White Hills Junction Extension

I had the club members over on the evening of July 13 and we worked on two projects. The first was to build an extension of the upper shelf where Lompoc will go so I will have a tail track for what amounts to a switchback up to the mine at White Hills. The second project was pulling a pair of wires for powering turnout motors on the second level.

First a few words about White Hills Junction. Originally, the line from Surf to Lompoc ended at town. For a while between 1898 and 1901, Lompoc was the southern (railroad east) end of the Coast Line. That meant the trains to San Francisco started in Lompoc. On December 31, 1900 the Coast Line was completed with the laying of track across the Cementerio Trestle just railroad east of Gaviota. Passenger service began on the completed line on March 31, 1901. In 1923, the Celite Company, which was then operating the diatomaceous mine up San Miguelito Canyon, asked Southern Pacific to run a branch up to the new mill. Southern Pacific declined, so Celite chartered it's own railroad - Pacific Southwest Railroad. The line was graded and and track was being laid when Southern Pacific changed its mind and funded the remaining construction. Southern Pacific took over complete ownership and operation in 1928 and operated it until September 11, 1996 when Union Pacific took over operation. It is this line which departs from the main line at White Hills Junction. Here is a USGS map of the junction.

Here are SPINS maps of Lompoc, White Hills Jct, and White Hills.

I did not have room to duplicate the junction in the proper orientation, so I flipped it and the line to the mine comes off in the opposite direction than actual. I still needed to have enough track to run a train past the switch at the junction so it can be reversed up to the mine. Here is a photo of the local on the actual tail track about to shove up to the mine.

Current operation includes pushing an old DRGW caboose, painted in a Southern Pacific Railroad Police scheme, as a shoving platform.

Here is the local shoving up against the caboose.

The local shoves up the White Hills Branch toward the mine. The Lompoc Branch main is on the right.

The tail track will be laid on a shelf 11" wide and 95" long. The shelf is plywood and homasote with a 1 x 2 down the center of the bottom for strength. The extension is attached to the shelf using slots cut into a plywood plate attached to the extension which fit around two bolts put through the shelf and tightened with a washer and nut. The legs are 2 x 2's. Feet and a cross brace augment the legs. Here are two photos of the bottom of the shelf.

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Legs are attached using folding leg brackets from Rockler - item #39505.

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Here are some photos of the crew working on the extension.

John tightening the nuts on the extension connection.

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John drilling a hole in the bottom of the second leg for the adjustable feet. Joe holding the leg steady. Jim holding the extension up.
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Joe checking level.