I'll guarantee it'll "turn out pretty good". Your work is a heckuva lot better than I can do. I'm looking forward to see how you recreate the complexity of piping from the refinery to the loading dock shown in the satellite views. The piping and bridge structures should be an excellent sight block for the tracks disappearing into the scenery.
The scene compared to the birds eye looks great even though its not done!!! Probably a dumb question but since the SP had all kinds of lines in the SF bay area like Diego and LA, since the UP take over are a lot of the lines just one train here and maybe another there or are they still heavily used?
Back in my youth, there was SP (the "Cal P" line along San Pablo Bay that Jerry is modeling as well as the coast line to the south and the line through Niles Canyon and over Altamont Pass to Tracy), WP over Altamont, and Santa Fe via Franklin Canyon (another Jerry speciality). SP and WP are now UP, and SF is now BNSF. I believe all lines remain under their sucessor roads, except for the consolidation of the Altamiont lines. But having now lived in the east for 43 years, I could be wrong.
Doug, you are correct. Although, there are a number of branch lines that are no longer in service (consolidated to one road: e.g the old Santa Fe lines in Berkeley - now all traffic is on the SP/UP lines), or traffic has been cut back considerably. The main rails in/out of Oakland, and the SP lines up the Peninsula are still very busy
Got the gas tank and some bridges ordered. Hopefully they wont take too long to get here from Japan. Really want to get this done and see how it looks.
Last time I ordered anything from Japan it was from Hasegawa, UPS then promptly went on strike, and I never got any of the kits because Hasegawa stopped making them as a result of the strike almost sending them under since at the time UPS was their sole shipper.
Jerry, The aerial shots of the refinery in Rodeo are some views that I used when planning my refinery. It's a lot bigger then what we model, but the ideas it gives are good. Like you I still have lots of pipping and other items to add.
Yes, I'm a huge fan of google maps (and bing maps) for modelling also. I used them alot when I was building my mill complex. Looking great Jerry!!!
So far so good with the storms......man, this state has been hit hard lately! Have gotten alot of high winds and serious rain, golfball sized hail too. Got 2 cars and my truck jammed into a two car garage for protection. Sounded like a bunch of monkeys with ball bats on my tin roof when the hail started falling...LOL Tornado is on the ground south of here the TV is saying now. Hope all our Trainboard friends are safe. My prayers are with you all.
Dropped by to see if you made it through alright. I know the railroad got hit hard in places, but seeing that some of the places near you got hit this morning and were in line again tonight made me hope you guys came though okay.
