There are simple sound systems and there sound systems that rumble, that blare and that seem to almost shake the walls that hold them.
Edmonds’ Swamp Creek and Western Railroad Association has one of the later.
Sporting not only one of the largest model railways in the Puget Sound, the group also — compliments of the very loud and very real train tracks next door — has what has to be one of the Sound’s great thematic sound systems.
“We joke about it,” said Andy Walker, the organization’s president. “We have a very, very realistic sound system.”
The system will be on display tomorrow, Saturday, Dec. 8, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., as the SCWRA hosts its free annual winter Open House.
Kids and families are invited to attend.
Also on display will be the organization’s 350-foot long model railroad which snakes its way intriguingly through the old baggage room at Amtrak’s Edmonds Station.
Its Eastern Washington to Western Washington theme tracks model trains from the plains near Yakima to the Washington coastline.
Amtrak is also hosting an open house at the same time Saturday. Santa will be on hand, as will Edmonds firefighters who are collecting food and toys for a holiday drive.
For SCWRA, the Open House is another opportunity to advertise its presence on Edmonds’ waterfront.
“The club can be almost invisible. People do not always realize that we are down here,” vice president John Dineen said Tuesday, as he showed off the club’s impressively detailed layout. “Although we have had a lot of Open Houses, there are a million people who do not know we are here.”
This year is the club’s 30th, though, and with the Burlington-Northern Sante Fe Railroad talking about expanding tracks through Edmonds, the club’s future is a little murkier than it has been before.
With members from as far away as Duvall, the club’s ambitions are as strong as ever, however, and its lanky, linear layout is in a constant state of improvement.
There’s already enough track that it takes a train almost 45 minutes to run from one end of the layout to the other.
Alpine meadows are being built, and buildings are being erected in the track’s anchor communities. The entire layout is having its electrical wiring standards upgraded.
“In 30 years, you’d think we’d have it all done, but no,” Dineen said.
“We just need more time,” laughed club member Nathan Proudfoot.
Almost all of the work so far has been done by members, which is reflected in the track’s whimsey.
Astute observers might notice a Boy Scout troop ogling girls. Or, they might spot a camper just about to get eaten by a bear.
On club nights, those details are more easily forgotten. Intense evenings are like master classes in real railroad management. Trains sit idly on the tracks, watching others pass.
For the open house, that doesn’t happen.
This weekend, the trains will almost never stop. They’ll chug up the Cascades, and they’ll loop through mock-Longview and head back to model-Yakima.
“We are doing it for the crowd,” club president Walker said. “People want to see things running. If something stops, people always say ‘Make it move.’
“So, we’ll keep ‘em running,” he said.
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