Fall Conventions

September and October brought two conventions to nearby Ventura County.  The Pacific Southwest Region of the NMRA held theirs in Oxnard complete with clinics, layout tours and model contests.  I went to a couple days of clinics and one afternoon got around to three layouts.  My layout was also on their tours on Friday and Sunday.  On Saturday I assisted Gary Siegel as he had both his outdoor G-gauge layout and his indoor HO scale layout open.  We were busy most of the day with lots of visitors.

At my layout, I had about 8 people on Friday and about 40 people on Sunday.  I had tried to get a few things done on the layout in anticipation of the tour but was unable to complete my list.  I did start the installation of the Carpinteria Creek bridge, installed some red rosin paper to the holes next to the roadbed on the first level, made some track changes in Lompoc, worked a bit more on my track and built a few more structures for the Santa Barbara industrial area.  I will cover all that in some upcoming blog posts.

In October, the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society had their convention in Ventura.  I was one of the co-chairs so was quite busy.  We had close to 250 attendees - some from as far away as Belgium and New Zealand.  We had a full program of clinics/presentations, tours of lemon packing sheds, official cars, the Port of Hueneme, and a train ride on the Fillmore and Western over some trackage not normally used for passengers.  There was a full vendor room that overflowed onto the adjacent mezzanine and a wonderful collection of models that members had brought to display.  The banquet was well attended and all enjoyed listening to

I roomed with Mike O'Brien, the official convention photographer.  We did some downloading of photos onto my computer so I will share some of the fun with you here through Mike's photos and also some of my own [SP official car 192, Santa Barbara and the Fillmore & Western Trip].  Enjoy.

SP 142 Santa Barbara



SP 142 Santa Barbara





SP 142 Santa Barbara passageway





SP142 Santa Barbara Parlor paneling



Santa Paula Depot stop



Photographers at Santa Paula - The photographers chased the train all the way to Piru





Running through the citrus groves



John Signor, Pat Bray and F&W Conductor Larry



Scott Inman presentation on Daylight Train.  Mike O'Brien photo.



Vendor Room   Mike O'Brien photo.



Society Sales Table   Mike O'Brien photo.



Wall of Trains [Mine is the reefer block fourth from bottom.] Mike O'Brien photo.



Spain and Portland

During the spring and summer I spent more time away from the layout then working on it.  As a result there is little changed on the Santa Barbara Subdivision.  In mid-May we took a trip to Spain.  We traveled across northern Spain from Barcelona to the Atlantic Coast in Galicia near the border with Portugal.  We returned along the north coast and the Pyrenees.  Traveling 3500 miles by rental car, we camped, hiked, and explored archaeological sites, beaches, mountains, cathedrals, monasteries, and cities enjoying the spring wildflowers and people. 

While we were there we visited two railroad museums.  The first was the Basque Railway Museum (Museo Vasco del Ferrocarril) in Azpetia in Basque Country. 

A small museum but a wonderful collection and a great staff.  They are located at the old shops of the Urola Railway which became part of  Euskotren - the Basque Railway system in 1986.  They have utilized the shops to store a collection that includes some of the oldest operating steam engines in Spain as well as the oldest electric and the oldest passenger car. 



1887 Stephenson



1925 Electric locomotive

1876 Passenger Car

They also have a turntable and the accompanying garden tracks. 

The old Azpetia station building houses a collection of railway employee uniforms over the years and a fantastic railroad timepiece collection from pocket watches to depot clocks. 

We spent the better part of an hour talking with one of the staff as we toured the collection.  Well worth a side trip if you are in Basque Country.

The Catalonia Railway Museum  (Museu del Ferrocarril de Catalunya) is 40 km south of Barcelona near the current station at  Vilanova i la Geltrú in the former RENFE (Spanish Railways) shops.  An incredible collection of steam locomotives is arrayed around the turntable in the roundhouse and adjacent garden tracks. 

They also have some more modern equipment including an early Talgo trainset. 

Just a few weeks after returning home we headed north to Portland for our son's wedding.  We managed to squeeze in a visit to Bill Decker and his under construction Southern Pacific Cascade Line http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/  Bill's blog is documenting his progress on this large layout.  Bill hopes to have it open for the NMRA national convention in Portland in 2015.

My son's best man was Sean VanderJagt who my son Michael met at an operating session at Gary Siegel's L&N Eastern Kentucky Division about 12 years ago.  They reconnected when my son moved to Portland.  Sean had the batchelor party dinner on board a sternwheeler on the Columbia River.  We managed to see several trains during our cruise.  Sorry no photos.  The wedding went well and we have now expanded our family.

Old Photos of a Young Railroader

Well it has been four months since I posted on the blog and to be honest not much progress has been made on the layout.  I have been working on installing the remaining Tortoise machines on the first level, working on a few structures and doing too many non-layout activities.

During this time I rediscovered some old photographs my father took.  My dad really enjoyed photography and would take both color slides and black and white print film.  He developed the print film himself and printed the film using enlargers in a small darkroom in the garage.  The photographs here were taken using Kodachrome 25 and the colors are still great. 

As a family we would often travel from the family home near Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles and visit some of the sites like Olvera Street across from Union Station and Chinatown just north of there.  When we visited Chinatown we would often visit the Southern Pacific Yard just southeast of Broadway.  The yard was known as both the Bull Ring (east end) and Corn Field (west end).  At the time we visited there was a wooden pedestrian bridge across the yard from North Broadway to North Spring Street.  Here is a shot of my sister and I on the bridge.

I think the date is about 1953.  Notice what looks like a New York Central Pacemaker boxcar behind us.  If you look closely you will see that it is a standard boxcar-red painted car with a weathered black tank car on the track just toward the camera from it.  You can just make out the dome on the tank car if you click on the photo and make it larger.  My dad took some shots from the bridge while we were there.  Here is a shot of Southern Pacific switcher 2533 working in the yard.

Now I know it is taking me a long time to get my layout up and running but just so you know I have really been working on it a long time here is a photo of my sister helping me with some new track and trains.  I think the date is sometime in 1952.

So much for old photos.  I will try to get a bit more work done on the current layout and post some progress photos soon.

Almost Operations

I keep getting closer to having operations on the Santa Barbara Subdivision but am still not there. The SP Santa Barbara Sub has come a long way since that abreviated op session on January 23, 2007. You can see a photo and read about that night in an early blog post here.

Some of the same friends from the South Coast Society of Model Engineers, the local Santa Barbara model railroad club I belong to, were over again on December 6, 2011. I still have some track tune-up to do so we struggled running trains. Michael Lopez, one of the club's junior members made an attempt and finally got a short passenger train running on the second level.

Here are some photos and a video.

Behind and between Paul G and Michael L is the location of that first impromptu operating session mentioned above

Here is the rest of the crew assembled at the curve of Santa Barbara Yard

Here is a short video of the second level passenger run

Second Level Fascia

While some of the second level fascia was installed almost a year ago, there was still some to install and all of it had to be painted. I had delayed putting the fascia along the track at Surf as there were 7 turnouts and slow-motion switch motors that needed to be installed. Once the fascia is installed it becomes more difficult to work in the areas.














Area at West Surf before fascia was installed














The Surf wye and the helix before the fascia was installed














The east portion of Surf on the outside of the helix before the fascia was installed. Note the fascia installed on the Lompoc shelf on the right side of the photo

I also decided to install fascia on the Lompoc shelf and the White Hills shelf. Both of these shelves are constructed of plywood and homasote. The second level fascia is narrow in most areas to maximize the views of the lower level and the open space between the two levels.

Wherever a switch for a slow-motion switch motor was to be mounted on the fascia, I cut a 1 1/2 inch hole so I could fit a PVC tubing end cap into the hole. The switch is mounted inside the end cap and does not stick out into the aisle. I first saw this technique on Rick Fortin's ATSF Valley Division Fourth District layout.














A close up of the PVC end cap with a DPDT switch installed















DPDT switch pre-wired before installation















Installed end cap and DPDT switch

I did not install the endcaps until I had painted the fascia.

When I finally had all the fascia in I painted it with the same color I used on the lower level. I had used a computer color matcher to select a color that roughly approximates the Southern Pacific Dark Grey used in the two-tone passenger scheme and the post-1958 scarlet and grey locomotive scheme.














Surf area after fascia was installed and painted. Note end caps installed















Painted second level fascia above Santa Barbara














Painted second level fascia at White Hills and Devon

Layout Tour 28

November 19th was the 28th Layout tour of a group called Model Railroads of Southern California. The group was organized by Bob Chaparro back in 2006 to gather information on layouts in Southern California in advance of the 2008 NMRA National Convention in Anaheim. Bob was the layout chair for the local convention committee and wanted not only find layouts for the convention tours but also get layout owners ready for the tours.

It has been three years now since the convention and five years since the group started and its membership has grown to over 1400 members. I had been on a tour 15 in January 2009 but at that time I only had one level and not nearly as much "thin wall" as I do now.

There was talk of rain on the day of the tour but it dawned bright and clear. [The rain came the next day with about an inch.] I had help from friend Jim Scott so I could answer questions and attend to visitors. The day started slowly so Jim and I did some programing of his four new Athearn Southern Pacific GP9's in Black Widow paint scheme with Tsunami sound decoders. They sounded great.

We had about 30 visitors during the day from as far away as Bayview, Idaho and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and as close as next door. Ages also ran the gamut from youngsters to seasoned model railroaders. Several of the youngster's enjoyed running trains over the layout - a feat that I usually am unable to do. The trackwork still needs tweeking but we helped them over the rough spots.

Here are a few photos from the tour day.














Bob Chaparro talking with Jim Scott at the sign-in table with more signing in

Answering questions as a small engineer in red pauses during his train running around the layout

Happy and enthusiastic visitors

As always, in anticipation of a tour, I try to get more done on the layout. This time I put in another 40 feet of fascia on the upper deck, painted all 130 feet of fascia on the upper deck, installed more slow motion switch machines, installed most of the street trackage in Lompoc, and installed a few more decoders to increase my DCC equipped locomotive fleet. In the next few days I will try to post some of these projects so you can see more progress on the SP Santa Barbara Subdivision.

Portland in September

I attended the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society's convention in Portland in September.  My son lives in Portland so my wife and I stayed with him while we attended the convention and toured around the greater Portland area.

The convention was good and I particularly enjoyed the visit to the Brooklyn Roundhouse.  They are moving in the near future, so I was glad to see the facility before it is no more.  Here are a few photos from the roundhouse tour.