Southern Pacific's Santa Barbara Subdivision: Surf

The helix structure being completed - still no track, that will come soon - I began putting in the masonite spline roadbed for the second level. I cut a 4 x 8 masonite sheet into 1" wide strips, 8 feet long. These are reassembled in a six-strip-wide roadbed. The masonite curves easily and I used some templates to make sure the radius was always above 30". The second level consists of mainline, three sidings and junctions for two branches. One, located at Tangair, is on a wye and travels from the main into the HQ area of Vandenberg AFB. I am only modeling the east leg of the wye and a short piece of track that disappears behind the backdrop (thin wall). The second branch is at Surf and is also on a wye and travels to Lompoc and White Hills Junction where another branch climbs San Miguelito Canyon south of Lompoc to the diatomaceous earth mine. I am attempting to model the entire branch but severely compressed.

Surf sits at the mouth of the Santa Ynez river where the main traverses the river on a six-span deck girder bridge.

Beside the wye there was a combination 22 depot before it was torn down November 16, 1971 leaving a small addition which had been added in about 1943. This small building was also torn down and now all that remains is an Amtrak platform which was built in 1994.

There were quite a few tracks as can be seen from this SPINS (Southern Pacific Industrial Numbering System) diagram.

Here are some photos of the area.

Looking north with the wye in the foreground, beyond it the bridge and the Santa Ynez River and in the distance North Vandenberg and Space Launch Complex 2. Lompoc is up the river to the right.

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Looking toward the bridge, with the siding on the left, main in the center and the storage-house track on the right. The west leg of the wye is just beyond the signal.

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Looking away from the bridge you can see the west leg of the wye taking off on the left and the siding on the right.

The Surf area on the SP Santa Barbara Sub is located just after the 2 1/2 turns of the helix from the first level. I needed to construct some interesting supports for this area since it is wider than most of the other areas. I used some 3/4" square steel tubing to span between the helix and the nearest thin wall. I then utilized the steel tubing to support wood supports for the road bed. I want to maximize the sidings so I changed the order of the tracks from the bridge to allow the siding to come off first. This gives me a siding about 10 1/2 feet long. The storage-house track on the other side of the main is only about 6 feet long. The west leg of the wye is about 32" radius but the east leg is closer to 27" radius. This will probably require restricted speed but then the entire Lompoc Branch is currently under a 10mph speed restriction so that will help make the compressed branch seem a little longer.

I have included here some photos of the supports and spline roadbed, still under construction, in the Surf area on the layout.

Here is the start of the main line masonite spline with the supports showing between the thin wall and the helix. This areas is approximately 10 feet long and 3 1/2 feet deep from the aisle.

Here is another view of the same area.

This view shows the main line spline construction with clamps in place.

This photo shows an almost completed main line spline with clamps in the area where the bridge will be. On the left is the siding spline.

This photo looks from the future bridge location toward the helix with the completed main and siding but no house-storage track or wye.

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Clamps in place on the house-storage track.

From left to right: siding, main, house-storage tracks.

Clamps on west leg of wye.

Clamps on the east leg of the wye. The tail of the wye passes through the thin wall and around the outside of the helix to Lompoc. Looks like I have some repair work to do on the thin wall.