Columbia & Sykes Railroad

Columbia & Sykes Railroad All posts are of my model railroad equipment. Stories are fictional and written to fit my perspective of how the equipment was acquired. and Sykes Road.

The Columbia & Sykes railroad was inagurated in August of 2012. I originally purchased the layout from a Craigslist ad in 2010. I did not have a place to actually safely use it. The house I was living in at the time did not have doors big enough to bring it into the house and I did not have a garage. I had a storage area under the house and that is where it lived since access to it was from a sing

le garage sized door. It was cold, damp and musky. We moved into our current house in June of 2012 however, the layout stayed at our previous house until August of that year (it's a long story). My dad built a secure table to set the layout on and we moved the layout from the old house, to our new house. Since it's tradition for a layout to have a name, I started thinking of what I could call mine. My partner suggested the Columbia & Sykes Railroad, since we live on the corner of Columbia Blvd. And there you have it.

The Columbia & Cowlitz Railroad out of Longview, Washington has finally decided to cease its use of cabooses at the end ...
08/06/2026

The Columbia & Cowlitz Railroad out of Longview, Washington has finally decided to cease its use of cabooses at the end of its trains.
The CEO of the CLC knew our museum was interested in their equipment so, he made a call to our curator and asked if we'd be interested in a donation in the form of the railroad's only caboose.
Of course I said yes!
This caboose is going to pair with our Weyerhaeuser, Baldwin S12, to perform switching moves around the mill.

Seaboard Air Line, through a gaggle of mergers, would eventually become a part of CSX Railroad.Before those mergers took...
07/15/2026

Seaboard Air Line, through a gaggle of mergers, would eventually become a part of CSX Railroad.
Before those mergers took place, SAL donated these three, 40' steel boxcars to a museum somewhere back east.
Through a series of negotiations, the CSRRM made a deal with a broker to acquire these three boxcars.
They had been kept in pristine, usable condition. Arrangements were made to have them transferred to Scappoose, Oregon where our museum resided at the time of delivery.
When our museum moved from Scappoose to Hillsboro, Oregon, these cars were placed into storage for safe keeping.

The Toy Train Operating Society held its annual convention in Pasadena, California in 1968.This commemorative caboose wa...
07/15/2026

The Toy Train Operating Society held its annual convention in Pasadena, California in 1968.
This commemorative caboose was painted for the event by Athearn.
When the convention was over, the caboose was placed into storage and forgotten about.
A Southern Pacific crew member was rifling through the storage barn and came across this piece.
The Toy Train Operating Society told SP to sell it and split the proceeds 50/50.
When our museum acquisition dept. saw this, they pounced on it.
It is on display at our museum in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Nickel Plate Road was the subject of a merger many moons ago. The successor railroad donated these three pieces of equip...
07/15/2026

Nickel Plate Road was the subject of a merger many moons ago. The successor railroad donated these three pieces of equipment to a local rail museum in New York.
As funding dried up, the museum eventually shuttered and put all of its equipment up for auction.
The Columbia & Sykes Railroad Museum bid on these three cars and wound up being the successful bidder.
Our acquisition team made arrangements to have this boxcar, gondola, and flat car moved to Scappoose.
When our museum moved from Scappoose to Hillsboro, Oregon, these cars were packed up and put into storage for safe keeping.
Note, the flatcar has an error in the road name. When the stenciler was adding the stencils, he accidentally transposed the words Road and Plate.

Southern Pacific just retired this old war horse from its roster. The railroad offered this SD45T-2 to the CSRRM as a to...
07/14/2026

Southern Pacific just retired this old war horse from its roster. The railroad offered this SD45T-2 to the CSRRM as a token of appreciation for helping to preserve the SP legacy.
Before making the official donation, Southern Pacific rebuilt this tunnel motor at its Sacramento shops in California.
The SP Public Relations Office reached out to our curator and asked if we'd like this unit painted in traditional SP scarlet and grey with Roman or Speed Lettering.
We asked for Kodachrome instead, as this unit once featured that paint scheme.
SP was reluctant, but agreed.
This unit was deadheaded from Sacramento to Hillsboro, Oregon by the Union Pacific, then handed over to the Portland & Western to be delivered to the Columbia & Sykes Railroad Museum.
It makes a fine addition to our Southern Pacific fleet.

The Columbia & Sykes Railroad acquired this Pullman Standard covered hopper around 2011 at a used equipment gathering. I...
01/23/2026

The Columbia & Sykes Railroad acquired this Pullman Standard covered hopper around 2011 at a used equipment gathering. It was painted in Burlington Northern's Cascade Green color at the time of purchase.
The volunteers at our museum thought it would be fun to honor the BN by repainting the car into Great Northern Big Sky Blue as a way to honor the heritage of the car.
Our legal department reached out to BN and acquired a license to do just that.
Isn't it pretty?

Union Pacific was set to take delivery of both of these Pullman Standard covered hoppers when it realized Pullman made a...
01/23/2026

Union Pacific was set to take delivery of both of these Pullman Standard covered hoppers when it realized Pullman made a mistake when applying the stenciling. It left off the "C" in the word "Pacific".
UP declined to take possession of the cars and sent them back to Pullman, who refused to correct the issue.
Pullman started to dismantle one of the cars, but realized it could probably recoup some of the money it lost, by putting these up for auction.
Our curator saw them (two different listings in two different years) and decided to enter the winning bids.
Our in-house shop never got around to reassembling the bottom car. It has not yet been decided if we ever will.

This pair of Chessie System GP35s had been acquired by a friend in Brush Prairie, Washington, directly from Chessie back...
01/23/2026

This pair of Chessie System GP35s had been acquired by a friend in Brush Prairie, Washington, directly from Chessie back in the mid 1990s.
Around 2006, our curator was visiting this friend, when he decided to donate the pair to the CSRRM as he felt our railroad would get better use out of them than he would.
One of these units has a prime mover and the other lacks a prime mover, so it was made into a slug, with the powered unit being a 'mother unit", providing power to the slug's traction motors.
Our museum has had this pair out polishing the rails a few times in the past however, they have been awaiting a new assignment for quite some time. Soon.

Southern Pacific SD40T-2 No 8526 was donated to the CSRRM after a catastrophic engine failure, when the turbo exploded, ...
01/23/2026

Southern Pacific SD40T-2 No 8526 was donated to the CSRRM after a catastrophic engine failure, when the turbo exploded, while assisting a train over Donner Pass, in California.
The locomotive was still wearing its Kodachrome paint scheme from the failed merger with Santa Fe, which our museum decided should remain on this unit.
After our museum took possession of the dead unit, it was put into our in-house shop, where it underwent a complete overhaul.
This old Tunnel Motor runs beautifully now.

This pair of former Burlington Northern GP50 Phase II locomotives used to work transfer jobs between Pacso, Washington a...
01/23/2026

This pair of former Burlington Northern GP50 Phase II locomotives used to work transfer jobs between Pacso, Washington and Spokane, Washington.
These units lasted well into the BNSF era however, BNSF decided to retire the pair and put them up for auction around 1999.
The Columbia & Sykes Railroad entered the successful bid and took ownership of the pair.
Our Legal Department worked with BNSF to obtain a license to repaint the duo back into their former colors of Cascade Green and Black.
Our railroad put them to work, moving cargo over Stevens Pass, where they can still be found to this day.

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NE Moda Way
Hillsboro, OR
97124

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