Shortlines

[Train 284]

Does anyone know of any California shortline railroads that could possibly vbe modeled?

[cacole]

Try the Yolo Short Line or Amador Central. Although the Amador Central has gone out of business, there were a couple of videos made about it. There was recently a 30 minute video about the Yolo Shortline on RFD-TV, a satellite channel.

[DSchmitt]

Yosemite Valley Railroad: Merced to El Portal, Classic steam era shortline, there are several books about it, the most comprehensive Trains to Yosemite by famous Model Railroader/Railfan Jack Burgess was just published by Signature Press[8D][:D]

Central Califiornia Traction Company: Interurban which became diesel freight hauler, Stockton to Sacramento with branch to Lodi, later operations primairly Stockton-Lodi. Comprehensive book The Central California Traction Company by David Stanley and Jeffrey Moreau published by Signature Press in 2002 ans still available.[:D][8D]

California Western Railroad, Fort Bragg to Willits, lumber/log hauling, tourist operations
http://www.skunktrain.com/ book California Western "Skunk" Railroad by Spencer Crump TransAnglo Books (out of print [:(])


Yreka Western: Yreka to Montague http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/yreka1.html , http://www.cbassweb.com/railroads/yw/ , http://www.yrekawesternrr.com/

McCloud Railroad: Mount Shasta to Burney http://www.mccloudrailroad.com/
book out of print [:(] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/087095038X/ref%3Dnosim/gearedsteamlocom/002-7535868-3163217

[ericsp]

Modesto and Empire Traction and Ventura County Railroad both have GE 70 ton switchers and have had decals made of them by Microscale.

It seems like McCloud Railroad (formerly McCloud River Railroad) has had decals made for its locomotives also. Athearn is scheduled to release a McCloud boxcar at the end of this month.

http://www.trainweb.org/goldenstaterailfan/
http://rlehmer.50megs.com/photos/shortlines/
http://cencalrails.railfan.net/
http://www.trainweb.org/KernJunction/

Arcata and Mad River

Alameda Belt Line

Amador Central/Amador Foothills

Arizona and California

California Northern
http://www.trainweb.org/calnorthern/index.html

California Western
Bought by Sierra Railroad

Central Oregon and Pacific
http://www.alpharail.net/corp/corp.htm

Fillmore and Western (Only tourist and movie location RR)
http://www.fwry.com/

Los Angeles Junction Railway

McCloud Railroad
http://www.mccloudrailroad.com/
http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/index.html

Modesto & Empire Traction
http://www.metrr.com/
http://www.trainweb.org/rosters/MET.html

Northwestern Pacific
http://www.northcoastrailroad.org/

Pacific Harbor Lines
http://www.anacostia.com/phl/phl.html

Quincy Railroad

Richmond Pacific Railroad (formerly Parr Terminal)
http://www.levinterminal.com/Rail.html (They seem to change this address every 2 minutes)

San Joaquin Valley Railroad

Santa Maria Valley Railroad
http://www.smvrr.com/
http://www.smvrhm.org/index.html

Sierra Railroad
http://www.sierrarailroad.com/

Stockton Terminal and Eastern
http://www.sterailroad.com/

Trona Railway
http://www.trainweb.org/rosters/TRC.html
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/1916/trona.html (Incomplete hsitory)

Visalia Electric
http://www.donsdarkroom.com/visalia_electric.htm

Ventura Couty Railroad

Yolo Shortline
Bought by Sierra Railroad

Yreka Western Railroad
http://www.yrekawesternrr.com/

I probably have forgotten some.

[jddav1]

The Pacific Coast in central coastal Ca. was a steam short line that died in the mid 40's. In it's last few years many railfan trips were run. It was also used for hollywood films. There are many books about it that are still available.
Jeff

[DSchmitt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jddav1

The Pacific Coast in central coastal Ca. was a steam short line that died in the mid 40's. In it's last few years many railfan trips were run. It was also used for hollywood films. There are many books about it that are still available.
Jeff

Do you mean the Pacific Coast Railway, San Luis Obispo to? 3' gauge: It's one of may favorites Gerald Best's book Ships and Narrow Gauge Rails was re-issued as The Pacific Coast Company
http://www.signaturepress.com/pcc.html

There was also the South Pacific Coast in the Santa Cruz area http://www.spcrr.org/HistorySPCRR.htm

[Jetrock]

Redding, eh? There's a pretty nice little hobby shop up there, and a couple more okay ones. Some good train-watching too.

Supposedly there are some guys who want to start a small logging/railroad museum in Anderson, focused on northern California logging railroad equipment.

California had a LOT of short lines--the above is just a sample. Are you planning on modeling modern era or sometime in the past?

[Train 284]

Ya! The owners got a nice 900 sq. ft. layout too.

[ericsp]

As far as modeling possiblities, I recommend searching for the above shortlines in Microscale's catalog (http://www.microscale.com/). Since Microscale is the largest manufacturer of model train decals and is based in CA, it is probably the company most likely to make CA shortline decals. Oddball Decals makes decals for CFNR gondolas (http://mopac1.tripod.com/oddballs3.htm).

I don't know what you want to model. The above list emcompasses everything from industrial switching line to rural and mountain shortlines with few customers.