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The Wandering Spruce Railroad
The Wandering Spruce Railroad Yesterday I visited this On30 railroad in Claremont, CA, at the home of Sean Williams. It is a joint project of Sean and Kevin Spady. This 5-foot by 10-foot layout represents the mining and logging industry in the Pacific Northwest. As you can see, it is very detailed. The entire layout can be lifted into the ceiling of the garage where it is located. Bob Chaparro Moderator Model Railroads of Southern California |
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Ryan Di Fede’s Railroad
Ryan Di Fede’s Railroad Yesterday I visited Ryan Di Fede’s N-scale railroad in San Diego. It was the featured layout on the San Diego Division/PSR/NMRA layout tour. Ryan established the Southern Pacific Railroad's Cascade Line N scale model railroad in 2009. The railroad is based on Eugene, Oregon, through to the east, to the Cascade Summit. The main town on the layout is Oakridge, Oregon, which was home base to helpers for trains heading up the “Hill” to the Cascade mountains. The railroad is prototypical to a point and with artistic license also in play. The era for the railroad is 1954. This means that he can have anything on his railroad that is from 1954 and decades prior. No buildings, vehicles or trains on his railroad can be from any year that is later than 1954. Ryan has traveled to Oregon and has done extensive research, including interviewing local people and railroad employees to make his layout as prototypical as possible. The model railroad layout has a number of industries, a hotel, urban buildings and more, including lumber-based industries, furniture factory, an oil storage facility, a gas station, a restaurant, railroad station houses, an animal coral, an engine house, city buildings, a paper mill, residential houses and more. In addition, the railroad has railroad yards, staging yards, storage yards, sidings and a wye. The railroad is a multi-level layout and has a track elevator that moves the trains to and from each level. Ryan also has night lighting so he can operate his trains for nighttime running. He has a variety of trains. Some are prototypical trains and others are not. Ryan uses Digital Command Control (DCC) & Sound for his railroad and he uses NCE Power Cabs and a phone app to run the locomotives. The track elevator is used for both storage track and to position trains on either level of the model railroad layout. The railroad has been made for operation sessions. His operations sessions usually have about five people, and it can take approximately two hours to complete the event. There are three engineers, one dispatcher and one elevator operator. The model railroad layout is in Ryan's backyard inside a completely enclosed outdoor air conditioned 8-foot x12-foot storage shed. I took these photos. Bob Chaparro Moderator Model Railroads of Southern California |
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Show Your Railroad - Pacific Coast Region/NMRA Convention
Show Your Railroad - Pacific Coast Region/NMRA Convention ? Hello - ? The Pacific Coast Region/NMRA will hold its annual convention in San Luis Obispo, CA, next year on March 27-30 (Thursday-Sunday). A major highlight of the convention is the layout tour. ? I would like you to consider participating in the tour by showing your railroad to convention attendees. ? Participating in a layout tour is a great way to share your work and meet your fellow model railroaders. You’ve probably worked hard on your railroad so you might as well get some recognition from people who will appreciate your efforts. ? All you need to do is operate your trains. I will do all the planning and publicity, as I have done for sixty-four previously tours since 2006, including tours for the NMRA national convention (Anaheim) and several PCR and PSR regional conventions. ? The tour area is San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara Counties. ? Layouts will be open in the afternoons, Thursday through Saturday and anytime Wednesday and Sunday. The tour is self-guided (No busses). ? If you have any questions before committing to the tour, please ask. In any event, please contact me in the next several weeks if you are interested so we can add your railroad to the tour. Once you have been added to the tour, I will contact you to establish your day(s) and hours that work best for you. ? Thank you. ? Bob Chaparro Model Railroads of Southern California chiefbobbb@...? [chiefbobbb At verizon DOT net] 951-265-2483 ? PCR Convention Website: |
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Preview: Central Coast RR Festival Layout Tour – Ron Hamley’s Cuesta & Pacific Railroad (N-Scale)
Preview: Central Coast RR Festival Layout Tour – Ron Hamley’s Cuesta & Pacific Railroad (N-Scale) The Central Coast Railroad Festival returns this year to San Luis Obispo and northern San Barbara Counties on October 4-6, 2024 (Friday-Sunday). Also returning is the free, self-guided layout tour, starting on Thursday, October 3, and running through Sunday. Here is a preview of one of the layout tour venues: This is a detailed, compact N scale U-shaped layout measuring 4”x4”, 2’x2’, 3’x7’. The mainline runs thirty-eight feet. Ron models California’s coastal mountain area in the 1950s to early 1960s. Scenery includes oak forests, grasslands, small streams and an ocean harbor. Many trees are handmade. He runs a logging train plus freight and passenger trains. There is a small operating yard, freight station and engine house. Structures include a sawmill, a town with multi-story buildings and harbor area buildings. Power is DC. Videos:
Festival Layout Tour Website:? Bob Chaparro Moderator Model Railroads of Southern California |
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Preview: Central Coast RR Festival Layout Tour – Anthony Harris’ Multiscale Railroads
Preview: Central Coast RR Festival Layout Tour – Anthony Harris’ Multiscale Railroads The Central Coast Railroad Festival returns this year to San Luis Obispo and northern San Barbara Counties on October 4-6, 2024 (Friday-Sunday). Also returning is the free, self-guided layout tour, starting on Thursday, October 3, and running through Sunday. Here is a preview of one of the layout tour venues: At this stop you can see two separate model railroad layouts. There is an N-scale railroad that is 4' x 7.5' running three trains, and a Z-scale railroad that is 3' x 5' running two trains. Both railroads contain tunnels, bridges, and changes in track elevation to create interest. The railroads and rolling stock are a mix of older and modern equipment. Power is DC. The railroads are meant for railfanning as opposed to doing any switching operating sessions. Here is a video of the N-scale railroad:
Festival Layout Tour Website: Bob Chaparro Moderator Model Railroads of Southern California |
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Adapting a module
开云体育When we moved to Kauai, Hawaii in 2019, I took one module from the NorCal Nn3 modular layout with me. I subsequently discovered a small informal group on the island with a common interest in model trains. With “no fixed abode” this group sets up their portable tracks several times a year to exhibit trains ranging in scale from Z to G to the public. Sometimes this may be at a crafts fair or other event at a school or similar venue with available mains power, and other times it may be outdoors at Grove Farm Museum which has a collection of 1:1 sugar cane plantation locomotives and cane cars. . Initially I would bring my portable test track which has two concentric loops of track – one 9mm gauge and one 6.5mm gauge allowing me to run Z, Nn3, N, TTn3 and HOn30 trains. More recently, I dug out that 1-foot-by-four-foot module, added a removable run-around track and started taking this to the gatherings along with the portable test track. Attached is a drawing and photo of this “layout” at one of the outdoor get-togethers, where I operated for the entire meet on battery power. Tom K. ? ? ? |
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Air Simulation of gravity switching / shunting
What if you want to put an loco on the other side of a rake of cars?? Without a run around track? Use compressed air to push the cars past the loco, which has ducked into another track! 49 years ago, Model Railroader, when talking about a man's "new" layout, it mentioned he made a working hump yard, with compressed air blasts working a retarders.? So that a rolling car would not slam at high speed into a rake of cars already sorted. But now, many of us have shop compressors, tire inflators, and air mattress inflators. (I doubt an airbrush compressor would give enough ooomph to make this work.)? And, now, there is a lot of different nozzles possible and a lot more ways to deliver and control the air blast.) I believe that layout belonged to Ed Ravenscroft, who had retired to Arizona. He was an early president of the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association, formed in 1935).? I do not remember any other details of his air blast setup. Mike Nickerson Living in Concord, California, USA.? That is in the San Francisco Bay Area, You may not be aware of this city of 120,000 people.? Because it is 21 miles due East from the much larger Oakland (pop 440,000), the label for Concord is overshadowed by that of the larger city.? And San Francisco is 30 miles West of us. |
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Show Your Model Railroad – Central Coast Railroad Festival (October 4-6/San Luis Obispo Area, CA)
Small Layouts Welcome For This Event. ? The Central Coast Railroad Festival returns this year to San Luis Obispo and northern San Barbara Counties on October 4-6, 2024 (Friday-Sunday). ? As in past years I will organize a tour of model railroads and garden railroads. Last year we had thirty railroads on the tour. ? I would like you to consider participating in the tour. Participating in a layout tour is a great way to share your work and meet your fellow model and garden railroaders. You’ve probably worked hard on your railroad so you might as well get some recognition from people who will appreciate your efforts. ? We are only asking owners to be open for four or more hours on just one day. Additional days and hours are at the owner’s option, including "early bird" showings on Thursday, October 3. And we are asking owners in Santa Maria and areas south of Santa Maria to be open only on Sunday, October 6. ? All you need to do is operate your trains. I will do all the planning and publicity, as I have done for sixty-three previously tours since 2006, including eleven previous tours for the Central Coast Railroad Festival. ? This will be a free, self-guided tour. No buses will be used. ? If you have any questions before committing to the tour, please ask. In any event, please contact me in the next several days if you are interested so we can add your railroad to the tour. Once you have been added to the tour I will contact you to set your day(s) and hours. ? Thank you. ? Bob Chaparro Moderator Model Railroads of Southern California Layout Tour Coordinator - 2024 Central Coast RR Festival Hemet, CA 951-265-2482 (Cell) ? Festival Website: ? P.S.: I will be organizing the layout tour for the 2025 Pacific Coast Region/NMRA annual convention in San Luis Obispo. This will take place on March 27-30, 2025. I’ll be seeking railroads for this event, too. ? |
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When no Runaround (UK: loop) track: Gravity Switching
Two days ago, I saw an instance of prototype Gravity Switching.? ?? They have a runaround track is too inconveniently away, and the main line has enough of a grade so cars will start to roll by themselves, and under control by a rider adjusting a hand brake. The cars are left on the track leading to the point end of the turnout, then the loco runs ahead into that spur, then its turnout is reset for the main.? The rider loosens the brake, the cars roll, then the rider stops them after they get past the fouling point. The loco goes to the main, the turnout is "normalized," then the loco can back up and couple to the cars.? The loco is now on the other end of the cars from where it started. Come to think of it, I think the Strasburg Railroad does this on its "Paradise" end. Mike Nickerson Living in Concord, California, USA.? That is in the San Francisco Bay Area, You may not be aware of this city of 120,000 people.? Because it is 21 miles due East from the much larger Oakland (pop 440,000), the label for Concord is overshadowed by that of the larger city.? And San Francisco is 30 miles West of us. |
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Video: 2023 Mini Festa Fiesta/On30 Open House
Video: 2023 Mini Festa Fiesta/On30 Open House Tip and link courtesy of Ron Grau: Description: This has become a more or less annual get together with some of the most creative people working in the hobby today. The special focus is on On30 mini and micro layouts, but there were some wonderful models in other scales this year too, including G! The On30 mini layouts featured this year were Gary Beatty's Puerto Borracho, the Pickled Parrot Rum & Transportation Co. (new this year!), the Punta Margarita, Bob Kurner's Typhoon Lagoon, Scott Carter's Cinnamon Creek, Sean William's and Kevin Spady's Wandering Spruce (new this year!), the Gruesome Gulch (also new this year), Greg Lorton's Isle Coco, Justin Rasa's Arizona Dreamin' and so much more! Huge thanks again to Gary and Colleen Beatty for putting this thing on. Bob Chaparro Moderator Model Railroads of Southern California |
Bob Chaparro
Thomas Knapp
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Michael Nickerson
Dover Bill