Sierra Railroad 1955

Modeling the Sierra Railroad in Twain Harte, CA

SP and ATSF staging tracks

The SP Eastside Branch runs from Merced north (railroad west) to Stockton through the towns of Oakdale, Farmington and Meinke Jct.

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This is the Merced staging yard. These four trains two of which have waybill cars on them will run to Stockton while the 4 trains in Stockton will run to Merced. As the train leaves Merced they curve around the end of the room and enter Oakdale.

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As the train enters Oakdale it crosses the ATSF track on a 90 degree diamond . The SP Interchange tracks are the two tracks curving off to the left.

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The SP Depot in Oakdale and the point of origin for the Sierra Railroad. Hwy 108/120 is depicted in the photo and the station portion of the depot is still there, it now houses I believe the Cowboy Museum. The buildings in the background are just temporary and will be replaced with several FSM kits.

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Looking north down the mainline as it runs through Oakdale. The SP Depot would be on your right. The cut of cars on siding are overflow cars from the SP Interchange. Some of these cars will head up the hill on the Sierra while others will end up either in Merced or Stockton.

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The north end of Oakdale with the SP crossing the Stanislaus River, yes this is the same river that the Pickering crossed up at Beardsley Flat.

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This is Farmington, a very small rural valley town between Oakdale and Stockton. As the SP runs through this area it runs behind the heater/hot water tank and enters Meinke Jct on the other side of the enclosure. On left hand side of the photo you can just see a couple of cars sitting in the ATSF storage yard.

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A close up of one of the industries in Farmington. The local industries in Oakdale, Farmington and Meinke Jct are serviced by the SP Peddler freights that run between Merced and Stockton, one in each direction.

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Meinke Junction, the one truly fictitious place on the whole layout, is on the left and the AT&SF staging tracks in Riverbank are on the right. As the SP leaves Meinke Jct the tracks curve around the end of the room and cross the SP tracks leaving Merced at a grade crossing. They then proceed down the length of the room to Stockton. The AT&SF tracks curve into the Oakdale area and cross the SP tracks in Oakdale as seen earlier.

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This is the temporary Stockton Staging yard. When complete the yard will be flipped 180 degrees and the back ends of the Merced yard and Stockton yard will be connected making the SP track one giant loop. The track has been ordered,  just waiting on Walthers to receive it. It looks like the completion of the Stockton Yard will be put off until next spring after the tax season is over. This and the WSLCo extension to Camp 24 are two remaining construction projects for the layout and both should be done by the end of summer 2008.

 

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