Southern Pacific's Santa Barbara Subdivision: Elusive Goals

Why is it that if I set goals at the beginning of the year, I manage to not complete any of them?

At the beginning of last year, I set some goals for myself and for the layout. While I have been working on some of them, most have been languishing. I am an excellent procrastinator and am easily distracted. Such has been the last 14 months before my recent post here on the SP Santa Barbara Subdivision.

In the intervening time, I have done a lot of traveling. First, in May 2013 it was off to the Denver area for Rocky Ops North, (a wonderful model railroad operations event), where I operated on four wonderful layouts and even took my wife out dancing on our anniversary. We returned by way of my son and daughter-in-law's in Portland, OR, where we also managed to find time to visit two layouts. In late June 2013, we traveled to Baton Rouge to visit my sister where I also visited 5 train layouts and operated on one. From there we traveled through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and back to Atlanta for the National Model Railroad Association convention. At the convention I operated on three more layouts and toured several others as part of the LDSIG Wednesday Layout Tour. After the convention we made a brief stop to see the 'General' at the Southern Museum in Kennesaw, Georgia and then headed home through Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. After we got home I was in charge of a railroad event at the South Coast Railroad Museum. The end of August found me in the hospital twice in two days. I still managed to get to the Southern Pacific Historical Society Convention in Fresno at the beginning of October followed the next week by the Central Coast Railroad Festival.

My health issue was finally resolved with some surgery in early January. After a week or two I was back to normal. Then I was off to the Bay Area SIG meet in Alameda where I saw another 6 layouts and operated on Otis McGee's Shasta Route. In early March my wife and I managed a few days skiing in the Sierra. The beginning of May found me at the Pacific Coast Region convention in San Luis Obispo. At the end of the month, I participated in the second SoCal Ops event managing the operations at Gary Siegel's L&N Eastern Kentucky Division layout and assisting the crew at Jon Cure's SP Inyo Sub.

As a result of all this traveling and activity, my layout progress has been slow at best. Apologies for regaling you with all these personal details. I will try as promised in the last post to more regularly report on progress on the SP Santa Barbara Sub.

Meanwhile here are some photos from my adventures.

First, Rocky Ops 2013

Detlef Kurpanek's Great Northwestern Railway Company

Warm Springs Yard and Engine Facility

Warm Springs and El Vado

Warehouse at El Vado

Detlef overseeing operations at Valley Gate

Black Water Falls Resort

Bonus layout

Main Yard on right.
This yard is equipped with a bar code scanner that monitors all trains in and out of the yard.

Railfans

John Parker's BNSF Fall River Division

Maxum Petroleum truck entrance

Rockman aggregate facility

Local News Coverage of Rocky Ops

In addition, here is a link to a video from the BNSF Fall River Division.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efd9Lc87r6o&list=UUfmexfwySLReEp-B4viY5vg

On the way home we went to visit our son in Portland, Oregon. Here are a few train photos along the way.
Here are some shots of Eastern Idaho Railroad at Rupert, ID.

Locos just east of Rupert, ID

More locos in the Rupert Yard

More locos in Rupert

Spare wheels, locos and stores at Rupert

Bay window caboose at the elevator

Here are some RDC's of the Wallawa River RR at Elgin, OR with a few bonus shots nearby.

Elgin, OR depot and diesels

Nebraska Central near Island City, OR

Idaho Northern and Pacific locomotives at the Island City, OR storage yard

Here are are a few more shots from Bill Decker's SP Cascade Line. Remember these are from 2013. Compare to the 2014 photos in the July 10, 2014 post.

Bill next to the beginnings of Springfield yard

Oakridge Yard

Bill's Eugene Yard before any tracks were laid

Union Pacific train passes the real Eugene Depot on National Train Day

Here are a few photos from our trip to Atlanta.

Lynch, KY
We had lunch here at the Depot with a US Steel Alco switcher and L&N caboose .
US Steel had a coal mine here and shipped coal from here to it's steel mills up on the Great Lakes.
Gary Siegel has these coal trains traveling over his L&N Eastern Kentucky Division

Copper Creek Viaduct on the ex-Clinchfield.
This served as the prototype for Gary Siegel's Powell Creek Viaduct.

Eskridge, KS on Jared Harper's ATSF Alma Branch.
I had the pleasure of operating on the Alma Branch during the NMRA Atlanta Convention

Running through a cut. Not a lot of elevation change in Kansas!

Steam on the Canton

We did not just ride trains. We had lots of switching work along the way.

Large scale caboose in the shops.

General locomotive used in the Andrew's Raid during the civil war.
Now at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, GA, the locomotive was the inspiration of Buster Keaton's classic "The General" silent movie and Walt Disney's "Great Locomotive Chase"

Some photos from the Southern Pacific meet in Fresno in October.

Fowler Depot
One of several depots visited with Henry Bender

Hillcrest & Wahtoke RR

Hillcrest & Wahtoke RR shop.
In the back is a steam powered speeder. In the front is a Ford firetruck under restoration.

Chuck Harmon's HO scale Wawona Packing Co.

O-scale sugar beet loader

CS22 Depot on the O-scale layout

San Joaquin Valley RR train parked adjacent to the south Fresno industrial area

Lastly, here are a few photos from the Bay Area SIG meet. This meet has been held for many years in various locations around the San Francisco Bay and brings together the LDSIG, the OPSIG, and the PCR for clinics, layout tours, and operations. Information is available on the PCR website.