Western Railroad Discussion > Request for Photo: SP Valley Line in Northridge

I grew up in Northridge, not too far from the Coast Line. Might someone have a picture of an SP freight rolling through the Balboa or Roscoe Boulevard crossings? There was once a slot car racing track on Roscoe just west of the crossing which my father frequented.

Thank you in advance.

SCC

No pic but I used to work at RCA on Balboa just north of the tracks.

BobP,

Was RCA the company located on the east side of Balboa, across the right of way from the Jack in the Box?

Posted from Android

I've never heard of a slot car track on Roscoe. Which time era was it? There was a go-kart track at the same location for years- Pepe's Go-Karts. They were south and west of the Roscoe crossing, then moved to a north-east location before closing. Had a blast there for a ton of birthday parties. And for a short time in the early/mid 80's, there was a hobby shop at the NW corner of the tracks and Roscoe. Maybe they had a slot car track inside, but I never saw it (only Tyco trains).

I highly recommend joining some of the Southern Pacific Facebook pages that exist. About two weeks ago, several fans and former SP employees posted an abundance of pics between Lindely and Woodley. There is also a book coming out of SP in the SFV (David Coscia), and another being written on the Coast Line and Burbank Branch,circa 1970's and 1980's (Tim Crothers).

Jason Eminian
Smith Brothers Hobby Center
Nothridge, CA

Jason,

Thanks, first of all, for your previous posts about the Coast Line in the SFV.

Roscoe Raceway was located at 16667 Roscoe Blvd. I grew up in the Valley, and I know my dad raced there in the 1960s and early 1970s. I believe it had gone out of business by 1975. There was also Trackside at Roscoe and Tampa; I have no real memories of my dad racing there. There is a post on SlotBlog that documents all of the SFV tracks.

I am not on Facebook, but thank you for that info.

SCC

I believe that Roscoe Raceway was in the commercial strip mall just east of Balboa. I frequented the track at Tampa and Roscoe when I was a kid. There was also one, I believe called "Slot spot", at Reseda and Devonshire. That was the best place at the time with 5 or 6 large tracks.

Never knew about Roscoe Raceway, very cool! Thanks for the info.

Jason

SoCalCynic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BobP,
>
> Was RCA the company located on the east side of
> Balboa, across the right of way from the Jack in
> the Box?
>
> Posted from Android
Yes. When I worked there they made the computer that blasted off the Saturn rockets from Cape Canaveral.