Bakersfield & Ventura Model Railroad

Got a lot done on the diorama the last couple of days. Did some more spiking on the track. Soldered leads and hooked it up to an MRC power pack. Trains don't have far to run, but they do run! Lowered the shelf about 1 1/2 inches, giving a little more headroom between the display and the shelf above. Added a piece of 1/8 inch hardboard, painted light blue, to the wall behind. Installed some LED tape lights on the underside of the upper shelf -- it makes a big difference! I bought the cool-white tape light, and I kind of wish I had gone with warm white. The cool white looks okay in normal viewing, but photos come out much too blue and need some tweaking in photo editing software. Added a few Woodland Scenics pine trees that I had on hand. These look to me pretty close to  the Pinon pines that are common in the area I'm modelling. I've ordered more. There are also a couple of small trees in the foreground, more like Scrub Oak or Manzanita, which are also common. I also ordered...

I haven’t talked much about my other railroad, the Lockwood & San Emigdio, a narrow gauge line that’s even more of a figment of my imagination than the B&V. It serves mining and logging areas at the east end of Lockwood Valley and a few miles to the east, around Mt. Pinos, Frazier Mountain, and the modern-day communities of Lake of the Woods and Pine Mountain Club. Gold mining in southern California goes way back – the first placer discoveries in California, before the better-known Gold Rush up north, were in the Santa Clarita area not far south of the Frazier/Lockwood region. In the later 1800s there were placer workings and a few small mines around Frazier Mountain and Mt. Pinos, and an antimony mine on Antimony Peak with a cable tram carrying ore to a mill the base of the mountain. In the late 1890s, a prospector named McLaren, poking around on the south side of Mt. Pinos, spotted a white crystalline material that looked similar to something he had seen at a mining exhibitio...

  I started laying track on my On30 Lockwood & San Emigdio diorama. Ties are cut to length from 1/8 x 1/8 basswood strip and stained with acrylic craft paint. The rail is Code 70 salvaged from my old HO layout, spiked down with the last of my supply of Micro Engineering spikes. The turnout is also reused from the old layout. I had forgotten I had an On3 track laying gauge. Grabbed it, used it, then wondered why my the engine fell between the rails. Found the right gauge and relaid the track. Fortunately I had only laid a foot or so at that point. I'm now using a Kadee diecast three-point gauge that goes back to when I was a teenager, somewhere around 50 years ago. I've probably laid a few hundred feet of track with it, and the slots where the rails go are so worn that the track inevitably ends up out of gauge. If I decide to hand lay my next layout, I'll need to get a couple of new gauges. Have to say, old Number 2 looks nice sitting on properly sized track. So much so,...