Medford Train Park and a visit with Family 08-11-14

We got up early Sunday morning and followed Kathi and Bob south on I-5 to Grants Pass where we had breakfast at Shari's Restaurant.

After breakfast we drove further south to Medford. 
Kathi and Bob belong to the Medford Garden Railroaders club and volunteer at the park.

They have a run day on the second and fourth Sunday of the month in the summer.
The club members have built an impressive layout for their “G” scale model railroad.

There are three separate layouts. One for the enjoyment of the young children that features the Thomas train.

For the older kids and some adults, there is the Harry Potter layout; complete with Hogwarts Castle, with the Quidege Pitch to the lower left of the castle.

There is a representation of the Hogwarts Express

and the Womping Willow complete with Mr. Weasley’s Ford Anglia tangled in the branches.

The main layout is the most impressive with depictions of Oregon’s railroad history.
There are old towns,

lots of trestles and bridges,

and there are many waterfalls and rivers.

They have even constructed a sea port with a reproduction of an historic bridge in the background.

There is a model of a electric trolley terminal from the early 1900’s that is still under construction.

There is even a saw mill complete with log pond and slash burner.

There are also some trains that you can ride on.

It isn’t all about the models, there are also some full scale engines and other train cars that have been refurbished by the railroad clubs.

I have to admit that I salivated when I saw this collection of old Blacksmithing tools.

There is much more to see than I can put here in this blog. To fully appreciate the scope of the displays you have to visit the park. It is located on Berrydale Ave in Medford, OR next to the fire house.

We spent about an hour at the park and then went to see my niece Kathleen and her husband Frank.

Their oldest daughter Rachel, her husband Brian and their two children Tabor and Ollie.

Franks Brother and sister-in-law were also visiting from Colorado.

We had a very nice visit and left around 1:30 and went back to the train park for a snow cone.

Patti at the snow cone booth.

It was very hot (close to 100) The misters hanging over the snow cone booth helped cool folks down for a few minutes.

We left the train park around 2:30 and headed back to Kathi and Bob’s house.

In the evening we went to Glendale for dinner at Nano’s Mexican restaurant . The food was very good and the service was friendly.

This morning we are heading south of Grants Pass to the Valley of the Rogue State Park to visit with Becky and Dennis, our friends from Quartzsite.