weekend in the Seattle area (it’s named for Puget Sound). I have attended five previous SoundRails, and enjoyed every one. They continue to use their iconic logo, with Seattle’s landmark Space Needle featured. 

We began the week, as several of us from the Bay Area often do, in a “bonus session” at Joe Green’ excellent C&O layout in Sequim, Washington. It is set in 1974, is beautifully scenicked and runs perfectly. Below I show the crewman I was paired with, Mark Schutzer, with Joe standing in the background, moving our “road job” train to its destination, where we would do local switching.

The first formal session of the event found me at Bill Sornsin’s outstanding HO scale Great Northern layout, set in 1955. I landed a job I like on this layout, in the large Interbay Yard at Seattle. It’s shown below, with my fellow switchman, Seth Neumann, in the distance. The yard is large enough to have ample space for switching work, a feature not always found on model railroads. 

The second layout of the regular program that I drew was Bill Messecar’s Santa Fe layout, set on Santa Fe’s 3rd District in Southern California, involving Riverside, Corona, and Placentia, with lots of local switching. I was especially impressed with Bill’s many handsome structures. Here is just one of them, the Exchange Citrus plant at Corona. 

Finally, we wrapped up the weekend at Dale Kreutzer’s beautiful Rio Grande Southern layout, set in 1926 when the railroad had a lot of business. At one point, I was the engineer on a train with Mike Chandler conducting, and when we had a meet at Hesperus, the only siding (the house track), was quite full, necessitating a saw-by. Here you see, at left, Mike, Cal Sexsmith, and Jim Providenza watching the moves (Cal and Jim were the crew of the train we were meeting, which is passing the depot).  

As it has been for every SoundRail I have attended, it was a wonderful weekend. Lots of camaraderie, excellent layouts, and plenty of good operation. I look forward to SoundRail in every even-numbered year. 

But the real reason I report like this on an operating weekend is to encourage those who haven’t, or haven’t recently, attended one. They are a lot of fun, and I’d encourage anyone who hasn’t tried one, to seek out an event of this kind, and jump on the next chance you get.

Tony Thompson