Name: Tom Trigg Railroad name: Vic’s Pizza Layout Scale: G Theme: How small can G go? Location: 2008 Big Train Show in Ontario, California Description: This is Vic’s Pizza Railroad. At one point we pretty well considered this the smallest G scale layout ever. < […]
Name: Tom Trigg Railroad name: Vic’s Pizza Layout Scale: G Theme: How small can G go? Location: 2008 Big Train Show in Ontario, California Description: This is Vic’s Pizza Railroad. At one point we pretty well considered this the smallest G scale layout ever. < […]
At the western frontier area, a section of fence can be lowered to allow fair goers a first-hand experience at running a train. The panel holds three buttons that control separate vintage trains. A streamliner skirts the area on the blue line. Don Emmons Railway at a glance Name: Fairplex Garden Railroad Scale: Various, between […]
A whimsical train makes its way past alarming mountains of orange, red and purple, on its way to more pleasant and soothing scenery. Bob Treat The character and colors of the scratchbuilt structures are in keeping with the overall concept. Bob Treat The engine crosses the waterfall on a rickety trestle. The rainbow marks the […]
A westbound Capitol Corridor train, led by Amtrak F59PHI No. 464, makes a fine sight as it curves along the shore of San Pablo Bay in Pinole, Calif. Read on to learn about more picturesque train-watching locations between Oakland and Sacramento. Elrond Lawrence So you’re traveling to San Francisco, and have just a few days […]
As Don Sims explained in the August 2003 issue of TRAINS Magazine, Beaumont Hill is a railroader’s term, taken from the small town of Beaumont, Calif., very near the 2591-foot summit crest of the former Southern Pacific Sunset Route linking Los Angeles and New Orleans. While much has changed from author Sims’ account of 1950s […]
Hot spot: Cajon Pass, California Cajon Pass is profiled in Kalmbach’s Guide to North American Hot Spots by TRAINS Senior Editor J. David Ingles. DescriptionHeavy mountain grade on BNSF Railway transcontinental (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe) main line with separate rights-of-way for the north and south tracks (Tracks 1 and 2, respectively); Union Pacific operates […]
Altamont Commuter Express train 06 has just left San Jose, Calif., on its late-evening run to Stockton on April 23, 2001. Elrond Lawrence Altamont Commuter Express trains operate on an 82-mile route between Stockton and San Jose, Calif., through the San Joaquin, Central, and Silicon Valleys. ACE trains use a combination of Caltrain and Union […]
Coaster trains operate on a 42-mile route between the Oceanside Transit Center and the Santa Fe depot in downtown San Diego, serving 8 stations. The tracks, once part of Santa Fe’s Surf Line, have long hosted intercity passenger trains between San Diego and Los Angeles. Today, Amtrak runs Pacific Surfliners on the route, linking San […]
Small trains give the illusion of traveling long distances in a garden railway. Marc Horovitz As mentioned in the first installment, since we had a little, tiny railroad, small equipment was called for. The smaller the equipment, we reasoned, the greater the illusion of distance travelled. So, we opted for the smallest equipment we could […]
By 1919, a three-orange logo had replaced the single piece of fruit that adorned the covers of Golden State travel booklets. The lavish title page of a 1902 Rock Island route guide to its new cross-country passenger train, the Golden State Limited. Rock Island and Southern Pacific inaugurated the train on November 2, 1902. “Every […]
In June 1949, my friend Bob Wagner and I decided to head from our Los Angels-area homes for the Owens Valley in eastern central California to see, and hopefully ride, Southern Pacific’s former Carson & Colorado narrow gauge, which still operated with steam power 70 miles between Keeler and Laws. We got a late start […]
