by Dan Munson/photos by the author
At its peak, Southern Pacific operated a 13,000-mile system that stretched from its headquarters in San Francisco through the Southwest as far east as New Orleans, Memphis, and St. Louis, and north into Oregon and east into Utah. As such, all timetable directions on the railroad were either east away from San Francisco or west toward headquarters. Several blocks south was their stately Mission-style stub-ended terminal on the corner of 3rd Street and Townsend. Streamlined passenger trains resplendent in their orange-and-red paint shared platforms with sedate Pullman Green heavyweight locals and “commute” trains that ran up and down the Peninsula to San Jose. From suburban Menlo Park station, Pete Hall’s father rode the commutes to work in San Francisco. Pete’s mother would bring him down to the station to meet his father’s train in the early afternoon so that he had extra time to watch the evening rush hour parade. It’s easy to see why Pete chose to model SP from San Francisco and down along the Coast Line circa 1950.
Setting the Stage
Pete models SP’s Coast Division from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo — 250 miles in 250 feet — with many signature scenes along the way. His time frame enables him to run a wide variety of steam power, as well as early diesels, pulling beautiful passenger trains in addition to well-weathered period freight cars. He began modeling SP rolling stock back in 1973, and has always been partial to passenger cars, so the original orientation of the layout was to enable running long passenger trains. However, along the way, he has been fortunate to have good friends like Larry Buell who introduced him to the joy of building, running, and operating freight cars, so they have been incorporated into the plan. All the rolling stock, buildings and scenery are kept in that time frame.
Pete’s layout begins at the passenger terminal at 3rd and Townsend, which he scratchbuilt. From there the line travels south (timetable east) past the large roundhouse and freight yard at Bayshore. Out of Bayshore, the line continues down the Pacific Coast passing the towns of Watsonville, Spreckels, Salinas, and Santa Margarita, which is the west-end helper station for the climb over Cuesta.
ABOVE: The Lark passes Salinas Packers led by an A-B-B set of EMD E-units.
Then the railroad makes a series of turns through tunnels to gain elevation, re-emerging at Chorro, where the eastward and westward Daylights often passed each other in their daily journeys. The line makes the turn on the famous California Horseshoe Curve, and continues into San Luis Obispo.
At San Luis Obispo, most trains change locomotives and cabooses, and freight trains are classified and remade. The rails then continue past the San Luis Obispo engine facility into a large, hidden, 10-track staging yard representing Los Angeles. The staging tracks are 20-25 ft. long to accommodate the prototypical passenger and freight trains.
Construction
Planning for the railroad started shortly after he and his family moved into their home in 1996, and construction began a year later. Benchwork was made from 1×4” and 1×2” L-girders supporting a laminate of 3/4” or 1/2” birch-veneer plywood with 1/2” Homasote glued to the top. The benchwork is freestanding, and each “table” stands on its own legs. This allows the table tops to “float” on the legs, and to be leveled and connected to their neighbors for a flat, even base.
ABOVE: Engine 3243, an MK-5 2-8-2, takes a spin on the turntable at the San Luis Obispo engine facility. The turntable bridge was scratchbuilt from SP plans.
To eliminate expansion and contraction, due to the ever-changing weather of the Midwest, Pete spread a heavy coat of Elmer’s yellow glue on the plywood and laid the Homasote on top, held down with heavy metal objects and clamps. Where that wasn’t sufficient, he used drywall screws, but removed them all after the glue was dry. Then, following advice from several modelers, he coated the entire surface of the Homasote with two layers of B-I-N White Pigmented Shellac, followed by two coats of tan latex paint. He manages the humidity in the basement by running a dehumidifier in the summer and a humidifier in the winter, to maintain close to 50 percent humidity year-round. After 25-plus years, he has had success at keeping the layout and the track flat and even.
Where elevated levels were needed, he used 3/4” pine lumber ripped into 1/4” splines, with 1/2” spacers clamped (during gluing) and bolted every foot or so. Homasote roadbed was cut to the width of the splines, tapered, and notched to enable the roadbed to follow the curves. This has been very successful in places like Chorro, where the entire roadbed from the east end of Santa Margarita to the west end of San Luis Obispo (elev. 50”) is raised to create the elevation. The bolts also provided a convenient attachment point for Lucite “guard rails” that kept the trains safe until the scenery filled in all the gaps. He still has guards under Chorro where the hidden staging is located. Trains are managed on the hidden staging level with a system of closed-circuit television cameras.
Pete chose Code 70 Micro Engineering flextrack and Shinohara turnouts. Minimum radius on the main line is 39”, and curves are super-elevated according to SP engineering standards. All track, regardless of location, is weathered using brush paints, spray paints, and washes of acrylic colors. The pre-weathered rails were cleaned using 600-grit sandpaper, and are kept clean by occasionally rubbing scrap pieces of Homasote with a little lighter fluid applied to it over the tops of the rails.
ABOVE: Train 763’s caboose, wearing experimental orange ends, passes over the Stenner Creek Viaduct. Chorro Siding is just above.
At the 3rd and Townsend terminal, the tracks are 26’ long, so he had to use tighter No. 6 switches to get the number of tracks into the space allowed — as well as the double-slips and double-crossover — but once on the main line it was all No. 8s. To get the track lines to flow according to the easements, he had to customize every switch to its location. Shinohara made a No. 8 curvable turnout which could be bent to any desirable shape. It seemed reasonable that even the “regular” turnouts could do that if the connector webs between the ties were cut. He followed the “curvable” pattern, and was able to bend every main line switch to flow according to its location.
There was one place where the Shinohara double-slip wouldn’t work, and that was the east end entrance to Bayshore Yard. That switch was only available in Code 70 in a No. 6, which was too sharp for the big 4-8-8-2 Cab Forwards to enter the Arrival Track. What to do? At the time, Pete posted a question to the NMRA Track Experts email list, and received a very generous offer from Ed McCamey to build a Code 70 No. 8 double-slip. Ed lived in Texas, so Pete sent him a rubbing of the four tracks leading into the location. Not only did Ed build a customized turnout with internal moving points for the location, he also came to Pete’s house and installed it for him! (Ed was en route to an NMRA conference outside Chicago.) Together, Ed and Pete installed the switch and powered it with four Tortoise switch machines, one under each set of points. It has worked perfectly for the last 20 years…