Layout visit - Carquinez Model Railroad Society

On a Saturday in late October I attended an open house at the Carquinez Model Railroad Society HO layout in Crockett, California.  This club is about 70 miles away so I went with a friend from the Ntrak club and we made a day of it.  Both of us had never visited this layout before.  This is quite a large layout that is based upon the Southern Pacific line from Oakland, California to Sparks, Nevada.  One of the outstanding features of this layout are the many familiar scenes along that route that are effectively modeled.  This first view is of the Port of Oakland.  Yes, that is a candy train in the foreground as it was Halloween season.

Heading out of Oakland we pass by Berkeley, California.  Berkeley is best known for it's major university but there must also have been a concrete ready mix plant because there is one on this layout.

Several of the landmark scenes modeled on the layout are very close to the club's location in Crockett.  This small town is known for the C&H sugar mill and that is quite accurately modeled.

Also modeled in the Crockett area is the old passenger station.  The Amtrak California Zephyr and Capital trains pass through here but don't stop.  The building now houses the Crockett History Museum.  As indicated by the plaque on the fascia this point is 26 track miles east of Oakland.

Further east is a nicely done model of the railroad bridge that crosses the Carquinez strait.  This railroad alignment between Sacramento and Oakland was what Southern Pacific called their "waterline route" with little to no grades.  This bridge was a big part of what made that route possible. 

The area around the south end of the bridge is known for it's oil refineries and the layout includes a good representation of this type of industry.

Another industry represented on the layout is cement production.  I don't know the exact location that this model represents but there are several cement production sites in Northern California and moving the cement to those ready mix plants makes for some good layout operations.

And we reach Sacramento with this view looking down the Capital Mall toward the State Capital building.  The series of traffic lights were animated.

Continuing east into the Sierra Nevada mountains the line passes through Colfax, California.  This gold rush era town is a great place to stop for a break when driving as it's just off Interstate 80.  There is an old wood Northwestern Pacific caboose here next to the station.

The Southern Pacific line through the Sierra Nevada mountains is known for it's snow sheds at the higher elevations and that is also modeled on this layout.

The operators of this layout were running all types of trains and roads.  Someone even had a freelanced road that at first glance we mistook for the Eureka Southern which was a railroad that once had run for awhile on the old Northwestern Pacific line.

It was a fun day visiting this layout.  Here is a link to this club's web site for information on the layout and upcoming open house events. 

Carquinez Model Railroad Society | Model Trainclub in San Francisco Bay Area

Fall 2025 layout update

This October marks the 11th anniversary of the starting of this layout.  It's come a long way in those 11 years and still much more to do.  Here are a few things happening on the layout and away from the layout over the past couple of months that have not been covered in separate posts.

One of my goals for this year is to have a somewhat structured operating session on the layout with a few friends.  The opportunity came in late August when Paul, my partner in the AsiaNRail modular layout came over with a couple of other friends who have helped us with that layout.  Below is Griffin working the Carlin yard interchanging a few cars from an eastbound manifest train. 

Griffin also brought over a Bachmann sound equipped 4-8-4 with a passenger train and after running a few structured jobs, we all enjoyed seeing and hearing it run on the layout.

With the bench work for the Lovelock expansion completed, I have been slowly building turnouts for it.  I will end up needing about 8 or 9 turnouts.  I picked up all the track I'm going to need for the new section and am working on gathering a few parts still needed for the turnout linkages.  In the photo below are 5 of the turnouts in various stages of completion.

And track laying has actually started on the new section.  The first turnout after coming off the helix is built to be fixed in the diverging position with the continuation of the dummy main line leaving the front of the bench work.  There will be a long siding and then a switch lead with the various industrial spurs branching off from that.

This fall I am looking forward to attending a couple club layout open houses and then in December a setup with the Ntrak club at the Great Train Show.  I have already started preparing the trains I am going to bring to that layout.

Fascia mounted DCC meter

Sometimes an idea for a project comes when it is least expected.  This happened to me recently when sorting through a box of electrical parts and came across a pair of banana plug connectors labeled "shorting bar".   I don't know where or why I got these or if I would ever use them and was about to throw them in the trash when I noticed the holes that are on the side and got an idea of how I could use them.  First step was to make a cut with a hacksaw that would sever the shorting bar.

Here is what I ended up doing with these.  I have had one of these DCC amp / volt meters for some time and it's quite handy when troubleshooting a wiring or track issue on a DCC layout.  I have always wanted to mount it somewhere to monitor the the layout but wanted it to be removable to also use as a portable instrument. 

These meters have banana jacks on each end and come with a pair of test leads.  Either end will read DCC voltage and if the meter in placed in line between the DCC source and load, it will read the DCC current.  With these modified banana plugs connected on each end of the meter, the holes provide a connection that is at a right angle allowing the meter to be easily pushed on or pulled off of the 4 fascia mounted banana plugs.

From scraps of tempered hard board I made up this fixture that will hold the panel mounted banana plugs and a bypass switch for when the meter needs to be removed to trouble shoot somewhere on the layout.

Here is the completed project.  After painting the fixture the fascia color, the bypass switch and banana plugs were installed.  The iphone camera does not show the LED display clearly in this photo because of the way these type of displays work and the shutter speed of the camera.  To the human eye the numbers are clear.

This is what the finished fixture looks like when the meter is removed.  When the meter is removed to troubleshoot a problem somewhere on the layout, the bypass switch can be moved to the ON position to allow DCC current to flow.

This was a really satisfying project.  I always like projects were all of the parts come from things that were laying around the shop.