Model Railroading > Operating on Ted York's Cajon Pass

I attended my first NMRA convention this past week and had a blast.  This was the first time a convention was close by and I could afford to take the time off of work.  I still had to sneak in a few family responsiblities during the week, but didn't miss much.  There was way too much to see and do, and I'll have a few more posts over on the Passenger Train board for the tours I took.  I enjoyed meeting people not only from Utah, but from the US, Canada, and even Germany.  What might have been the biggest highlight was getting a chance to operate on Ted York's fabulous model of Cajon Pass.  I had seen articles about it before we moved to Utah, and had heard about it at the model train shop I frequent.  But the stars aligned and I finally got a chance to go.  And the first comment I made to my wife is it really feels like I'm standing at the top of Cajon Pass.  Gil's backdrop, the scenery design and colors that Ted chose, the trains, everything works together so well.  There were a few folks in our group of operators who have never been to the real Cajon Pass yet and I told them they will recognize it when they get there based on how well Ted's layout looks.  

I hadn't operated on a layout since participating in the Walnut Creek, CA train club many moons ago, so it was a treat to watch a fully functional layout replicate all the various movements needed to make a circe 1950's railroad work.  I got to be the station agent at Summit, which was challenging, but really fun.  The dispatcher probably wanted to fire me more than once, and I did learn a few new things by doing it wrong the first time.  But everyone had fun. it was a great atmopshere to work (ok play) in, and I hope to get to do it again.

To make things interesting, Ted had us just use the eastbound or uphill track between Cajon Station and Summit Station to make things more interesting.  It was tricky as the other station agent and I figured out how to coordinate the traffic.  And then real life struck and we had a broken switch machine at Cajon and then one at Summit.  Poor Ted was running back and forth trying to get things fixed.  We did joke that it made it more like real railroading!  We did finally have to open up the westbound track to get things moving.  Ted is a great host, and if you ever get a chance he has a specatcular layout that looks great in the magazinges, but is even better in person.

Nathan

1 - One of the first Santa Fe westbounds, but it's headed down the eastbound (uphill) track.
2 - Eastbound Santa Fe passenger train (might have been the Grand Canyon) has reached Summit and will cut off the helper.  I did screw up and use the Caboose/Water Tank track for helpers at first, but I did get myself out of that jam.  It was like playing Tetris, one of my favorite games as kid, only with model trains.
3 - I took over the local at Summit since it was late and folks were headed back to Salt Lake.  So here's me blasting through Cajon.  Did a little switching at Devore before tying up and heading home myself.  

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WOW!

Posted from Android

  Glad you had a good time in SLC. My first convention was in KC (2018) and had a great time. I'm saving my pennies for St. Louis in 2020...
We saw many great layouts and it gave me many ideas for my own that I'm building now. Got a great tour of the BNSF yard KC juntion to name a few.
St. Louis has some big shoes to fill next year...

  Steve H...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/19 16:59 by hartrick24.

Looks like great fun!

Posted from Android

And for those SP fans, there were 2 detours to enjoy.  I didn't get enough pictures of the UP trains, but the best was the cow/calf switcher that was a helper.  I had to make sure they got around the wye to run down the pass, was told I couldn't cheat.  Rules are rules!

1 - A cab forward leads a westbound SP detour at Summit
2 - Some Black Widows lead the eastbound SP detour is coming through the 2nd tunnel past Alray and making the final climb to Summit
3 - UP eastbound climbing through Sullivan's curve

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Very impressive layout and nice photo/video coverage Nathan.

Rich

Nice, for real!!!

SantaFeRuss