The Willamette Model Railroad Club is located in an 1800 square foot basement in Clackamas, OR. The club operates the HO scale Columbia, Cascade and Western (CC&W), a fictional Pacific Northwest regional freight railroad set in 1979.  The CC&W is envisioned as part of the George Gould empire, connecting to and ultimately owned by the Western Pacific.  The CC&W mirrors the frugal nature of its WP parent, and follows many of its practices. 

The layout features a 400 foot heavy mainline and a 300 foot rural branch-line.  Operating sessions consist of a well-developed line-up of local and through trains controlled by a dispatcher who currently uses Track Warrants with ABS signaling to manage traffic.  There are two mainline and one branch-line yards, each with their own crews.  The ends of the layout are routed through a large “mole” workspace for staging and makeup/breakdown of trains, and is a critical part of operations.  A real time clock is used.

Car cards and waybills govern individual car movements while NCE DCC radio control is used throughout.  The Dispatcher occupies an office in an adjacent building, using both radio and telephone to communicate with engine, train and yard crews.  All track is operational, with construction activities now focused on scenery, structures, and signals.

The club plans to have a centralized traffic control (CTC) system in place in 2025 on half the mainline, with control over both dual-control and electric-locked switches.  

The club is not wheelchair accessible.    

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