SP Coast Line

HO Scale - circa 1950
Owner: James Donlon
Layout Location: St. Josephs St., Santa Barbara, CA
James’ HO scale Southern Pacific Coast Line is a three deck representation of the Southern Pacific Coastline route.
The circa 1950 era allows a mix of steam, first generation diesels and a few second generation diesels.
The railroad seeks to faithfully recreate the SP’s Ventura Sub Division operations between Burbank Junction (roughly Glendale CA) and Sea Cliff (south Santa Barbara) with 350 feet of mainline in an around the 22’ x 19’ room.
The railroad was built for operation. Using an original SP timetable from the era, James dispatches trains based on the actual time table of the day using and 8:1 fast clock to cover a 24 hour period in 3 hours with an average of 16 to 20 trains operating per session..
The times of the trains on his model are within minutes of the actual 1952 SP
timetable.
Trains include through and local freights as well as named passenger consists. Trains run as scheduled and extras.
Towns and landmarks along the route are captured in the layout including Santa Susana Pass, the yard at Oxnard and the “Y” for the Santa Paula branch line.
Entry to the layout requires navigating a “CRAWL under” so be prepared.