San Andreas Branch - Circa 1980

The HO-Scale San Andreas Branch is a fictitious, but plausible, branch line/short line that originates in Stockton California and terminates in the small town of San Andreas in the Sierra foothills. Between Stockton and San Andreas, the line's major customers include several agricultural based businesses at Fair Oaks and the large Portland Cement plant at Calaveras. At the end of the line, at San Andreas, there is a stud mill and a furniture factory.

The Southern Pacific's Kentucky House branch also served the same area. The SP line originated in Lodi, California (north of Stockton) and terminated near San Andreas. In 1982 the cement plant stopped shipping by rail and from that point forward the SP line lay dormant until 1998 when it was finally abandoned.

In designing the track plan, operations trumped most other design criteria. The minimum radius is 36" with easements and the maximum grade is about 2%. Sidings are long, 20 plus cars with the exception of Summit, and utilize #8 turnouts. Most of the other turnouts are #6 with the exception of a few #5's used around the cement plant at Calaveras. While I would prefer a linier design with only one track passing through a scene, my distaste for two level layouts, a desire to maximize the length of the main line and the physical constraints of the room dictated otherwise. For lack of a better description, it is a "folded dog-bone" style point to point track plan. In several cases I have managed to hide the second track. At Calaveras the second track runs behind and slightly below the cement plant. I did the same thing at Fair Oaks. A view block will be used between Valley Springs and Summit since they are located on opposite sides of a peninsula.

The following describes the layout from a west to east (Stockton to San Andreas) perspective.

Western Pacific/Santa Fe - Stockton/Flora Street

East bound trains originate in Western Pacific's Stockton Yard. The yard is represented by a staging yard outside the main layout room. Three tracks will pass through the wall, two representing the WP's Stockton Yard and one representing the Santa Fe interchange.

One major compromise in the design is having the west end of the railroad (Stockton) cross over the east end of the railroad (near San Andreas) at grade. Due to the need for clearance, under the bench work, and the desire to eliminate a duck under there was no other choice. The tracks are about 56" off the floor at this point allowing about 54" of clearance for my 2003 Mustang Cobra to pass underneath.

The area just east of the crossing (in front of the garage door) is Flora Street. Flora Street is built on a semi permanent 2'X8' lift-out module. On the prototype, the Western Pacific (now UP) interchanged with the Stockton Terminal & Eastern at Flora Street.

Fair Oaks

After leaving Flora Street, the line swings around the northwest corner of the room and enters Fair Oaks. Fair Oaks is a transitional area just to the east of Stockton. The fertile land around Stockton supports orchard crops like walnuts and almonds, vineyards and row crops like tomatoes and asparagus. A food processor or two, a cold storage plant and several other customers should keep the local crew pretty busy. The small yard at Fair Oaks will also be used to sort cars for interchange to and from the Santa Fe and the Stockton Terminal & Eastern railroads.

The sub-roadbed is 3/4" plywood on risers spaced 16-18" apart. Aisle are at least 30" wide and where one or more operators need to pass the aisles are at least 36" wide.

Leaving Fair Oaks eastward, the tacks swing around the north east corner of the room and pass behind the Calaveras Cement scene emerging about 2/3rds of the way down the east wall. Further up the line, the train will pass through this scene on the upper level. A river and deck truss bridge are planned for this area.

The small picture on the left shows how the tracks get from Fair Oaks to the river crossing behind and below the Calaveras cement plant.

Valley Springs and the western approach to Summit Siding

Valley Springs is the line's operational hub. A small 4-track yard is located here. The Southern Pacific's Kentucky House Branch also passes through Valley Springs on its way to the cement plant at Calaveras. Trains originating in Stockton will terminate here. From Valley Springs, traffic will be routed to the cement plant at Calaveras on a "Calaveras Turn" or to San Andreas on the "San Andreas Local".

Valley Springs is located on the left side of a peninsula in the picture on the right.

The east end of Valley Springs swings around the end of the peninsula. The Southern Pacific interchange track (s) will be on the right while the mainline and siding swing around the far side of the peninsula towards Summit. In order to maintain the 2.2% grade and 36" radius curves between Valley Springs and Summit it was necessary to include a 360 degree loop. Part of the loop, on the Valley Springs side of the peninsula will be disguised by a tunnel and view block.

The approach to summit from the west. The location of the entry door, seen in the picture on the right, was a major design consideration. Several plans were developed that included a duck-under or lift-out in front of the door. The advantage of including the duck-under was a more linier track plan. In the end, I decided that the elimination of the duck-under or lift-out was more important, to me, than having a more linier track plan. An unanticipated plus of eliminating the duck-under was another 75' or so of main line required to loop back around the room to reach San Andreas from the other direction. This added length allowed me to space out the distances between Fair Oaks and Calaveras from about 15' to about 90'

Summit Siding and the eastern decent to Calavaras

Summit Siding is the highest point on the railroad, close to 60". The siding here will be the shortest on the railroad - about 10-12 cars and two locomotives. Trains on this end of the railroad will be shorter so the length of the siding should not be a big problem. There will be at least one spur here but I have no idea what it will be used for. Here the main line turns back on itself as it drops down the eastern side of the hill toward Calaveras.

The lower two photos show the approach to Calaveras from the west.

Calaveras

These three photos show most of the major components of the Calaveras Cement Plant in close to their final positions. Most of the structures will be located on a removable section of 2" pink foam. The main line drops along aisle in front of the plant is on a 2% grade. The cement plant will be a major source of traffic for the branch. In bound traffic will consist of limestone aggregate, coal and other chemicals while outbound traffic will consist of bagged and bulk Portland Cement. Two Walthers cement plants make up most of the plant. Two modified Walthers Western Coal Flood Loader kits will be used for raw material storage (not shown in pictures) as well as parts from a Walther's Magic Pan Bakery and Glacier Gravel kits. A Pikestuff engine house was modified for use as a unloading shed for limestone and coal. Track is the new Peco Code 83.

Calaveras to San Andreas

Mainline and siding leaving Calaveras (lower level) about to drop under and to the rear of Fair Oaks.

Mainline and siding (against the back drop) behind Fair Oaks.

San Andreas

Several industries will be nestled around this small terminal including a furniture factory, stud mill, Coors beer distributor and freight house. The view on the right is looking west from the main town site toward the "SP Crossing" in front of the garage door.

A provision for continuous running can easily be added to the plan by cutting through the backdrop, looping through to the Stockton WP/ATSF staging track outside the main layout room.