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San Fernando Valley Branch, 1973 (Part II)

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Back on the 7th of December I shared Rails West’s post about the San Fernando Valley Branch. Happy day – he’s back with another installment from the memoirs of B Smith’s adventures in the area in the early 1970s. And while this is specific to those modelling the SP in the Hollywood North area, the depth of information in this article will be important to those looking to model traffic density on a freelanced layout too. Enjoy and looking forward to the next part of this article.

CE Hunt's avatarRails West

In an earlier post, I shared B. Smith’s excellent coverage SP action in the San Fernando Valley in the early 1970s.  In this post, we will drill down a little further into the nuts and bolts of the line’s operations again in the early 1970s with a few new photos, maps and field notes made by B. Smith as he documented the line in 1972.  This will be very useful for people interested in modelling the line and give the rest of us food for thought as to how many lines operated in the 1970s and somewhat beyond.

Here’s an overview map to start (Each of the boxes will have detailed maps and field notes to follow.  All the photos were taken July 20, 1972 and copyright B. Smith)–

San fernando Map bright.jpg

North Hollywood

Let’s head east to west and visit a little around the North Hollywood area to start.

unnamed

The San Fernando Valley…

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Layouts

San Fernando Valley Branch, 1973

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For those who follow the Southern Pacific, this post goes into incredible detail regarding the car types and the amounts for each location for each receiver and shipper during my preferred time period of the mid to late 1970s.

Beyond that though there is the comments from the shippers and receivers that make it a very worthwhile reading and research piece for the freelance modeller. Enjoy.

CE Hunt's avatarRails West

Team track in Reseda. Tarzana team track–©photo B. Smith

The San Fernando Valley Branch in 1973 was an interesting operation with a lot of traffic.  There was a wide variety of shippers and a good deal of team track traffic.  B. Smith, the author of the below profile he wrote in 1973, talked to owners/managers of each business/industry located along the tracks as well as the Southern Pacific Railroad’s area manager who allowed him access to the railroad’s records.  Here is some of what he learned.  It gives us all a glimpse into 1970s to probably the late 1980s-early 1990s operations when single car traffic was still common and embraced by larger railroads. The diversity of the team traffic business really caught my eye.  (The verb tense is present since this is what B. Smith documented in 1973.)

Bakery still using rail, though no covered hoppers this day. Bakery still using rail, though no covered hoppers this day.–©photo B. Smith

Orowheat Bakery, receives wheat from Montana and flour…

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Layouts

The end of one year and the beginning of the next

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The year that was

My birthday is the end of my year. It is the time when I draw myself close, ease back on the throttle and reflect on the year just passed, and what I hope and aim to achieve for the year ahead. This past year has frustrated and challenged me. I’ve found myself confronted, defeated, discontented, discouraged, disheartened, embittered, and stonewalled. I think you may see the tone of the last year now.

In late 2013 the company I worked for moved from family ownership to a corporate behemoth; I worked hard to make that changeover go as well as possible; I wanted the changeover to work and threw myself into the task. With that project ended I was laid off from my role. I saw that end as a sign and as a time for change. I.T. is a time succubus.; my family life and thereby my modelling life has suffered. I love my family, and my modelling is a happy place. Being in I.T. for so long had stopped that and I wanted my happiness back.

In 2015 I decided to re-train, and move away from I.T. to my real loves of writing, training and assessment. Since June I’ve been working away on achieving my certification in training and assessment and thus my time to do non-training activities were limited. Today sees the end of that transformative pathway. While I’m not there yet work-wise,  in all other aspects I  am on my way.

Over the last year I’ve been able to spend time getting to know my two amazing kids. My eldest gained the role of co-School Captain for next year. My youngster has already stepped up this year and competed in his school’s Lego Robotics Challenge locally and at the state level (a first for the school). He has taken part in the RACV Energy Breakthrough. This three-day event pits young people against the elements, mechanics and themselves in human-powered vehicles around a course for 15 hours. It’s like the Le Mans or Bathurst 1000 of HPVs.

My modelling time has been limited despite having the time off to do more of it. I preferred to spend the free time I had going to my kid’s school events, and other opportunities that I’ve never been able to do before. I’ve not been able to do any of these. I’ve been on-call as a tech and manager since 1984. That’s 30 years with either a pager or a phone attached to my hip. It’s nice not to have to worry about it now.

What’s ahead for the next year of life?

Funny you should ask. My focus for this year is on cleaning up and adjusting course. Getting work and enjoying life a lot more. Along with that come my family and my hobby. During December I’ll be posting the first part of the layout build, now that I have access to a full wood working shop (through my membership of the Ballarat East Community Men’s Shed). I’ll also be posting the first Layout Design Element of that layout (after not being entirely happy with the current plan, and there’ll be a few more projects that I want to put to bed also. I look forward to posting more modelling over the next few months and hearing back from you too. There’ll be more layout designs and other ideas that I’ll post too. Looking forward to writing to you more this month.

Layouts

Cardboard ties and CA instead?

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Building track in HO scale on cardboard? You’ve gotta be nuts right? Not so fast there modellers. Chris Mears give this a go recently and reports that overall he likes the end product very much.

A little thick cardboard, some medium thick super glue (ACC) and a raft of patience and Voila! We have a working HO scale turnout. I’m more interested in giving this a go in the larger scales (US O scale for example).

Food for thought me thinks. Thanks to Chris for sharing his adventure.

Chris Mears's avatarPrince Street

You know what it’s like: One second you’re thinking to yourself that this is a fantastic mug of tea and the next you’re thinking that when you solder an N scale turnout together the solder pad bonding the rails to the ties is only about a square millimetre in size. Further to that thought, you catch yourself thinking about all those times when you burned a tie trying to move a rail closer to gauge. Your mind wanders and you can’t hold back any longer. The seconds slip by as you find it ever increasingly hard to ignore that question you’ve been mulling over and why you don’t just glue the rails in place.

Before I get too far into explaining myself here I will mention that I have memories of fibre-tie flex track. I remember what it was like to work with that stuff and those memories were on…

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Site seeing – October 12 – The Mike Keiran thanks edition

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Today’s post is all thanks To Mike Keiran who prompted me about the Kendallville Terminal Railroad. This shortline is 1.1 miles long and serves the Kraft Marshmallow plant in Kendallville, Indiana.

Site 1: The Kendallville Terminal Railway Co

I’ve finished a long running article on the KTR and put it up on this site under the ‘Layout Ideas’ section, and moved that up to the main menu to get it out from under other sections for clarity.

Hope that you enjoy the article and let me know if you have any further information on this wonderful ‘short’ Shortline.

1. Small, HO Scale, Inglenook, Layout Design, Layouts, Liked off site, Site seeing, Sites of interest, SuperNook, Switching, Tuning Fork, Web

Site seeing 28 September – the Sprung has springed edition!

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It is spring in the southern half of the world, and as a result everyone is coming down with seasonal allergies after a very long (well it seemed that way), cold (no it really was as cold as charity according to the weather bureau) and miserable winter.

Today is also marks my brother’s birthday – so Happy Birthday Scott. Hope that you get the message. More importantly I hope that you are reading the blog! But enough of me and onto the site seeing!

Site 1: One turnout layout variation

I’ve mentioned Chris Mears’ site in the past. His current post provides some interesting thoughts on variations among other thoughts on the “One turnout layout” posited by Lance Mindheim in the May 2013 edition of the Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine.

Read the article, and then read, and take part if you’re willing, in the discussion at the end of the post. It’s been thoughtful reading. Not saying that I agree with it all, but it has been thought provoking.

Layouts

Site seeing – September 13

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Batory Foods – Part 2

Back on August 10th I posted about a video of a switching job switching Batory Foods in Chicago IL. The overview images of the site that I found were not correct for the site in the video (thanks to Chris Gilbert for pointing this out to me today).

Chris said that he thought the location was actually at: 1881 Touhy Ave, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, United States. I looked at the location today both in Bing and in Google Maps, comparing it to the YouTube clip and Chris is right. The video shows the an image at 0:50 seconds:

Batory_Foods_Screen_Grab_1881 Touhy Ave, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, United States

Image 1: Video Screen Grab

My bad, but that bad might also be good, or at least have a good side to it. The original address is rail served, and the site in the video is also rail served.  So let’s have another look at Batory Foods.

Site 1: Batory Foods (Touhy Avenue)

If you’ve not seen the video click the link for my August 10th post and watch the video again for clarity’s sake. As shown in the video the Touhy Avenue site gets switched as a push in by the loco – very much like the Inglenook.

Batory_Foods_Overhead_1881 Touhy Ave, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, United States

Image 2: The overview of the Touhy Avenue site (Blue Dot is the address)

The two spurs into the facility are on the right of the branch. The spur upper left is for another business. Of note the branch goes around the corner and ends.

Outside the facility, where the two tank cars sit there may well be unloading pipes through the wall of the building. They all appear to be AAR Type T (Tank) cars of class T105. In the video I can see NATX 190064 specifically. Because the primary business of the Batory group is sweeteners and so on, it is likely that the short tank cars are carrying corn syrup (HFCS) or something similar. If you intend to model the location I’d suggest adding steam lines at the unloading point to allow for operations in the cold Illinois winters.

Batory_Foods_Overhead2_1881 Touhy Ave, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, United States

Image 3: A close up of the external unloading point

Modelling Potential

This is a highly modellable location, as was the previous location in the August 10th post. It’s small, surrounded by other warehouses close by. The site has a range of terrain including:

  • car parking lots,
  • greensward,
  • vacant land, and
  • a road crossing

All of these lend themselves to being closely modelled and with a little selective compression between the switch and the road crossing, the entire site (of around 200 metres length to the first switch) could be modelled in about 2300 millimetres or around the 92 inch mark – plus staging – in HO.

Batory_Foods_Overhead_Suggested_Layout_1881 Touhy Ave, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, United States

Image 4: a suggested layout for a Batory Foods layout

Image 4 shows a suggested layout using that selected compression (bringing the road at the right closer to the switch). Any misdirection on my part was entirely unintended, and thanks again to my good friend Chris Gilbert for pointing out the error of my permanent ways.

Exhibition, Layouts

Exhibition Report – Caulfield Victoria 2015

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I travelled to Caulfield (some 130 Km) from home on Saturday the 22nd of August. I’m not complaining about the train ride, I never do, but I have to say that I expected better than I got at the exhibition.

The venue is large, well-lit, and well laid out. There is great vendor support, and there were some nice layouts on site. But – and I hesitate because I know that there’ll be some wailing and moaning when I say this – I did not enjoy my time at the show today and I did not enjoy seeing and photographing the layouts on offer; here’s why.

Issue number one: The vendors got all the light

If you’ve ever been to a race track (as in where horses race) you’ll know that the windows facing the track let in a lot of light. Why then do you put all the vendors there, who usually, but not always I agree, have their own lights. The layouts were by and large tucked away in dark holes in the venue, and the lighting on these layouts generally was not up to the task given the darkness that came about from the large walls and escalator spaces in which they found themselves.

I’ve got an idea. How about you give me the light I need to take my photographs (without a flash and without the need to run my digital camera at ISO 800 ) so that I can capture the model railway layouts in a reasonable amount of light. I understand that the vendors need light too. But since most of them had access to their own sources in any case, I wonder why they needed to be put at the windows. I guess what I’m wondering is: Was it a model railway exhibition, or a model railway manufacturer trade show, with a couple of layouts thrown in to keep the punters happy?

Issue number two: Layouts spread all over the place

I felt like I had to walk a mile to see the layouts. There was no logical layout to the layouts, tucked as they were about the space. Is there any reason the organisers could not cluster the layouts (with some natural light) and cluster the vendors in a vendor area? Don’t get me wrong, I bought three Athearn Blue box 50 foot gondolas (at $10.00 AU a pop – may I add my thanks to Casula Hobbies) so I spent some money beyond the $10.00 entry fees.

Some of the layouts were so well hidden that it was only on my second time walking around that I noticed them.

So what am I asking for?

Stawell Victoria’s Grampian Model Railroader (GMR) exhibition site at the SES Hall in Stawell showing what I mean about having lots of light for the viewing of the layouts (Courtesy of the GMR Website)

I’m interested in the modelling aspect of the hobby. I want to watch well modelled trains run through well modelled scenery. I want to see what other layout designers have come up with to dazzle me. I want to also see what the manufacturers have come out with. But mainly I’m interested in seeing layouts. 2015 will be the last time I’ll be visiting Caulfield. You may not agree, and I’m OK with that. I lived in the US for 10 years and the trend of having the manufacturers overwhelm exhibitions is long entrenched in the Texas modelling scene. It’s not something that I want to see happen here. Vendor support is critical for the success of model railway shows; they help offset the costs of hiring the space. However, it’s a model railway show. Let’s all think on that for a moment before we begin to pander too much to the vendors at the expense of the modellers and the layout exhibitors.

Your thoughts are always welcome, whether they’re bouquets for brick-bats. Have a great day.

1. Small, 1:48 (US O Scale 1/4"), HO Scale, Inglenook, Layout Design, Layouts, O Scale, Proto 48, S Scale, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web, YouTube

Site seeing – August 10th

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Yesterday was all about passenger service; today is all about freight. Chris Gilbert pointed this video out, on his YouTube page. However the producer is ChicagoJoe28. But enough words let’s get to the video.

Site 1: Mike switches Batory Foods Chicago Terminal railroad

Video 1: Batory Food Switching on the Chicago Terminal

A little history

Located at 2234 W 43rd St, Chicago, IL 60609, Batory Foods began trading in 1979 when Abel Friedman opened Chicago Sweeteners. As a single source supplier of basic food ingredients such as sugar, flour, salt, starch, milk, oats, honey and corn syrup. Chicago Sweeteners expanded its product offering over time, as food manufacturers sought to develop healthier products.

With success in the greater Chicago market, the Company brought its broad line model to food manufacturing centres around the country. Some of the growth came with the original business; some by way of acquisition with:

  • Sugar Incentives bought in 1995,
  • Ingredients International in 2006,
  • Quality Ingredients in 2008,
  • LSI in 2009,
  • Industrial Ingredients in 2009,
  • Massey Fair in 2011, and
  • Mac Source in 2011.

Recently, the various names were consolidates into the single name: Batory Foods.

The layout idea

The site’s switched as an Inglenook. The two on-site spurs lead to undercover augers (I’m assuming here of course) for unloading powdered or granulated product.

Batory Foods Chicago - An Inglenook you can model

Image 1: The unloading spots (courtesy of Bing)

The storage track goes to other industries further down the track, but does not show recent use from my quick look. The loco has to push the cars into the site so you have a simple, prototypical Inglenook that won’t take up too much space. It is small enough that you could model any date from 1979 on in HO, S or O scale.

SCORE! What are your thoughts?

Thanks to Chris Gilbert for the vision, and to ChicagoJoe28 for filming it.

HO Scale, Layout Design, Layouts, Medium, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web, YouTube

Site seeing – August 9th

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Just the one site to see today, on YouTube, and the background idea for a future layout design. Let’s away!

Site 1: Bacchus Marsh, Victoria

Whenever I travel to Melbourne on the train I pass through Bacchus Marsh (it’s around the halfway point between Ballarat and Melbourne). I recently found a new channel on YouTube featuring Trams and Trains from around Melbourne. Watching the operations in the video below at Bacchus Marsh led me to thinking about an exhibition layout. With the wealth of Ready to run (RTR) rolling stock available and the intensive working of the passenger service (especially the storage of train sets) this could have the makings of a great medium-sized exhibition layout.

First watch the video and then take a look at the signalling diagram below.

Video 1: V/Line Variety at Bacchus Marsh Railway Station in 2012

Bacchus March Signalling & Track Layout

Image 1: The Bacchus Marsh signalling diagram & Tram layout

I think that there is plenty enough in the track layout to keep an exhibition crew going all weekend. With the station being both a single platform terminus and through platform (with the right hand side going through to Ballarat and beyond) this could be nirvana for DMU & Loco hauled railway modellers. Your thoughts?