100,000 Volunteer Hours!!!

In an existence rife with “firsts,” and “milestones” and “one-of-a-kinds” our museum hit another standard of excellence on Saturday, April 7, 2012, as volunteers recorded their 100,000^th hour at the museum since its
ground-breaking ceremony back in the fall of 2003.

        The event was celebrated at 11:15 a.m. by a cake-cutting after the Oregon, California and Eastern Railway operations were brought to a 15-minute temporary halt to commemorate this unique accomplishment.  The museum was open to the public at the time, so visitors were also treated to piece of cake and history.  An operation crew of 32 was on hand for the surprise event and was typical of the number of operators required to allow the massive 22.5 scale mile HO scale railroad to run efficiently and prototypically.

        “You never think of milestones like this when you first start out,” Dave Trussell, designer and builder of the miniature railroad said after the event.  “We’ve gone from nailing a couple of boards together to a project that can be run via CTC, or individually, or by utilizing the finest model railroad computer system in existence,” he said. 

        Typical of what is becoming a Saturday tradition at the museum, the 32 volunteers represented 14 separate communities in Colorado and Wyoming.  More than 88 of these folks are on the museum’s qualified engineer list and a whopping 280 have volunteered at the project over the years.