Over at my Blog there's a new post about the Golden State Model Railroad Museum. Chuck from the Feather River Train Shop recently took me there and I made a video of the visit. It's a rare opportunity to see Chuck outside the shop having fun with some trains. Don't forget to rate the video, and/or subscribe to the Reality Reduced YouTube Channel.
Nice tour Leo. I've been to that club and you have captured its flavor well. (I even remember seeing it in the Emeryville location.) It looks like the weather in Richmond was decidedly better than it was in DC this weekend; except for those of us -- like me -- that love snow. -Gary
Hey Leo thanks for plugging us! Nice to see my Pacer Stacktrain containers in the background of one of those shots. One small correction to the video: Our layout has been completely DCC capable for over two years, which is to say as long as I've been a club member. I think it's been quite a bit longer than that. (Some of the pages on our website may need updating)...
Ha! That's why I love the Internet. You shoot a train 2000 miles across the country and the owner pops up! I may have left a bit of the wrong impression. I saw folks running the entire layout on DCC, so that's clearly possible. However I also saw them having problems with conflicts with DC folks, and it appeared to me very few turnouts were DCC capable. That's not really a surprise on a layout this size. "DCC Capable" takes many forms. If you can run a train around with a DCC throttle many people call that DCC Capable, which it is. On the other hand, some folks believe if you can't control every turnout, have transponding and signals, then it's not full DCC. This layout is somewhere in the middle. I don't think that distracts at all from the layout. Indeed, I think this layout is an interesting case of a complex DC design now being adapted to DCC which is never trivial. I imagine many, many man hours have gone into the process.
Well, that's just a dispatching issue! Actually I think about half the turnouts on the layout are now connected to decoders, including almost all the mainline turnouts. That's fair. Actually, in Tehachapi loop we have signals, detection, and DCC control of turnouts. And in the Roseville/Sacramento area, we have none of those! Yes. It is pretty crazy that we run DCC on a common rail layout with dozens of blocks powered through rotary switches. Don't try this at home! What's more, having a layout that fully supports DC and DCC locos means you can join our club no matter what equipment you have. I especially appreciate it because I have both.
Isn't it the Golden Gate Model RR club? Crazy I have worked out of Richmond off and on for the past 12 years and never drove through the tunnel to see the layout. Several of my co-workers also belong to the club. I guess I am always too much in a hurry after I tie up dodging bullets and such to get out of the area! One of these days...
Impressive. I live about 80 miles from there and I'd better get down to see it in person, LOL! Oh, BTW, Leo, it's not Truck-EE, it's TRUCK-ee. Just ask any of us guys who used to live there, LOL! Liked the video a lot. Tom
Nice video, Leo! My dad used to take me down to the old Emeryville location ("The caboose") in the '50s for open house the third Friday of the month. I especially enjoyed the Key System bridge units on the HO traction line (I used to live on the old "E" line in Berkeley) and the shays running in the mountains. They even had a small TT layout (pre N-scale). I've been to the new location and have one of their box cars that I run it with my NVNTRAK car (sorta bi-coastal). Nice work. in the '50s.
My dad took me to Emeryville as well around the same time. Wait, that means I'm as old as Doug. I also remember that the O scale layout scenery was concrete, the kind you make sidewalks out of. One reason they didn't salvage any of that layout.
