Southern Pacific Side of Oakdale Junction Layout

Once again, the use of modeler's license is taking place on my Oakdale Junction HO scale layout. This time it is with the industries that are established on the Southern Pacific Railroad side of Oakdale. Another industry that I am fascinated with regarding railroading in the 1950's is with packinghouse operations.

I like the look and operations of refrigerator car operations, especially those used in fruit and vegetable deliveries. By adding some packing houses in town, Southern Pacific crews will have the opportunity to switch Pacific Fruit Express and other refrigerator cars. Sometimes they will be dropping off empty cars to be loaded and other times they will be picking up loaded cars for transport to off layout destinations. There will even be the need to spot the cars at the ice house to be iced prior to loading. The excitement of operating this type of freight traffic is why I like the 1950's era of railroading.

Meat Packing Industry Served by Sierra Railway

I am obviously not modeling Oakdale Junction 100% correctly on my HO scale model railroad. There never was a meat packing plant in Oakdale served by any of the three railroad companies that operated in the city. However, in my version of history, a meat packing industry was established in Oakdale and the plant was served by the Sierra Railroad.

I need to use some modeler's license on my layout to serve my interests in this hobby. I really like the look and operations of handling refrigerator cars and livestock cars in the 1950's. So this is why I added the meat packing industry to my layout. Most of you will realize that I am using the commercially available Walthers Cornerstone kits to model this industry. Without the opportunity to switch the stockyards, ice house and packing plant itself, there would be no switching work to be done on the Sierra Railroad portion of my layout. I now have added operational interest to my layout so that the Sierra Railroad crew has something to do other than switching the interchange track in town.

Oakdale Junction Layout Successfully Moved

A few weeks ago, my family and I moved from one residence down the street and around the corner to another residence. My HO scale Oakdale Junction layout which was erected in the living room of the old house is now in place inside the two car garage of the new house. I am pleased with how it is set up in the garage.

I initially built the layout in three sections anticipating future moves. I specifically measured the dimensions of available rental trucks (U-haul types) so that my layout sections would fit inside of them. Unfortunately, the rear door does not extend all the way to the roof, and this measurement is not listed on the dimensions of the trucks. Because of this, I did have to remove the backdrop panels to get the layout sections onto the rental truck. I was not too upset by this as I had wanted to re-do them in a different manner anyway when I moved to the new residence. Now that the layout sections are in place inside the garage, I will be able to re-do the backdrop panels in the manner that I want.

For some reason, the small corner layout section now does not line up with the two longer shelf layouts. I have to add shims to the legs of this corner section to raise the table base to line up with the track on the two longer shelf layout sections. I also have to replace/re-lay some of the Atlas flex-track sections that span the connection joints.

There are still lots of boxes from the move inside the garage that are in the way of me getting to the layout to work on it. Once I get to unpacking these boxes, I will be able to work on the layout. I have not attempted to connect any of the track wiring to any outlets in the garage. On the surface, the track and track feeder wires all appear to be intact and do not look damaged as a result of the move. I have high hopes that (electrically) everything will work once I get the layout plugged in.

The advantage of having the layout set up in the garage at this residence is that I will now be able to have staging yards attached to each end of the layout. This was not going to be possible when it was set up in the living room of the older house due to space restraints of the room. Now that we have pretty much settled into the new house, my goal is to unpack the boxes in the garage over the next few weeks and get back to working on the layout.

Oakdale Junction Research

Most of the research I have done on Oakdale Junction has come from a variety of sources. A lot of it has come from my dad who is an avid fan of the Sierra Railroad and Pickering Lumber Company. Growing up, my father was working on an HO Scale shelf layout set up along one wall of the garage. His layout was loosely based upon the Pickerinig's interchange with the Sierra.

I have family members who lived in the Sonora, Jamestown and Twain Harte area which is where the Sierra Railroad Operated. I have made numerous visits to the area over the years. I have been to Jamestown several times and have ridden many excursion trains sponsored by the Sierra Railroad. Two years ago, I met John Zachs, who has an impressive HO Scale layout depicting the Sierra Railroad and the interchanges with the Pickering Lumber Company and the Westside Lumber Company. Though it has been over a year since I have operated his layout, it was a pleasure to be a small part of that railroad operating crew.

Currently, I do not live too far from Oakdale. I have jumped in the car and made trips out there to look at the existing infrastructure that served all three railroads back in the period I am modeling. Various satelite maps (Bing and Google) have helped me in my research as well. I have come across historic topographic maps from the early 50's which depict the track layout and supporting structures in Oakdale.

The document that has helped me the most is an article "The Montpellier Branch" that was written by Gary B. Jones and published in SP Trainline (Summer 2010 No. 104) which is issued by the Southern Pacific Historical & Technological Society. So far, this article has provided me with the most comprehensive information about the Montpellier Branch and about SP operations in Oakdale. The article includes several historical pictures and SPINS diagrams of cities located between Stockton and Merced.

HO Scale Model Railroad

I began this blog well over a year ago when I first started to construct my version of Oakdale Junction. For some reason, I set up the general layout of the blog, but never posted anything. I have been actively working on the layout for the past year. Now that significant progress has been made on the layout, I should have plenty to post about it.

Oakdale Junction is a fourteen by fifteen foot "L-shaped" model railroad shelf layout done in HO Scale and is located in the living room of my house. By now all of the benchwork has been built and all track has been laid. Most of the electrical feeder wires have been attached to the DCC bus lines. DCC equipped locomotives have been test run on portions of the layout to confirm the electrical connections are solid.

The city of Oakdale is a real city in California and is located in the central valley near the foothills of the Sierras. Oakdale was once served by three railroad companies: Santa Fe, Sierra and Southern Pacific. Both the Santa fe and the Southern Pacific interchanged freight cars with the Sierra at Sierra's Oakdale Yard. The Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific did not interchange freight cars in Oakdale. For a more detailed history of Oakdale Junction, check out the "History of Oakdale Juncition" tab on this blog.

I have tried to keep the track diagram of Oakdlae Junction as close as possible to how it looked in the 1950's. The time period I am trying to model is the years 1955 to 1957. These dates are still considered to be a part of the "Transition Era" of railroading. This is the time where railroads were making the transition from using steam locomotives to using diesel powered units.

To make operations a little more interesting, I have used some modeler's licesne and added some industries and appropriate spurs even though these did not exist in Oakdale. I choose to model Oakdale Junction because I am able to depict the junction with three railroads. On one leg of the shelf, I am modeling the Sierra Yard and engine servicing facility. I have added a stockyard and meat packing plant operation in this area. There is also an ice house and icing track to ice refrigerator cars. Neither of these two facilities existed in Oakdale. Sierra freight trains will depart Sierra Yard and head toward the town of Jamestown which is represented by a staging yard.

The other leg of the shelf models the Southern Pacific's trackage through Oakdale. It starts just before the location of SP's Oakdale Depot and continues through the crossing with the Santa Fe's track into Sierra Yard. SP trains that head past the depot are on their way to the city of Stockton which is represented by a staging yard. SP trains can travel across the Santa Fe crossing and continue toward the city of Merced which is also represented by a staging yard. None of the staging yards have been constructed as of yet, but their designs are completed.

Due to the confines of the garage space, the Santa Fe portion of track modeled on the layout is very minimal. It does include the crossing with the Southern Pacific's trackage and the two interchange tracks located in Sierra Yard. Santa Fe trains leaving Sierra yard and heading toward the city of Riverbank can travel across the crossing and then exit through a hole in the backdrop.

To run the layout, I have selected a DCC System developed by Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC). I am using the firm's Prodigy Advance 2 "Squared" system. I have divided each leg of the layout into two separate operational zones with their own circuit breaker protection. This way if a train operating in Sierra Yard causes a short circuit, a train operatiing on the SP tracks near the depot will continue to function. There is a third section of track with circuit breaker protection and an auto-reversing module which is the Sierra Wye portion of Sierra Yard. This wye track was used to turn locomotives. Due to the availability of the space, I had to locate the wye on the opposite side of the Sierra Yard tracks.