Founders

AWOL was founded by members of another Beaverton area model railroad club who were dissatisfied and felt they could do better elsewhere. Within three months of formation, the AWOL club had built a new layout, and were showing it publicly. At GATS 2000 the layout (although not all that pretty) was fully operational.

Current Layout

Since that time, the layout has been fully detailed, and over time several sections have been rebuilt for better operation or to include new features. The layout is currently 18' by 34' with two continuous loops, several secondary routes, and a full yard. We run with DCC command control.

The AWOL layout is completely portable, and we take it out to show to the public several times each year. The modules are connected using cam-lock hardware, and the entire layout can be unpacked and assembled or disassembled and repacked within about an hour. The club has the use of a large trailer, and our travels are completely self-sufficient.

The Club

The AWOL club currently has about over a dozen active members. (We are always looking for new members - why not check us out?). We meet every Saturday morning and every other Friday evening, sometimes for operation, but usually for work sessions.

AWOL in the news!

The Oregonian interviewed a couple of our members.
Read all about it, from the January 5, 2006 Oregonian

Bill Richards is not just a model railroader; he has years of experience as a railroad conductor. Bill started his working career in 1941 as a trainman with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in Cleveland, Ohio. Not long after Pearl Harbor Bill joined the Army and later headed to Australia. There he fought in the island-hopping campaigns across the Pacific as an anti-aircraft gunner. He served in the Pacific until the end of the war. Bill said that the very best part of this adventure was when his troop ship entered Puget Sound and landed in Seattle. It was Christmas Eve 1945.

Bill returned to Cleveland where he went to work for a bedspring company painting bed springs. It was his job to dip the bed springs into the paint. He didn't stay long. He later went to work for Superior Die and Press Company where he worked on a punch press for about a year. Bill hated both or those jobs.

One evening he was lying on his couch when the doorbell rang. It was a good friend of the family, Jim Price. Jim was a trainmaster for the PRR. He asked Bill if he was still looking for a job. Bill asked what he had in mind. He asked Bill if he wanted to go back to work for the PRR. Bill jumped at the chance and went to work as a trainman. In a couple of weeks he was promoted to part-time conductor. He worked as a conductor on the road with road switchers, coal trains and even passenger trains his entire career. In 1986 Bill was injured helping his train crew remove a tree from the main line. He retired soon after. He said that he loved every day of his career on the PRR. After retiring he moved his family to Beaverton, Oregon and later to Hillsboro.

Bill is one of the original founding members of AWOL. He and about 10 guys came together to build the layout and form a model railroad club. He was there when the first track was laid and built many of the buildings the club has today. Bill is a skilled modeler as can be seen by his work on the layout. His biggest building project was the Richards Sawmill which is a prominent feature of the layout.

When asked how long he had been modeling trains, Bill answered, since 1935!

Thanks to Bill Richards for all you have done for AWOL.