End of the Line-Padstow

[autocoach]

Rick Stein (of Padstein restaurant infame) is not involved that we know of.

 

On the night of February 19, 2019 water from a rainstorm two days earlier had backed up on the flat roof of my townhouse and leaked through the roofing onto the sheetrock ceiling of my office and train room. A 4 foot by 4 foot panel of sheetrock detached from the ceiling and fell swinging down from the paper coating slowly. It did not hit the 2 foot by 11 foot layout based on the trackage at Padstow minus the long pier or my workbench. While the layout and workbench were intact, I was informed that the room would ultimately need to be cleared of furniture and fixings to repair the damage to the ceiling and repaint the ceiling after the external roof was repaired. It has been over 3 weeks since that disaster and unfortunately we have not had enough dry days in a row for the roof to dry out so it can be replaced by the roofers.

 

 

 

I have boxed and binned most of the train stuff from the room. But, alas, the time has come to tackle the rather poorly build layout. It was simpley a 2 X 8 sheet of fiber insulation board on top of supporting 1X2 boards supported by 3 wood TV tray tables. There was an 3 X 2 extension with a shallow manual turntable and locomotive storage tracks that did not exist at Padstow. Any actual storage or shedwork was done at Wadebridge where there was a Southern Railway sub shed.

 

The design really only afforded a place to pose or switch either my English prototype collection of postware Southern Railway and related 4 mm scale (00) scale or my growing collection of US 1947-54 US Southern Pacific passenger and freight equipment. It was built from an assortment of Peco Code 100 Streamline turnouts going back 15 years and older Atlas code 100 track with wider thicker ties. I have ripped out the turnouts. Much of the wiring was from a previous pre-DCC Great Western Brixham branch line terminal layout from 2003-2010.

 

It is not really a great loss and I feel no real regret at its demolition. It is almost and air of exultation that comes with an out with the old in with the new anticipation. The turnouts have been saved although their future is in doubt as new layout(s) when built will use more modern trackage components. If it is totally British in outline it will use new Peco Code 75 “bullhead” rail components when they become available. On the other-hand the first to be rebuilt could be to North American prototype track with Micro Engineering and new Peco Code 70 USA line components. I also have some Peco Code 75 flat bottom European HO track turnouts on hand now that have not really been used and may be used to augment the newer track. Flex track would be Micro Engineering code 70.

 

All the buildings from Padstow station area have been saved. If I get the energy I will build a separate 3 2X4 modular layout that can be stored when not in use to show of English Southern modeling efforts. This will happen only when there is a full range of Peco bullhead rail components available.

 

I am also thinking about how I can rebuild so that I can model the Walnut Creek station area on the Southern Pacific San Ramon valley branch and maybe the branch interchange at Avon Contra Costa. If I had the space I would start with the small engine terminal at Port Costa, the Sacramento/San Joaquin junction at Martinez and then the Avon yard with interchange to the US Navy Port Chicago terminal railroad as will as the San Ramon branch. Unfortunately this would probably depend on winning a substantial lottery prize. At my age (75) it is probably just a dream goal.

 

A more realistic proposal for my small 11 foot by 11 foot area is to remove the book cases in the office and put a new Avon/Port Costa shelf layout along the north wall at a 45 inch height. My office desk, PC and printer would go under the layout. The big chair will have to go and only a single roll-around office chair used. The office has to stay here as this is the location for the high speed ATT phone/data connection and the WiFi router. This modular shelf layout would have two tail tracks. One on the short 5 foot west wall and another extending 9-10 feet over the work bench on the east wall. This would be at the 45 inch height.

 

Along the South all in front of the built in cherry bookshelves, a new Padstow Mark set of modules would be built with a curve at the east end to get to a pair of storage/staging tracks in front of the windows and below the SP layout staging. The workbench desk would have to be replaced and move out.

 

As I do not anticipate full re-occupancy of the train room/office before the end of April, this construction effort will take place over most of the rest of the year with the goal of full operational track work by December 2019.

 

Can't seem to get pix attached to show damage......

 

Edited March 15, 2019 by autocoach

[autocoach]

It was late May before the roof could be completely patched and we had 7 consecutive dry days followed by a rainstorm to ensure the fixes to the roof held.  Then I had to wait until early June before the ceiling was repaired and I could throughly clean the floor.  As of the first week of July I have started on the "benchwork" to support the new layout. 

 

For a more detailed story on what is going on see my https://srandsp.blogspot.com site for the ongoing saga. I wound up using poplar wood for the benchwork. I am mounting the first section (32" X72") on double way locking casters. The first section includes the Port Costa 70 foot turntable and two stall/road roundhouse/engine shed. This was an active steam depot used up until the very end of steam on the SP in 1958. It was the home of SP M class moguls and C class consolidations alongside early diesel switchers.  The steam power was used to bank trains up a steep grade to the 1928 Benecia Bridge crossing of  the Carquinez Strait which separates San Francisco Bay from the San Joaquin/Sacramento delta.  It also was the local train motive power base for the San Ramon valley branch on which Walnut Creek was located.   A lot more is on the blog site.

 

[autocoach]

To prove I have not completely abandoned my love of UK prototype this is a pic of my new Bulleid Compo and the misplaced V hanger.  You know when looked at with under a bright light the Hornby Malachite looks much better. 

[autocoach]

As my Padstow by the Pacific is no more (it is the end of the end of the line) I will in future very infrequently use this blog. I doubt many UK railway fans have much interest in my new HO layout based on the small Southern Pacific engine facility at Port Costa on the southern shore of the Carquinez Straits in the early 1950's.  About 7 months into the project, the layout is beginning to take shape. About the only thing English related is that I am using mostly PECO Code 83 turnouts and track.

 

This is this weeks status view looking west towards Oakland/San Francisco with the most prominent feature of the layout, the 70 foot turntable and small two road engine shed in the foreground. The complex of turnouts to the right is the double track Southern Pacific mainline east from San Francisco Bay to Sacramento and points east and north. Until 1930, the SP crossed the Carquinez Strait from Port Costa to Benicia using very large railroad ferries that could carry a whole passenger train and its locomotive. In 1930 a double track draw bridge was constructed east of Port Costa and the engine shed reduced to servicing locomotives for local freight services and occasional helpers to shove heavy freights up the grade to the bridge. The largest locomotives shedded at Port Costa were SP 2-8-0's mostly of the very numerous C-9 and C-10 classes.

 

Port Costa was one of the last outposts of steam on the SP lasting until 1957. Small diesel switchers such as Alco S-2's and S-4's also used the facility until it was closed in 1960 and most traces razed and removed.  The south shore of the Carquinez strait had a very large sugar refinery at Crockett and several oil refineries along the shore stretching east which required extensive switching a wide variety of freight cars. Further east was the large Port Chicago military sealift terminal where supplies and equipment were then flowing to Korea.  Port Costa was also the engine base for the now long gone San Ramon Valley branch and the module I am building to depict the Walnut Creek depot. Traffic in the 1950's was all inbound to the San Ramon branch with the lumber, cement and stone to build the new suburban communities from old farming and ranching towns 25 miles east of San Francisco over the Bay and the Oakland hills.

 

For further reference. The Carquinez Strait would be right along the wall on the right. The old ferry slip in the corner at the back right.  And the tiny town of Port Crockett at the left in back of the track with the reefer standing in front of the freight station and freight house. The town is in a very narrow valley known as Bull Valley. The town is sort of a hang out. To get to it you drive down several miles of very windy twisty narrow two lane road.  Reminds me of visiting my relatives who live north of Stroud in the Cotswolds.  There is an outstanding restaurant and bar, the Bull Valley Roadhouse about 200 feet south (left) of the turntable. Problem is you never want to have more than one cocktail knowing the road you will have to drive to get out of Port Costa.

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by autocoach

[autocoach]

This is looking up the main street at Port Costa in February 2019.

 

 

 

A rather rough layout of the Port Costa trackage in the 1950's

Looking down Bull Valley with the town of Port Costa at the bottom and the Carquinez Strait and Benicia beyond.

 

It was last February (2019) and everything was green from recent rains. Today (31/10/2019) you would be looking north into the smoke of the Kinkaid fire about 30 miles north.

Edited October 31, 2019 by autocoach

[brianusa]

Padstow to Port Costa is a large leap.  Knowing both places fairly well from a sentimental viewpoint Padstow would win but from a practical POV, Port Costa would seem more appropriate seeing how its just around the corner, so to speak.  I would dread your loss and from an age angle, I can see your point of view.  I should hate to start over these days.  Good luck though on whatever you decide.

      Brian.

[Bulwell Hall]

4 hours ago, autocoach said:

As my Padstow by the Pacific is no more (it is the end of the end of the line) I will in future very infrequently use this blog. I doubt many UK railway fans have much interest in my new HO layout based on the small Southern Pacific engine facility at Port Costa on the southern shore of the Carquinez Straits in the early 1950's.  About 7 months into the project, the layout is beginning to take shape. About the only thing English related is that I am using mostly PECO Code 83 turnouts and track.

 

This is this weeks status view looking west towards Oakland/San Francisco with the most prominent feature of the layout, the 70 foot turntable and small two road engine shed in the foreground. The complex of turnouts to the right is the double track Southern Pacific mainline east from San Francisco Bay to Sacramento and points east and north. Until 1930, the SP crossed the Carquinez Strait from Port Costa to Benicia using very large railroad ferries that could carry a whole passenger train and its locomotive. In 1930 a double track draw bridge was constructed east of Port Costa and the engine shed reduced to servicing locomotives for local freight services and occasional helpers to shove heavy freights up the grade to the bridge. The largest locomotives shedded at Port Costa were SP 2-8-0's mostly of the very numerous C-9 and C-10 classes.

 

Port Costa was one of the last outposts of steam on the SP lasting until 1957. Small diesel switchers such as Alco S-2's and S-4's also used the facility until it was closed in 1960 and most traces razed and removed.  The south shore of the Carquinez strait had a very large sugar refinery at Crockett and several oil refineries along the shore stretching east which required extensive switching a wide variety of freight cars. Further east was the large Port Chicago military sealift terminal where supplies and equipment were then flowing to Korea.  Port Costa was also the engine base for the now long gone San Ramon Valley branch and the module I am building to depict the Walnut Creek depot. Traffic in the 1950's was all inbound to the San Ramon branch with the lumber, cement and stone to build the new suburban communities from old farming and ranching towns 25 miles east of San Francisco over the Bay and the Oakland hills.

 

For further reference. The Carquinez Strait would be right along the wall on the right. The old ferry slip in the corner at the back right.  And the tiny town of Port Crockett at the left in back of the track with the reefer standing in front of the freight station and freight house. The town is in a very narrow valley known as Bull Valley. The town is sort of a hang out. To get to it you drive down several miles of very windy twisty narrow two lane road.  Reminds me of visiting my relatives who live north of Stroud in the Cotswolds.  There is an outstanding restaurant and bar, the Bull Valley Roadhouse about 200 feet south (left) of the turntable. Problem is you never want to have more than one cocktail knowing the road you will have to drive to get out of Port Costa.

 

 

Well I for one would be interested to hear how you get on with this project.  My son lives in Oakland and I spend a bit of time there these days and have made several visits to the Contra Costa country - as well as to Just Trains model shop!  Since becoming acquainted with the area the SP has become very interesting to me and I should like to learn more.  The Sacramento Northern has also become of great interest especially as it started in Oakland and ran along the street at the end of the block where my son now lives.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Gerry

[autocoach]

5 hours ago, Bulwell Hall said:

 

Well I for one would be interested to hear how you get on with this project.  My son lives in Oakland and I spend a bit of time there these days and have made several visits to the Contra Costa country - as well as to Just Trains model shop!  Since becoming acquainted with the area the SP has become very interesting to me and I should like to learn more.  The Sacramento Northern has also become of great interest especially as it started in Oakland and ran along the street at the end of the block where my son now lives.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Gerry

Well, Gerry I will continue some posting here. I slant this for an English/Scots/Welsh/NI audience with explanation where I think something needs more explanation outside North America. My primary model railroad posting social media is srandsp.blogspot.com but there I am not pausing to explain that sleepers and ties are one and the same.

 

Just Trains is my LHS (Local Hobby Shop) and I visit at least weekly on Tuesday or Wednesday. Having said that I usually avoid any unnecessary visits in December and January to avoid the "amateurs" looking for stuff to augment their Christmas dreams.  I have a stack of back orders at least half an inch thick.

 

I live in Walnut Creek which is about 10 miles south of Port Costa.  Nothing remains of the engine terminal and yards that were once there.  My interest has gone out of the main line since UP now owns it.  There is a surprising amount of passenger traffic on the former SP mainline (more than in SP days) with 10  Caltrain trains a day to Sacramento, a couple of Caltrain San Joaquin trains, and the Amtrak daily long distance trains to and from Seattle and Chicago.  Best to watch the action from Martinez where they all briefly stop.  

 

 

 

 

[david51]

Well I for one hope you will keep on posting here

my wife's cousin lives in Concord and we know the area  

well 

I enjoyed your posts 

keep up the good work 

 

[autocoach]

Last night I finished some temporary track wiring and was able to run a locomotive a full 13 feet (out of a full longest run length of 15 feet). A model railroad is born:

 

 

 

Unballasted Peco Code 83 and Micro Engineering Code 70 on the nearest track look so toylike before ballasting and the rest of the scenic context added. The engine is an unmodified Atlas Alco S-4. Locations for structures to be built is on cardboard cutouts. The turntable bridge was originally built for my 1985-92 Cheltenham St. Stephens joint WR-LMR station OO scale layout.  It just happens to be about 70 HO scale feet which is what I am building for the Port Costa layout.

Edited November 5, 2019 by autocoach

[autocoach]

Port Costa (no it's not a Spanish holiday resort, but the Bull Valley Inn deserves a Michelin star or two) is progressing slowly.  I have a major digression in the form of a new form of locomotive control eventually replacing DCC. WiFi  command from a tablet to a receiver in the locomotive  I finally got the WiFi router channel router issues sorted out and the new LocoFi  control system is working in this F7 ABB set .

The receiver was a bit tricky but just about as bad as putting a hard wired DCC decoder in like my old Bachmann SR N class 2-6-0.  And it comes sound equipped with a micro-SD card under that circuit board for upgrading control software and sound recordings. Small enough to fit in hood units and eventually steam tenders when LocoFi puts out their steam version.  For now the power is  via the rails from the DCC NCE SB3a unit.  I can run the DCC equipped locomotives at the same time without modification. 

 

With the F units I am going to experiment with LiPo batteries in one of the dummy (unpowered B units) thus starting the slippery slide towards the ultimate goal of dead rail operation with absolutely no worries about polarity or track wiring.  For I have seen the future and it is now approaching like the Israelite's looking out upon Canaan for the first time.....appropriate that control is from a tablet's command(ments.) Freedom from the tyranny of electrical wiring for our model railroads/railways.....

 

[autocoach]

Current progress on the Port Costa layout. The mockup of the roundhouse (engine shed) and a few more trees are the most visible changes.  I have a very complex wood kit from Banta Models for the roundhouse that I will eventually build.  For the time being an illustration board mockup will do.  It was painted with Cracker Barrel acrylic craft Barn Red per SP practice for steam era engine maintenance buildings. Passenger and freight related buildings are a color called Colonial Yellow.  The shade of SP Colonial Yellow varied widely with different lighting conditions and age in the bright harsh almost constant California sun. It ranged from Turner Yellow to a washed out buff color.

 

I am surviving into my 8th month of voluntary confinement/shelter in place.  The last three weeks have been mostly searing hot but with a yellow grey sky from wildfire smoke drifting into my area east of San Francisco.  A few days the sky has been an apocalyptic orange with the acrid stench of burning brush and structures chocking the outdoors (Australia had it last year.)  My home air conditioning with an electrostatic particle filtering system has worked well to keep my home habitable.  Local Covid-19 restrictions here are gradually lifting. I finally have been shorn of my 7 month hair growth (that got in the way of my mask, hearing aid and glasses) when I was able to visit my barber.  It is very understandable why the original native inhabitants prayed and danced for rain.  

The large tank on the mock up hill is a 161,000 US gallon water tank and the buildings to the right the pump house and water treatment plant.  Underground pipes carried the water to water cranes (not yet built) along the engine service tracks to the left of the turntable. The large yellow building to its right is a section house where unmarried track maintenance workers were housed.  Beyond the section house is the freight house (goods shed) and hidden behind the trees the Port Costa station building which was purely a local SP administrative building by 1950 as there was no passenger service stopping at Port Costa.  The tall smokestack rising from the back of the roundhouse is for a boiler that supplied steam through overhead pipes (not yet built) to all the above buildings. 

 

The freight house is one of the few buildings that is almost complete. I am a little bit stumped trying to build a unique ornate 5 foot high finial at the right end of the building roof. 

Edited October 3, 2020 by autocoach
clarity

[autocoach]

June 15, 2021 is supposedly going to be liberation day for California.  You may be "jabbed" but here I am considered fully "vaxxed" (not faxxed, waxxed or traxxed) and will supposed be given the freedom to roam within California.  Always with an abundance of caution.  Always pack a mask wherever you go and avoid biker bars. We are only about 50% fully vaxxed (12% additionally partially vaxxed) and the trenchant resistance to vaccination amongst certain political leaners and medically spooked populations is vexatious.  Being over 75, I grabbed an early opportunity back in February to get both shots of Pfizer's best. 

 

So my Padstow on the Pacific is now Port Costa.  The model has slowly progressed in spite of a lot of time spent/wasted on small details and projects that didn't work. I am spending most time on the scenery still building mock-ups and trying to get the terrain around the station just right.  Only the double speeder shed known as a tool shed on the Southern Pacific in the foreground has been finalized.  I know the water treatment building behind it appears at a slight angle.  In the upper right is the mockup of the 175,000 US gallon water tank.  

 

 

The double speeder tool shed and corrugated metal were replaced by the SP sometime between 1950 and 1956 with a simple one speeder tool shed. The speeders and tool sheds were apparently not Maintenance of Way department buildings but Signal and Telegraph maintenance sheds.  In the space between the tool sheds and the station building on the left were two telegraph/telephone poles.  This was the termination point for joint SP and Western Union (the telegraph company) joint line maintenance.  From here to Martinez 4 miles east Western Union lines were strung on a shorter distance climbing over the hills bordering Carquinez strait while SP S&T lines kept to the longer shoreline trackside route.  This is a picture of the scene I am trying to duplicate:

 

The line termination double pole setup is shown better in a picture taken of the back of the station

Both prototype photos are from the Contra Costa County Historical Society collection.  

 

This is the walkway shown in the second photo above:

In it's attempt to eradicate most traces of Port Costa about 1962 so it could sell the land for development the Southern Pacific demolished most traces of the structures but left this one remnant.  The site remains undeveloped. Taken over by the locals as a sort of mini-park.

 

A lot of my inspiration for small buildings and close in photos comes from the wonderful Little Muddle in this parish. Sometimes it is just my daily dose of Little Muddle that keeps me modeling. Port Costa is a small compact prototype that it is intriguing to replicate. 

 

 

 

 

 

[autocoach]

Just reminding myself that I have this topic still active on RMWEB. 

 

Lots of interesting new Southern (1947 era) coaches showing up for next year.  Bachmann Bulleids and the EFE "cross country" sets to tempt me.  But for now all my focus is on my HO Southern Pacific Port Costa 1950-54 layout, the Plastic Freight Car Builders group on groups.io and the efforts to modify a RTR Bachmann Baldwin 2-8-0  to serve as reasonable stand-ins for Southern Pacific consolidations on the ready track at Port Costa for helper service on eastbound freights up to the height of the Martinez bridge across the Carquinez strait. 

 

Small (only by US standards) 2-8-0's were used for helper service as they fit the Port Costa 70 foot turntable. Westbound the grade on the SP mainline to Sacramento was not steep enough to require helpers.  They just ran in reverse back to Port Costa after dropping off the end of the train. The 2-8-0's and 2-6-0's were also used for local switching from the giant sugar refinery in Crockett 4 miles west of Port Costa as far east as the Port Chicago Military Terminal, Antioch (about 20 miles east on the San Joaquin valley line) and up and down the long gone San Ramon Valley branch line (including Walnut Creek where I live.)

 

This is Port Costa in 1956, the last year of SP steam. The waters of the Carquinez Strait between the Sacramento River delta and San Francisco Bay in the background.

This is my version looking east (the above photo looks west) that is very much a work in very slow progress.  All structures are scratch built although many are still just mockups from cardboard with pasted on windows. By 1954 as shown on my layout, diesel switchers were beginning to appear.

The big black object at lower left is a water tank (165,000 US gallons). The cluster of SP company buildings in the foreground are a telegraph and signal maintenance shop, water treatment plant, a section house which is lodging for single local railroad employees.  Behind those are a rail speeder car shed for maintenance of wires and signals and  maintenance of way speeders, the station, offices, and telegraph office, and Freight house.  I'll describe the stand in for the turntable, yard tracks, and the round house along with its outbuildings in another post. 

Edited December 2, 2022 by autocoach
amplify the explanations of US structures

[Oldddudders]

Didn't Bruce Chubb's Sunset Valley Railroad include a station at Walnut Creek? Perhaps it still does. 

[autocoach]

28 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Didn't Bruce Chubb's Sunset Valley Railroad include a station at Walnut Creek? Perhaps it still does. 

Sorry Old Dudders, 

 

Bruce Chubb's Sunset valley was based on the Southern Pacific line from Dunsmuir in far Northern California to Portland Oregon.  Bruce did not model Walnut Creek.  This is the Chubb Sunset Valley...gigantic and just plain enormous for a home layout by comparison to Little Muddle and my Port Costa (11x2.5 ft with a 3x1.5 fiddle yard extension.) Note the size of the people and number of operators.   I've only seen it through the US model railroad magazines and most of the recent articles have focused on the electronics and control systems. 

 

This is the Model Railroader Magazine plan. You may need to magnify the image offline. 

 

 

 

 

[DLT]

13 hours ago, autocoach said:

This is the Model Railroader Magazine plan. You may need to magnify the image offline. 

Holy Smoke, that amazing.  I have magnified it offline, and still can't unravel it!

[autocoach]

Just a short note to remind all that I haven't forgotten this topic and that I am still surviving here in the far west of the North American continent.  I haven't won a billion dollar lotto yet so no Padstow Mark III is in the offing.  As inspiration (even if it is GWR based) I still follow Little Muddel on a daily basis.   By the way has anyone come up with a decent easy affordable chassis fix for the Kernow Beattie Well Tanks and the O2's...

Edited August 28, 2023 by autocoach
clarity

[autocoach]

Interesting that of late I have been answering a couple of questions about modeling Padstow...  

 

It is an interesting not quite sleepy branch line terminal. I actually welcome the interest.  My current Port Costa is slumbering in a different way as health concerns are not making me enthusiastic about working to finish the major items on the layout such as the SP Eastbound and Westbound main tracks. 

 

Port Costa was the engine terminal at the end of the Martinez subdivision of the SP Western Division. At the time I model it, roughly 1950-55, SP's freight and passenger services over the mountainous routes east and north of the state had been dieselized.

 

The massive  fleet of freight cab forwards and other enormous steam engines (such as 4-10-2's) and even the iconic 4-8-4 Daylight engines were running out their remaining useful lives hauling commute and short distance passengers and  non-express freight trains over routes like the Oakland to Sacramento mainline where the only grade was the 1930 double track lift bridge over the west end of Suisun bay at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. 

 

Port Costa provided rear end steam helpers for the non-express freights (called a drag freight) to shove these trains from the rear in order to quickly climb the sharp 70 foot grade from Martinez station to the clearance height for ship traffic without using the lift span .  The grade is still there and it is quite a sight even today to see a westbound heavy freight with 4 3500 HP diesel engines at full throttle trying to make 20 mph up to the bridge height. It may be only a 2% grade but it is quite a sight. The short 70 foot turntable at Port Costa limited SP steam helpers to 2-8-0 consolidation classes with medium or short tenders which could fit on the turntable.

 

Westbound (geographic direction southbound) the grade up to bridge height long and no helpers were required.  The eastbound steam helpers were dropped off from behind the caboose at a telegraph location known as Bahia (they weren't coupled to the caboose...all cabooses on this route were steel underframe) and cross over to the eastbound main.  Here the helper would wait for dispatcher clearance and then back the 10 miles across the bridger,  down the grade through Martinez station to Port Costa then cross back over the westbound main track to the engine terminal ready line at Port Costa. There 5-8 steam engines could often be seen on the ready tracks waiting for the next helper duty in pictures I have.  Engines were dispatched from Port Costa were also used for local switching the giant sugar refinery at Crockett, the 3 large oil refineries, the San Ramon Valley branch (along which I live in Walnut Creek), interchange to the US military ordinance (ammunitions) depot and port railway at Port Chicago and industries further east along the south side of the Sacramento Delta waterways.  

 

Port Costa is very compact. My model is almost to scale length and is only 3.3 m long (11 feet).  See the above photos of the prototype and my model layout.   I may never finish it (I just turned 80) and these days my interest is mostly in building freight rolling stock rather than operations. 

 

I am also amassing a few passenger cars for the 5 daily short distance trains that ran between Oakland (Pier to SF by ferry) and the state capital at Sacramento each way in the 1950's.   One or two baggage and mail cars and 2-3 SP Chair cars (open coaches) or an articulated 2 set chair car hauled by a 2000 HP Daylight Alco PA-1 diesel, Pacific (4-6-2) or Mountain (4-8-2). 

 

Daylight steam engines were used on the San Joaquin Daylight (to Los Angeles via Bakersfield and Tehachapi  pass) as well as the Mountains.  There were also the 2 night trains on this route.  There were the long distance daily trains to Portland (Cascade, Shasta Daylight, Beaver, Klamath daily each way) and Chicago (City of SF, SF Overland, #21 Mail daily.)

 

I am considering all freight trains east and west bound as running extras not on the timetable. 

 

In the staging yard is the new SP daylight articulated chair car set (Broadway Limited) in 1950's lettering and minus earlier skirting