Niles Canyon Railway “Train of Lights” 2009

Of all the fun things to do during the holidays, from parties to shopping, to visiting family, the one thing I look the most forward to is a train ride on a Santa Train of some kind.  Normally we would go to Old Town Sacramento and ride the from the old depot there.  However, this year, being already in the Bay Area for Thanksgiving, we decided to try something different.

We pulled up to the Niles Depot of the Niles Canyon Railway operated by the Pacific Locomotive Association on Friday evening in time to get our tickets and board the 2009 “Train of Lights”.  The railway runs two trains, one departing either end of the line and meeting at about the half way mark of the beautiful scenic rail line that was once part of the transcontinental route.

The train pulled into the station about fifteen minues prior to departure.  Each end of our train boasted it’s own locomitve, allowing for the train to be push/pulled along the route from Niles to Sunol and back.  At the East end of our train was an open topped car.  Then a passenger coach, followed by a combine where hot coco, soup, and other treats were avaliable, another coach, and a dome car finished the consist.  Everything was decked out in holiday lights and decorations, inside and out.

The ride was fantastic.  We rode from Niles to Sunol in one of the coaches.  Then after a short stop, we rode back to Niles on the open car.

If you have the opportunity to ride the Niles Canyon Railway on one of the operating weekends, you’re in for a treat as you pass the yard where the vintage locmotives and rolling stock are kept and worked on.  We could only really see the equipment that was close to the mainline as we passed.

Part of the train ride is a visit from Santa!  He visited our train first, and then crossed to the Sunol, Niles, Sunol train as it passed us.

Family train rides are a great way to introduce kids to the joys of trains of any size.  We intend to make riding the “Train of Lights” part of our holiday tradition in years to come.  If you get a chance to ride it, or another train in your area, make it part of your holiday traditions as well.

-Jeremy

Northern California Narrow Gaugers On30 Sectional Layout

The highlight of all the layout displays I saw at the recent 2009 Roseville “International Railfair” (medium sized model train show, don’t get too excited) was the Northern California Narrow Gaugers On30 Sectional Layout. This beautifully detailed layout features craftsman-level modeling and some excellent structures and weathering.
To see some photos of the layout from a few weeks previous at the Concord hobbyshop show, look here.

I talked to Dave Silvernail, a self-described greenhorn to the club. He built this impressive little class A climax from a backwoods miniatures kit.

Here’s a view entering the major town on the 8X16 layout.

The detail on most of the modules is fascinatingly meticulous.

There are plenty of great miniscenes, and the orientation of the structures on the modules add interest as well.

The Fruitvale Avenue Railroad Bridge of Alameda, Calif.

The Fruitvale Avenue Railroad Bridge was built in 1951 by the Army Corps of Engineers, you can learn the entire history of the bridge, and also learn some fascinating information about how the bridge works and the unorthodox way it recieves electric power to operate. In addition to the views of the bridge I took a few months ago from the Alameda side of the bridge, check out these 3 aerial views, presumably taken by helicopter.

This bridge replaced the much older swing span that originally carried SP Interurban Electrics across the channel, as seen in this photo from my personal archive:

This is an SP Interurban Electric Crossing Fruitvale Avenue Bridge towards Alameda in 1935

This Overall view is looking south-east towards the Oakland Airport and San Leandro. The adjacent Miller-Sweeny bascule-lift bridge (built 1971) carries automobile traffic on Fruitvale Avenue.

Looking up to see the 175 foot high lift towers…

Sitting at 65 feet the span is left open, and the massive counterweight also sits in position midway up the tower, and slides up or down to counter the weight of the span when raised or lowered.

The control tower that operates the Miller-Sweeny bridge also controls the Railroad Lift bridge.

A closeup shot of the far tower on the Oakland side.

The bridge never saw Interurban Electric traffic (that having been removed in 1937-1941) However it did see the occasional steam locomotive and 50 years of diesels, from 1951-2001. The Southern Pacific crossed on this bridge into Alameda to interchange with the Alameda Belt Line, and serve a handful of industries on the south side of Park Street. The Alameda Belt line was gone by 1998, when traffic at the naval base ended in the early 1990’s and the Del Monte Packing house closed its doors. In later years the Union Pacific handled the dwindling amount of traffic until the rails were pulled up on either side of the bridge sometime early in the 2000’s.

The Western Railway Museum 7/10/09

On Friday 7/10/09 I visited the Western Railway Museum, which is located between Susuin City, and Rio Vista, CA. The Western Railway Museum is home to the Bay Area Electric Railway Accosiation, which is dedicated to preserving California’s traction and interurban railroading history. Almost all of their collecton is operational, and the restoration jobs are absolutely beautiful. The museum mainly focuses on Sacramento Northern, the Key System, and Central California Traction. They have 3 steam locomotives, and they are all hidden off in a shed. There were a lot of trolleys inside Barn #1, which is where most of the operational equipment is stored. 5 of the trolleys you can walk into, look at, and sit in. One of them you can ring both the conductor and motorman’s bells. There was one trolley running, the museum always gives rides, and on weekends the operate several trolleys, but since it was a weekday they were only operating one. The trolley was Peninsular Railway 52, and it was built in 1903. The Peninsular Railway was an electric railroad that operated in San Jose and the surrounding areas. The ride takes you from the museum at Rio Vista Junction, to the station at Garfield and back. The ride is 10 miles round-trip and is about 45min – an hour long. You travel on the original Sacramento Northern right-of-way and the operations are almost exactly like the Sacramento Northern’s were.

It was a great day at a fantastic museum, and I hope to become a volunteer there.

Visit a Prototype Modeler’s Meet.

There’s one facet of the hobby that’s surprisingly fun and definately informative and impressive. It’s your local prototype modeler’s meet. Here you’ll find beautifully detailed models in a casual, friendly atomsphere where you can really appreciate and enjoy them. You’ll often find the true “master modelers” at these conventions, often people you might be familar with through the Model Railroad press.

To check one of these out for Interacting with Miniature Railroading, I brought some of my weathered and kitbashed models to the event to see what reaction I’d get and also to see how easy or difficult it is to fit into these events.

I visited the Bay Area Prototype Modeler’s Meet in Richmond, Calif. (BAPM for short) last saturday and was extremely impressed. Tucked away in the cafeteria of a Catholic School in Richmond Heights, the well lit room lent itself to really being able to see the models in natural light.

FOR A FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHS COVERING EVERY MODEL IN THE EVENT, CLICK ON THIS PBASE GALLERY BY HARRY WONG.

When I arrived at 11:45 a DCC clinic featuring the new SPROG II computer-to-track programmer (which runs on JMRI) was just wrapping up. I paid $10 to get in the door, which wasn’t any problem for me, considering what and who I’d find inside. I also bought 2 Raffle tickets.

The room was mostly filled up, three rows of tables down a 75X30 foot cafeteria, with more than 100 models on display. About 90% of the models were HO, the rest were various narrow gauge scales, including my On30 2-6-0. It is no wonder why HO was represented so heavily as the sheer amount of aftermarket detail parts available is staggering. I asked where to set up, and a friendly member just told me to set up on any empty table, which I found quite refreshing in comparison to handling the insanity of getting a table at a train show.

I was met with pleasant remarks after setting up, and it felt good to finally have a group of modelers that are supportive instead of arrogant, close minded, overly eccentric individuals I often see at train shows. The prototype modeler group is not only nice, but extremely intelligent and informed on their particular area of intrest.

It was time to explore the rest of the tables during the lunch hour. I wasn’t disappointed.

The really neat thing about these prototype modeler’s meets is not only do you see the ‘finished’ models but you also get to enjoy the models in progress as well. Elizabeth Allen’s impressive model of a Southern Pacific SDP45 has been impressing people for the couple of years she’s been constructing it, and just look at the attention to detail!

All the gray parts on the locomotive are from the well-known modeling detail parts supplier Cannon & Company. The current owner was out to display his equally spectacular freight car models and talk with the prototype modelers to get ideas for his next products.

Next to the “in-progress” models all the tables were of course the fleet of beautifully painted and detailed complete models. This Southern Pacific “torpedo boat” GP9 is an excellent example. (The nickname torpedo boat comes from the airtanks on the roof, which are usually behind the fuel tank under the frame, but the fuel tank was enlarged to extend the locomotive’s range, and they had to go somewhere.)

Not only were there plenty of Western US power, there was an excellent display of Brazilian meter and standard gauge equipment by Edson Yamazaki. All of these models were heavily kitbashed and superdetailed.

The most impressive model I saw was a Brazilian DDM45 which is an SD45 built to run on Meter (3′6″ gauge) rails and has 8 axles featuring the classic DD40AX sideframes.

In addition to the Freight Cars& Diesels, there was a good turnout of steam era equipment and passenger cars, all nicely detailed.

You should find and attend the next prototype modeler’s meet in your area, there should be at least one annual event in your NMRA region (although it’s not affiliated with the NMRA in any way) check with other local modelers to find out about these exquisite events! For those willing to travel the Western Prototype Modeler’s meet is in San Bernardino’s beautiful mission-revival style AT&SF depot in Septemer.

Redwood Valley Meet 6/6/09

On Saturday 6/6/09, I and the webmaster were at the Redwood Valley Railway’s annual meet. There were 3 visiting locomotives, along with the usual roster operating. I spent most of my time on the vertical-boiler 1-Spot, which I also got to operate. There were two public trains operating, one of which was a doubleheader. I also had the task of moving tables and chairs from the shops to the roundhouse, all the major moves of the supplies were done with the 1-Spot shunting a flatcar around. When the wood that was brought with the 1-Spot to the railroad was getting low, we hooked the it up to a four-wheel wagon (known as jimmies on the RVRY) and went up to the shop, and with the help of several other people, the old rotten wood pile next to the shops was put to good use. After the wood was in the car, Jay (owner of the 1-Spot), asked who hadn’t ran it yet, and everbody but me had, so I had the chance to take the controls of the locomotive, and I ran it back and forth for a few laps.

This by far was a great day, and for me, a very memorable experience.

A Railfan Report Special Edition: 5/12/09

On National Train Day (5/9/09) I visited the California State Railroad Museum for their special celebration. Locomotives usually hidden off in the SP Sacramento Shops were pulled out for display. Handcar rides were also given, and in the museum itself there was an Amtrak California coach on display and open for touring, as well as seven tables of railroad themed giveaways, which is always a pleasure to find.

Locomotives on outdoor display:

Southern Pacific E9A 6051

Union Pacific 0-6-0 4466 blowing its whistle on compressed air

Sacramento Northern SW1 402
Sacramento Southern GE44Ton 1240
Sacramento Southern SW8 2030

Union Pacific Motor Coach

…and of course the Granite Rock 0-6-0T was out to pull the Sacramento Southern passenger specials.

The weather was perfect and made for a very enjoyable day.

Interacting with Miniature Railroading Turns 1!

Well, it’s been 365 days from the first post on “Interacting with Miniature Railroading.” Last year was an astounding success!

Where it came from:

Originally I developed Interacting with Miniature Railroading as a way to document the railroading action at Tilden Park’s Redwood Valley 15″ gauge 5″ scale live steam operation, mostly in photographs. However when I thought about expanding to other railroad topics I knew I needed a dedicated website for this, and on April 21, 2008 the website was launched. Since then the site has stirred up discussion on a wide variety of topics, everything from modern railfanning to early steam modeling. The top 3 most talked about posts last year were about:
1. Are Bachmann Spectrum Locomotives and Good? Which was written mainly so I wouldn’t have to encounter the endless quandary new modelers have about their products, there used to be a forum thread opened every week about this question, and I hoped dispel the rumors and stigma that used to surround Bachmann.

2. My Water modeling series has proved very popular, I hope to see the results of my article in future model railroad layouts, and hopefully a shift from blue to a muted green as the ideal river and shallow water color (as it should be) and have people pay more attention to what their riverbeds look like.

3. It seems my “Modeling Gaffe” series has stirred up a lot of interesting forum discussion, with more than one forum running discussions close to 10 pages in length, and more on other forums.

Ever wonder what kind of traffic this site gets? Here it is!

Nearly 120,000 visits by interested modelers, I’m VERY pleasantly surprised. Traffic started to take off in July and has remained pretty steady since, of which I’m glad.

197 posts isn’t too bad for an average blogger, which comes to about one post every two days and most of those were tutorials or historical information as opposed to just normal commentary that you’d find on other blogs.

Look at those averages! I never thought it would become this popular, but it has and it continues to grow today, I wonder what next year’s numbers will tell us?

Cheers to a year well done, I’ll see you down the mainline for our next year! Just wait to see what articles I have in store for you!

Folsom Valley Railway Doubleheader, November 2008

In November of 2008 the Folsom Valley Railway’s first engine, the 12″ gauge “Cricket” did it’s first major test run. It ran light for a few laps, and then hooked up to the other engine, a 4-4-2 Atlantic numbered 3001. They ran four trips as a double header before the Cricket was put away, to have its final work done.

Here are two short videos I took that day:

Interlude- Caltrain