Model railroad operations weekends offer a fun way to learn about others’ layouts, meet new people, and if you’re a magazine editor, find new model railroads to feature in the magazine.
At the beginning of summer 2022, I headed west to SoCalOps, an operating weekend centered around the Simi Valley in suburban Los Angeles. I had a chance to operate on four layouts and visit two others. Let’s take a look at what’s happening in Southern California.
Let’s start with Dean Deis. He’s here with his father, David, in front of his switching layout that kept me and Phil Edholm entertained for a Thursday evening bonus session of model railroad operations before the official start of activities on Friday. We hope to have a feature on Dean’s layout in Model Railroader.
Dean’s layout, the ATSF 4th Street Spur, was built with some help from his father, but is largely Dean’s creation. For a small layout, a two-person crew makes sense for model railroad operations. Phil and I took turns as either the engineer, sitting on a stool operating the locomotive, or as the conductor, planning moves and setting turnouts and uncoupling cars.
Next, on Friday, I was at the Santa Susana Depot in Simi Valley operating on the Orange County Model Railroaders’ LA Industrial Switching District of Orange County sectional layout. We were set up in what was once part of the freight handling area of the depot. Phil Edholm, at right, is discussing the upcoming session with one of the OCMR members as we gathered.
Since the layout models Orange County, there were lots of packing houses to switch. This section of the layout was one of the most complete, with lots of great scenes. There was plenty of action on the layout, and we also saw a few Amtrak and Amtrak California trains passing by outside.
Sectional layouts require a bit of ingenuity to get them to operate in different spaces. Since each space requires a different configuration, some sections had rails leading off the edges. This large C-clamp was added to the edge of the benchwork to create a siding with little chance of freight cars hitting the floor.
Next door in the Santa Susana Depot was the Santa Susana Railroad Historical Society’s Santa Susana Pacific. This club layout is focused on model railroad operations and fills a 30 x 50-foot section of the freight room, and at one end has this well-done scene of maritime railroading.
This overview of model railroad operations taken from the dispatcher’s platform shows the expanse of the layout. The high ridge down the center made an effective view block between aisles. The maritime scene in the previous photo is at the far end of the room. The OCMR sectional layout was set up in the next room beyond the far wall at the depot.
Friday night was set aside for layout visits. After making my inaugural visit to an In-N-Out burger, we headed up into the hills to see Jeff Abbott’s Espee Oregon Division – Cascade Subdivision N scale layout. This scene shows the original portable layout that started everything.
Like many of the California layouts I saw and operated on, it was in Jeff’s two-car garage. Careful planning packed lots of model railroad operations potential into the space, along with some big views.
Jeff also handlaid most of his turnouts. The rest of the track is Micro Engineering code 55.
One of the grandaddy layouts of SoCalOps was Gary Siegel’s L&N Eastern Kentucky Division. Gary is a longtime fan of model railroad operations, as he said in his story about his layout in the April 1996 issue of Model Railroader (https://www.trains.com/mrr/magazine/archive-access/model-railroader-april-1996/) This large layout filled more than one two-car garage as time went by. There was lots of action on Gary’s layout, especially for host and dispatcher Bruce Morden, who tried valiantly to run a railroad designed for CTC operations with timetable and train orders. He was a bit short-staffed when it came to operators, but everyone still had fun.
I finished my time in Southern California operating on the Milwaukee Road in Chicago on Mike Heine’s excellent Milwaukee Road Kingsbury Branch. You could almost smell the cattle (no, not really, Mike’s layout room was very comfortable) in the pens waiting for their last short walk into the packing house.
Mike packed a lot of model railroad operations into his space, with a helix in an adjacent garage to connect two decks. He did a great job camouflaging the entrances and exits from the helix. The Geep is in the helix room, about to enter the layout room under the bridge.
To continue the illusion of “more,” Mike scenicked the first few feet of the helix with building flats and vehicles seen through the opening in an industrial building. Mike’s layout was inspired by an article in the April 1975 issue of Model Railroader (https://www.trains.com/mrr/magazine/archive-access/model-railroader-april-1975/).
