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info about Jack London Square Oakland

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  • Member since
    September 2008
  • From: Edegem, Belgium
  • 35 posts
info about Jack London Square Oakland
Posted by marctje on Monday, June 10, 2019 4:55 PM

I'm thinking to start with a layout inspired by the Jack London Square in Oakland California and this in HO scale. I now that passenger service is done by Amtrak and this with the California, and freight with Union Pacific and BNSF. Is there other passengertrains than the California of is every train from Amtrak ok to run these streets.

I also want info abourt the buildings on this streettrack, like foto's and messurments. I can't get these because i live in Edegem, near Antwerp Belgium.

If i made mistakes in my text i'm sorry but englisch is not my mother langue ( i'm flemisch ore dutch speaking)

 

Thanks for you time

Union Pacific and Amtrak in Belgium

  • Member since
    March 2018
  • 688 posts
Posted by BNSF UP and others modeler on Monday, June 10, 2019 6:14 PM

So, if I read correctly, you want to model an area in Oakland, California. You have discovered that BNSF and UP are the main carriers, and Amtrak provides passenger service. You are looking for additional resources about this area such as pictures, measurements, and building information. Not quite sure what you mean by streets and streettrack, but I am assuming you mean railroad routes.

To answer your questions basically: A quick search reveals that, as far as I can tell, the passenger service is covered soley by Amtrak. As for measurements and such, google images and other historical/photographic sites are your friends. Google maps has a smale scale in the bottom right corner, which you can use to get a rough approximation of dimensions. I am an almost (not quite, but almost) exclusively BNSF and UP modeler in HO scale myself, so if you have other questions about these railroads not related to your topic above, let me know. I might be able to answer them. Hope all of this helps, and your english isn't bad, by the way!

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  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: California - moved to North Carolina 2018
  • 4,422 posts
Posted by DSchmitt on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 11:55 AM

With Google Earth you can see what is there now.  Street view will show what the area and buildings look like and there is a measuring tool so you can figure their footprint dimensions  easily.

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  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 1,498 posts
Posted by ROBERT PETRICK on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 12:56 PM

There is a guy at the Minnesota Free-MoN club who has modeled Jack London Square. About three or four consecutive modules. There are YouTube videos available. I don't have a link at the moment, but I'll try to add one later when I get home to my laptop.

I don't remember if he models N-scale (I think he does), but I remember he did a teriffic job.

Robert 

LINK to SNSR Blog


  • Member since
    April 2019
  • From: Pacific Northwest
  • 780 posts
Posted by SPSOT fan on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 3:35 PM

I believe Amtrak has alot of different paint schemes used on their locomotives and passenger cars in California. I am not terribly firmiliar with were each paint scheme and brand is used, but I believe Amtrak runs long distance trains using regular equipment, and then has some regional trains using the Amtrak California, also called CalTrans, paint and the Pacific Surfliner schemes. So even though Amtrak is the only provider of passenger service in the area there is a good variatey of train for the OP to run.

Regards, Isaac

I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern CA Bay Area
  • 4,387 posts
Posted by cuyama on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 4:50 PM

SPSOT fan
I believe Amtrak has alot of different paint schemes used on their locomotives and passenger cars in California. I am not terribly firmiliar with were each paint scheme and brand is used, but I believe Amtrak runs long distance trains using regular equipment, and then has some regional trains using the Amtrak California, also called CalTrans, paint and the Pacific Surfliner schemes. So even though Amtrak is the only provider of passenger service in the area there is a good variatey of train for the OP to run.

Some bad information in this post. Pacific Surfliner trains are found only in Southern and Central California, they don't come within 200 rail miles of Oakland. Caltrain is operated by a completely different agency since 2012 and never served Oakland or that side of the bay at all. (“Caltrans” is the California Department of Transportation – think highways).

There’s no harm in simply not posting when one doesn’t know and can’t be bothered to do an Internet search.

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