A Rock Train for the SP Santa Barbara Sub

I am still working on track issues but it is getting close enough that I have set a date for an operating session.  I am working hard at getting everything ready.  One of the tasks I have almost finished is creating a train lineup of all the trains I want to run during the session.  One of the big problems is to actually put together all of those trains. 

One of the problems I share with some of my other fellow model railroaders is I purchase cars or kits that I think I will use on the layout long before I have my layout operating.  Now that I need them for the operation session, I need to find them and, in some cases, actually build the kits.  Down the road a bit I will weather them so they don't look like there have never rolled over the railroad.

 

The first train I put together is a special unit train since it was ready to run.  It represents a train I saw September 4, 2007.  That is over a decade after the era I am currently modeling so I hope the prototype police are not monitoring this.  The train was headed west to the Granite Rock quarry at Logan just railroad west of Watsonville Junction.  It was a solid train of  empty 100-ton Greenville hoppers designed to hold aggregate.  Here are a few photos of the train holding the siding at Goleta.

The train was long enough for me to use several overpasses

to view and photograph the train.

This shot is looking toward the front of the train. 

An SP hopper with the UP herald.

A Golden West and SP hopper.

Looking toward the back of the train.

Here is that rare view from the top, looking down into the hoppers.

Just months before, in May 2007, I had visited the quarry as part of the Pacific Coast Region NMRA convention.  The quarry was originally opened by the Southern Pacific but sold in 1904.  The same family still owns and operates the quarry.  The San Andreas Fault runs along the north side of the quarry.  This is interesting as just two years after purchasing the quarry from SP, it became the source of aggregate for concrete used in the rebuilding of San Francisco after the April 1906 earthquake. Here are a few photos from the quarry.

Here is the huge crusher at the working face of the quarry.

The conveyor at the left takes the rock about a mile west to the loader next to the Coast main.

Here is some of the rudimentary engine service facility.  Note the power truck in the center foreground and the Granite Rock hoppers and locomotive in the background. 

Here is a shot of the loading facility.  Hoppers and locomotives in the background.

Golden West hopper

Southern Pacific hopper

Granite Rock locomotive with a string of cars.  Our bus is visible extreme left.

They allowed up up on the engine.  Note the yellow caution sign just above the rear truck.

It reads 'WARNING All tracks in this yard are live. Any car can move at any time. Locomotive runs on remote control.' 

Here is a shot of the remote control.  Switches read 'FWD/REV' 'Train Line Apply Release' 'Headlight On Off'

Controls are visible on the left side.  Not quite as complex as my DCC throttles but quite a bit larger!

And finally, here is a short model of the train passing through Carpinteria on the Santa Barbara Subdivision.

Head end passing Linden Ave in Carpinteria

Middle of train

Rear of train 

Stay tuned for the next train.