Children are a real blessing…. Especially when they send you a Christmas card…..
Hope you didn’t overdo the turkey and mince pies…..
A very blessed and happy Christmas to all (both) my readers!
Virgin Trains have been applying festive vinyls to their units – already dubbed the Pengalino…..
But this pales into insignificance with the Canadian Pacific holiday train. This is also a wonderful cause to help feed the needy. And it would make a cool model, if you could get the lights to work….
It was 1967, and steam on British Railways was rapidly running down and out. The Southern Region was having its last fling on the Bournemouth main line, and only the north-west had steam in any quantity. The previous year I had been terribly disappointed when my parents didn’t allow me on a school railway club trip to the Leeds area. My best friend at the time even caught the last A4 Pacifics. I was not amused.
I was allowed on the next outing to Crewe and Stoke. Perhaps my protests were to good effect, and I was a little older! The highlight for me was entering an old roundhouse at Stoke and coming across the last 3 LMS ‘Jinty’ 0-6-0T’s.
However, the lines of locomotives at Crewe South shed was pretty imposing. Lots of BR standard 4-6-0’s and Britannia Pacifics, with a number of LMS ‘Black 5’ 4-6-0’s, 8F 2-8-0’s and 2-6-0 Moguls. And even a 2-10-0. Not the best photos – it was a foul, grey, day I recall, but looking at them now brings back some good memories.
The following year, I would visit Nine Elms shed, to see the last Southern locos at home. This would be followed by another school trip to visit Eastleigh works, catching the last of the LSWR 4-6-0’s and USA 0-6-0T’s on the scrap line. We then went north to Oxford behind an unrebuilt Bullied Pacific. Changing there, we were diesel hauled to Rugby, (a two tone green Class 47, I recall) and then came back to London Marylebone behind an LMS Black 5 4-6-0. Marylebone was the last London terminus to have a steam hauled passenger service, but this is often forgotten.
Unfortunately, all my photographs from these trips were mangled by my rather basic camera. I would love to still have a record of two special days.
Another excellent instalment from Rails West on the San Fernando branch. I was pleased to see that I had picked up the picture of North Hollywood sans Pacific Electric tracks!
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)–
North Hollywood
Let’s head east to west and visit a little around the North Hollywood area to start.
The San Fernando Valley…
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Borrowed from the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum. And pure wishful thinking…..
Anything interesting under your tree (apart from socks)?
I was very taken by this video sent me by my daughter. Is it a new kind of sushi restaurant?
Reminds me of a thread on N-Gauge Forum, where someone’s wife had asked to be picked up from the shopping centre as she had won a ‘Christmas hamster.’ One hopes that autopredict had struck again and it was meant to be a hamper….
And finally (thanks Allan)….
Another busy evening, and I again took home the Brighton Belle unopened. We had 10 members present, plus a most excellent chocolate cake from Miles and Sue. The cake went home smaller, and we went home larger. It seemed to be a UK-free evening on the circuit, with a variety of Japanese, American and Continental stock on view. Pride of place went to Paul’s Christmas special, with a snowman and (out 0f gauge) Christmas tree on low-loaders, and Thomas, Annie and Claribel being towed to the scrapyard.
And after the weekend’s exhibition, it ‘clicked’ how to lay out the main school hall for the 2016 ESNG show. No N-club, I’m afraid, but an ‘L’ shaped layout much as we set up at the weekend. This will allow me to complete the square with the ‘L’ shaped Azuza Street layout. Come the New Year, it will be time to start emailing exhibitors and to start the final run in to April.
My old colleague Roger sent me these lovely shots of trains on, and views from, the Welsh Highland Railway through Snowdonia. I’m also told that the pub in the background is wonderful, and as the banner claims, won a pub of the year award. Long way to go for a pint, though…..
Last weekend ESNG spent two days exhibiting at the Garden of England Model Fest, at Cooling’s Garden Centre, located at the whimsically named Pratt’s Bottom, near Sevenoaks. A new show, aiming to make some money for charity, it was held in the same greenhouses where Cooling’s run craft fairs. Not a bad venue, although it did get a bit cold and dank overnight, and there was a drip through the roof, that fortunately didn’t hit anything vital. It was also bit ‘cool’ on the first day, but they must have put the thermostat up a bit on the Sunday! The glass roof did mean that the lighting was good, but I wouldn’t want to do a show here on a sunny summer’s day – though there were roof blinds.
We took an end-to-end N-mod circuit, that ran well on the whole. The curves at one end were a bit tight for some trains, and the end-to-end set up meant that it required concentration to keep more than two trains one the move. Eric went ‘Southern’ with a selection of locomotives that might have been seen in British Railways days in the South-East. One pleasure of the show was the higher percentage of families visiting the show. No hyper-critical grouchy old modellers, but plenty of young faces fascinated by the trains. Except for the one who spat on the track…. At least his mum brought him back to apologise and had a baby wipe handy to apply TLC to the track!
There were a number of other railways scattered through the hall. Fiddlers End shows what you can do on a narrow shelf in ‘N’.
The local Orpington club brought their test track along, and provided us with a procession of ‘O’ and ‘OO’ trains to watch.
A little narrow gauge whimsy of a narrow gauge line in Victorian London.
The last week of London trams past through Charlton Village.
The Great Western in Wales. And an interesting idea for a ‘set piece’ for a layout – repainting a coach in the paint shop. They appear to be applying grey overcoat over the chocolate and cream….
Elsewhere there were plenty of other hobbies on show, including Meccano (I sold my childhood box to an enthusiast) and ships. Also there were radio controlled trucks, doll’s houses, and a range of trade of various types. Derek and I spent too much, as we took pity on the traders who didn’t seem to be doing too well.
Overall, I think the show just about broke even, perhaps not helped by a lack of publicity. But ESNG had a fun couple of days playing trains, talking to visitors, impressing children, and maybe getting a few show invites for next year.
Not quite ‘Off my trolley’ but in the vicinity. Some while back I looked at the Pacific Electric station at North Hollywood as a potential modular layout. Running closely parallel to the Pacific Electric at this location is the Southern Pacific San Fernando Valley branch. I came across the ‘Rails West’ website via ‘Andrew’s Trains’. Here there are two articles on the SP branch. Although there are few references to North Hollywood, and the photos come from a post-PE 1970’s era, they give an excellent overview of the area, and the traffic on the branch, all recorded by the blogger’s friend B. Smith. These articles can be found here and here.
The author sets the scene:
The San Fernando Valley inside of and adjacent to Los Angeles has a rich history. A number of Indian tribes lived there prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1769. Missions dotted the landscape. The Valley became part of United States in the late 1840s. The Southern Pacific arrived in the 1870s. Wheat and other commodities produced in the Valley were important sources of traffic. Overtime, the SP spread across the Valley.
The second post describes the traffic in and out in great detail, almost car by car:
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.
About North Hollywood:
SP records show the following companies using team tracks from January thru October, 1973:
North Hollywood Team Track average 6 cars per month (3 to 15 per month)
Capital Insulation
Sta-Soil Corp. – wood fiber
Valley Moulding Co.
Valley Sales (lumber)
Village Cycle (motorcycle parts)North Hollywood Glass and Mirror Co. moved to the present location 35 years ago so a spur track could be extended into the warehouse to facilitate unloading. Relies more on trucks now but still needs the railroad, especially for shipments from the eastern US. Shipments of jumbo plate glass require rail because it is too big for trucks, but demand for jumbo plate glass has been declining. Receives an average of 5 cars per month
But the conclusion is a sad one:
The Van Nuys area had four fuel dealers served by rail in the past. There was also a feed warehouse, now torn down. Canoga Feed was no longer in business, and George Milling Co. had recently gone out of business, although I had seen a grain car spotted in their spur track in May, 1972. The San Fernando Valley was becoming totally urbanized. No longer were there small farms and orchards nor the keeping of chickens, goats, horses, or cows. Older tracks of small single family homes were being replaced by apartment complexes, thus the need for a lot of lumber and building supplies.
To finish, I’ve reproduced a couple of my favourite photos from the blogs. The first black-and-white one is very evocative of local goods, whilst the second shows some very modelable industry (is it North Hollywood?). The final colour shot is good to show the ground colouring and tones. There are plenty of others in the original blog.
Today’s local. Trains ran daily in 1972.—©photo by B. Smith
SP’s San Fernando Valley branch had many building supply firms served by sidings and team tracks. All inbound loads, outbound empties.–©photo B. Smith
Team track in Reseda. –©photo B. Smith
The Model Railway Journal was once a regular read for me. Nowadays, as I am less a scratchbuilder, I just pick up the occasional copy when it looks interesting. Issue 243 was one such issue, with a lot of interest for modellers of any skill and scale.
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Richard Harper’s P4 layout based on the Sidmouth branch in early BR days contained some inspiring modelling. This is a new layout that hasn’t appeared in the model press, so there are no photographs I can reproduce, except the magazine cover above. However, I came across these photographs of some of the locomotives that he has built for the layout on the Scalefour Society site. Attractive models of attractive small locomotives.
The main take away point I got from the article was the size of the station. Slightly compressed, the layout is 5.7m long in 4mm scale, for a well appointed single line branch terminus. It reminded me that most city stations, for all their complexity, take little more room than a sprawling branch terminus.
Next to read was Gordon Gravett’s article on painting a backscene. His scenic work is some of the best around (and his books on scenery are recommended.)
Then Tim Peacock described building an ex-LNER articulated twin-coach suburban set, and the joys of having your own design produced as an etched kit, or scratch aid. I’ve always rather liked these articulated designs, and found the article full of good advice.
Lastly, an article by Mick Simpson on building a 2mm fine-scale turnout using one of their Easitrac beginners kits. These have been developed in much the same way – and with plenty of discussion with – the ‘N’ gauge ‘Finetrax’ kits. Both use code 40 rail and pre-formed plastic bases, to make construction as easy as possible. Another very interesting read, and one day I must have a go at one.
All in all an excellent edition, and I think I shall have to start reading this journal regularly….
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