Layout Tours & Operating Sessions

Chairman:
Scott Inman
mod2016layouts@pcrnmra.org

Layout Tours

There will be multiple self-driven layout tour opportunities during the convention, with layouts hopefully grouped so that a cluster of layouts can be comfortably visited in a 2-4 hour period from the convention hotel. Also, these self-guided tours provide a great opportunity to meet other modelers, and conversations in the car on the way to visit layouts frequently result in lasting friendships.

Attention Layout Owners!

If you have a layout and would be interested in showing it off during the convention, please contact Taking It To The Streets 2016 layout tour chair Scott Inman at mod2016layouts@pcrnmra.org. Please complete and return the Layout Tour Information Form for your layout's description to be put on the website and the convention program.

Layouts on Tour

There are currently 8 layouts open for self-guided tours during three of the days, so far. More information will be available at a later date. Here are the layouts that are currently planned. Handouts with maps and addresses will be available upon check-in at Taking It To The Streets 2016 Registration Desk.

(Subject to change without notice)

Thursday evening (4/21/16)

Owner: Les Gregory
Name of Railroad: Sierra Railroad
Scale: HO
City: Modesto
Brief description:Les Gregory's layout has changed greatly since the last Modesto convention. The railroad was a generic Central Sierra Pass RR, now it closely represents most of the Sierra Railroad's track. Les's wife Sandy generously donated her living room. The patio has been appended since the convention. The original railroad was not flat, but it was on one level. It is now almost entirely on three levels. Once about 75 ft of track, it now amounts to around 400 feet. We operated one of three local layouts every Thursday (for decades). During the layout's expansion, it has never missed it's Thursday night operating session. Operations have been computer generated since the 1980's. For many years we used my own program, but now we happily use JMRI for operations.
The track is layed, but much of the ballast and scenery is not. There is enough scenery to ease imagining the rest.
Bring a good running locomotive if you like, so long as it has a medium wheelbase, befitting a Sierra shortline. I'll stick a switchlist in the hands of a few visitors, if they wish.
Time open: 5pm - 10pm
Accessibility (handicap): A restroom is available. There are 3 steps into the house, and two more in the layout room, so sorry, but the layout is not wheelchair accessible.
Number of guests at a time: 6 guests per rotation max
Parking restrictions: Driveway holds 4 cars, curb 1 to 3 cars. Neighbor on south side (corner) is hostile, but there should be parking on the street adjoining Glenwood Court. Suggest ride sharing.
Photos:

View 1	View 2
View 3	View 4
View 5

Friday afternoon (4/22/16)

Owner: Steve Cavanaugh
Name of Railroad: Western Pacific Third Subdivision
Scale: HO
City: Tracy
Brief description: The Railroad is a mushroom design running from the foothills at Oroville up through the Feather River Canyon through the Keddie Wye, with a Highline extension up to Crescent Mills and Staging, and into Portola. Leaving the forested, rocky Canyon the Railroad continues east into the Desert, via Reno Junction with the Reno Branch, to Desert Staging and a reversing loop. The year being modeled is spring 1981.
Time open: Noon - 5pm
Accessibility (handicap): Average house, 1-2 steps, not wheelchair accessible
Number of guests at a time: 6 guests per rotation max
Parking restrictions: Street parking for 10-15 cars
Photos:

Oroville yard office	Kramm siding
Keddie Wye bridge with Highline train	Keddie Yard office

Owner: Tom Milam
Name of Railroad: Wolf Creek Railway of California
Scale: HO
City: Modesto
Brief description: An HO scale Shortline steam railroad set in 1927, Tom's Wolf Creek Railway of California is located in the foothills of California. He has many scratch built structures, wooden truss rod cars and a few custom built brass locomotives following Sierra Railway prototypes. Tom has a strong interest in operations using JMRI's (DecoderPro) switch list program. His point to point design, interchanges with his son's Buffalo Creek & Grizzley Ridge Railway, another small point to point layout. Some dual gauge trackage. Above the Wolf Creek HO layout is the start of an HOn3 layout, the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad (Nevada City, track only no scenery). All in all this is an HO scale empire, short trains battling steep grades, floods, fights, Indian raids and sometimes not being able to leave the station at all. Layout is 10x24 and mostly sceniced.
Time open: 6pm - 10pm
Accessibility (handicap): About 10 steps down to basement; not wheelchair accessible
Number of guests at a time: 6 guests per rotation max.
Parking restrictions: Street parking for about 10 cars.
Photos:

Wolf Creek Railway of California circa 1927	Snakepit Charity Mine
Hangtown Engine House	King Post Bridge Best of Show PCR Modesto 1998
Frog Flat turntable and Engine House Yosemite Lumber Co. HO & HOn3	Grizzley Ridge on son Seth's Buffalo Creek and Grizzley Ridge-Ry.

Owner: Steve Hayes
Name of Railroad: Western Pacific - Oakland to Salt Lake City
Scale: HO
City: Sonora
Brief description: The layout is my representation of the Western Pacific Railroad, running from Oakland on the west coast of California to Salt Lake City in Utah. There are branches to Reno and to Turlock (the Tidewater Southern). Also modeled is the Highline which ran from Keddie to Bieber California. This was the WP’s connection to the great north west via the Great Northern Railroad. For more info, visit Steve's WP Layout
Date/time open: 5pm - 10pm
Accessibility (handicap): Accessible. There are stairs but their is a work-around to bypass them.
Number of guests at a time: No limit
Parking restrictions: Street parking
Photos:

The Canyon with Northfork and Pulga bridges	Clifside Mine
Fruitvale with Montgomery Ward building under construction	Oakland with 3rd Street depot
Oakland 3rd Street Depot	Dispatchers Office

Owner: John Zack
Name of Railroad: Sierra RR and Westside Lumber Co
Scale: HO, HOn3
City: Twain Harte
Brief description: This HO scale model railroad is based on the Sierra Railroad that started its long and glorious history in 1897 and is still in operation today. The time frame for the layout is the Spring of 1955 when the first diesels (Baldwin S-12s) arrive on the railroad and the logging railroads of the Pickering and WSLCo are still going strong. For more info, visit Sierra Railroad 1955
Date/time open: 5pm - 10pm
Accessibility (handicap): Not wheelchair accessible; stairway down to basement
Number of guests at a time: 16
Parking restrictions: Parking for cars on street; do not park in driveway.
Photos:

Sierra-38 on Dry Creek trestle	Sierra 28 and 24 at Jamestown
The west end of Sonora	Overall view of Paulsell area

Saturday (4/23/16)

None currently scheduled.

Sunday (4/24/16)

Owner: Dave Stanley
Name of Railroad: Morada Belt freelanced 20 x 20, featured in RMC
Scale: HO
City: Stockton
Brief description: Dave's Morada Belt is HO scale, set in the 1950's with 360 feet of mainline as well as a 35-foot branch line. Track is commercial code 83 and code 70, a "point to loop" design with 30" minimum radius on the main track, one staging and two working yards. Scenery is 90% complete and ranges from Tehachapi-style semi-arid to sandstone cliffs (reminiscent of Eagles Nest, Montana on the Milwaukee Road) to the Sierra Nevada foothills. Backdrops were painted by noted artist and book author John Signor. It is a trackage-rights operated bridge line used by several of the large western carriers of the 1950's, utilized when their own corridors are congested. This is a model railroad designed by a real-life railroader for operating sessions, without sacrificing the scenic beauty of the west.
Date/time open: 10am - 3pm
Accessibility (handicap): Average house, 1-2 steps. Layout not wheelchair accessible.
Number of guests at a time: 10 guests per rotation max
Parking restrictions: Cul-de-sac parking for 10-15 cars
Photos:

Dave Stanley layout, photo 1	Dave Stanley layout, photo 1
Dave Stanley layout, photo 1

Owner: Robert Hoffman
Name of Railroad: Santa Fe Hereford Sub
Scale: HO
City: Elk Grove
Brief description:22 X 18, Scenery: 30%, Digitrax control
The layout represents the 104 mile Hereford Subdivision of the Santa Fe from Clovis, NM to Amarillo, TX in 1987. The layout features one active junction as well as interchange with the Burlington Northern at Amarillo and was designed with prototype operations in mind. The primary commodities transported include; TOFC, automobiles, grain, and manufactured goods. Scenery is specifically patterned after the prototype where possible. An article on this layout appeared in the January 2011 Railroad Model Craftsman.
Date/time open: 10am - 3pm
Accessibility (handicap): Average house, 1-2 steps. Layout not handicapped accessible.
Number of guests at a time: 5 guests per rotation max
Parking restrictions: Parking for cars on street
Photos:

Clovis	DSC 0230 (helix)
Hereford Subdivision Nov2009 1st, view 1	Hereford Subdivision Nov2009 1st, view 2

Owner: Sean Randall
Name of Railroad: SouthWestern Pacific Transportation Company (SWPTCO)
Scale: HO
City: Manteca
Brief description: Regional shortline SouthWestern Pacific Transportation Company (SWPTCO) operating former UP (nee SP) branch lines in the Imperial Valley (more specifically, the former Southern Pacific Seeley Brancy). Sugar Beet and Ethanol along with Produce are the main commodities hauled. Digitrax DCC Point to Point, switching layout.
Time open: 10am - 3pm
Accessibility (handicap): Average house, 1-2 steps, not wheelchair accessible
Number of guests at a time: 6 guests per rotation max
Parking restrictions: Street parking for 10-15 cars
Photos:

Randall-SWPTCO, view 1

Operating Sessions

The layout list is short but contains two very large layouts which helped pioneer prototype operating in Northern California. John Zach and Steve Hayes although more than an hour travel from Modesto, are only about 20 minutes apart and will both be open for touring beginning at 5:00 PM on Friday. This allows for touring both layouts and then marking up for an evening of operating at Steve Hayes’s Western Pacific. If you want to crew one of these op sessions, but need some time flexibility, sign up and let me know of your special requirements. All three op session layouts are HO scale.

For more details, visit the LD/Op SIGs page.

Getting There

All layout tours and operating sessions are self-guided, with carpooling encouraged. Handouts with maps and addresses will be available upon check-in at Taking It To The Streets 2016 Registration Desk.

Scott Inman
Layout Tours Chairman
mod2016layouts@pcrnmra.org

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