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,...

Doing some online research, I discovered a reference to another model Bakersfield & Ventura. This one was a track plan published in the Model Railroad Planning annual in 2016. I immediately ordered a copy, which I received yesterday. The other B&V was designed by Bryon Henderson, and built by Larry Kedes. The concept is similar to the John Armstrong San Joaquin & Southwestern track plan in his book, 20 Custom Designed Track Plans. It assumes a route from Ventura, following the real-life Ojai branch of the Southern Pacific, then continuing north along the route of Highway 33 -- different routing than what I am assuming based on my research. Because the owner wanted connections with the Union Pacific as well as AT&SF and SP, the concept also assumes that UP acquired an early, real-life shortline that ran from LA to Santa Monica, then also gained control of the Hueneme, Malibu and Port Los Angeles through Malibu to Oxnard. The track plan is focused on the coastal portion ...

As originally proposed, the Bakersfield & Ventura would have run from a connection with the Southern Pacific at Fillmore, about 25 miles from Ventura, to Maricopa on the Sunset Railroad, about 40 miles from Bakersfield. The Sunset has an interesting history in itself and would make an interesting subject for modeling -- see information about it here:  https://www.abandonedrails.com/sunset-railroad . In reality, the B&V built about 10 miles of track from an SP interchange in Oxnard (near Ventura) to the harbor at Port Hueneme, with plans to eventually build its own line from Oxnard to Fillmore. This line, now known as the Ventura County Railroad, continues in operation today. The real world B&V served two communities, Port Hueneme and Oxnard, including some passenger street operations in Oxnard. If the extension to Fillmore had been built, it would have passed through the farming community of Saticoy and the larger town of Santa Paula before reaching Fillmore. This is ea...

Designing a model railroad layout is always a tradeoff between many factors -- ratio of track to scenery, switching vs. mainline running, point-to-point or continuous running -- but most of all, what will fit in the available space. As I think about starting a new B&V, I've been contemplating what appeals to me, personally. I've designed and built a dozen or so layouts of all sizes and configurations, and helped design, built, and operate on club layouts and friends' layouts, so I have a pretty good sense of what I like. That doesn't mean that what I like is "right" or "better" than someone else's preference. You do you, I do me. Not what an article in a model railroad magazine, much less a Facebook post, says is the best way to do things. That said, when I am operating my own layout, I like seeing trains run through reasonably realistic scenery BUT I don't find it satisfying watching them go around in circles (again, I'm not judging ...

So, after a lot of research, studying of maps, driving of back roads, and assorted flights of fancy, here's the concept for my version of the B&V: On the brink of bankruptcy, the B&V was rescued by an investment by the Santa Fe, which saw an opportunity to establish a "back door" into the Los Angeles area. That permitted the line to be built as originally envisioned: From the SP interchange at Fillmore, into the mountains to the Lockwood Valley, then along the Cuyama River to the San Joaquin Valley, where it connected with the Sunset Railroad, co-owned by the SP and Santa Fe. The line was also extended from Fillmore to the SP (now UP) interchange in Oxnard, connecting with the (real-world VCRy) line to Port Hueneme. I'm not 100 percent sure exactly where the proposed line was supposed to run. Articles I've read say up Sespe Creek to Sespe Hot Springs, then north and over the ridge to Mutah Flat; beyond there I'm not sure how it was supposed to get to t...