Jason Hill working the Tehachapi CTC machine at San Diego's La Mesa Model Railroad Club. Photo by D.F.Willoughby (c)2004
One day, 10-hour session Oct 25, 2008 - peroid TT&TO Nov 13, 1952.
Two day, two 10-hour sessions Nov 8 & 9, 2008 - peroid TT&TO Nov 14&15, 1952.
The Final Mojave Yard is nearly complete. The A&P tracks are being finished and the bus wires are about to be pulled. Once the wiring at Mojave is done, the heavy construction can start on the 600 car East Staging Yard adjacent and below Mojave Yard.
West Bakersfield is complete except for several industrial spurs and the freight house. The "City" switcher's yard is complete, allowing easier work of the head-end cars and team tracks. Also the "70's" yard is done and in use as a diesel engine house until the Santa Fe yard is built. All of the inbound engine leads are complete on the west side of the turntable.
Also last but not least, the paperwork for the operation sessions is coming along nicely. Each freight train has a "wheel report" list that is picked up, travels with, and is delivered to the terminal yard by the train crew. This packet includes special "captive service" routing folders containing the switch lists listing the assigned cars and also the general service cars that fill out the train's consist.
Yardmaster and local crew instructions are coming along. Also general train crew, operator, and official's notes and standard operating procedures documents are undergoing final review.
Loading forecasts are also printed for yard and local crews to assign empty cars for loading and routing of loaded cars from local industries several days in advance.
La Mesa Club Operation Session is Feb 2nd & 3rd, 2008! Mojave is in service and we're trying a new freight car routing system. We'll be having 12 road crews and three or four regular helper crews, plus the regular cast of "Management", dispatchers, station telegraph agents, and yard crews.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone again!
Jan 22,2008
My indepth look at the new Intermountain Cabforward, covering setup, painting, decaling, weathering, DCC, sound and other upgrades.
updated Sept 11,2008
This last part of 2007 I've been working on the freight car forwarding scheme. Nothing quite like super detailing an operation session with more pagerwork! VBG Other projects include adding about 12 more express reefers to the fleet for express loading. Also four ATSF 3060-class chair cars, a SP 1050-class rider-chair, and several old MDC kitbashed Baggages cars are nearing completion thanks to Walthers new productions and 4-& 6-wheel trucks finally becoming available.
New cars under construction include; SP GS gondolas, SP flatcars, lumber load castings (for flats and gons), many variaties of tankcars ranging from 6,000gal to 12,500gal, SP canned goods boxcars, auto boxcars, reefers always more SFRD and PFE reefers, and many other smaller projects too many to mention here.
In 2007, I spent a lot of my modeling time working on my Sloop USS Providence model this year and doing research trips back east for both the Providence and for operations at PennsyRail in the early summer.
New write ups of engines as of 2/28/2007
Modeling 1950's locomotives, kitbashing and detailing.
Shake-the-Box (non-kitbashed) Freight Cars
Central Valley Model Works track
La Mesa Club Operating Sessions
Current La Mesa Club projects. How things are doing on constructing the model of Tehachapi Pass between Bakersfield and Mojave, including the famious Tehachapi Loop. Latest update 2/2005.
