Sometimes, while traveling, we see unexpected stuff. We think, "Is this for real?" I've seen an entire park of miniature famous buildings - all about 25% the size of the real thing. I'm talking Westminster Abbey, the White House, the Taj Mahal, and so forth. That place took the cake since each of the 50 or so buildings were constructed by one person over a 30 year period. When we were in Maine, we found a bird museum - birds faithfully carved lifesized in exquisite detail in wood. Again, the lifetime work of one man.
As a 'tack on' to a day at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park in San Diego, we went to the Model Railroad Museum just to round out the day, and we found something entirely unexpected. This place rivals lots of places we've seen because this museum represents the collaboration of four separate groups of people each maintaining portions of an overall vision of model railroading. These exhibits have taken hundreds of hours to complete, and additional hours every day from 11am to 4pm to keep the models operational. Here are examples of model railroading at its finest:
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| San Diego Port - circa 1950 |
There are four separate clubs represented in the exhibitions. Three out of the four create their own models and landscape based on aerial photographs. The fourth is designed for children and appropriately is called the "Toy Train" Exhibit. All the models in this exhibit are purchased ready made by this club from the various model railroading companies, Lionel being the most famous. (Sadly, according to one of the club members I interviewed, Lionel chose not to offer any support in terms of offering any models or other equipment the club needed to create this fabulous set up.)
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| Here's John manning the exhibition for visitors and answering questions - a great ambassador for the hobby |
Do you ever set up a Christmas Village somewhere in your house as a decoration? Well, the Toy Train exhibition was like that except on steroids and with trains running through it. An entire town has been re-created right down to the cars and people. This is the one thing this club has in common with the other three clubs.
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| This is one small corner of the Toy Train exhibition. I love the theater is showing "Gone with the Wind". There are all sorts of 'fun' details in this model. Can you spot the star of the Disney movie "Cars"? |
By contrast, the other three model railroading clubs use a different scale of train than the Toy Train exhibit, and strive for accuracy of the placement of the train tracks through a representation of an actual landscape at a certain time period.
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| Actual farmhouse with outbuildings exactly located (see train running on left) circa 1953 - train route from Bakersfield to Mojave. [See aerial photograph below] |
This club is in the process of building the exact landscape, towns, trestles, bridges, and tunnels of the train route from Bakersfield to Mojave - a portion of the train tracks servicing the length of California. The trick for the real railroad was to build a huge trestle and a series of tunnels for the track. (Remember, this model mimics the real thing.)
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| Trace your finger between Bakersfield and Mojave. That's the train track which had to be built in order to get train service from north to south in California, and this model railway club is building the route in their display. |
First, they pour over aerial photography of the period they are trying to build, so not only will the topography be accurate, but the towns along the route will also be portrayed accurately for the time period. One of the railroaders told me the time period was circa 1953 or possibly a little later since in 1952 there was a 7.5 earthquake which damaged portions of the track, trestles and tunnels. What's shown in the model is what was rebuilt after the quake.
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| Aerial Photograph of a portion of the route between Bakersfield and Mojave |
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| Miniature trestle in one of the railroad models |
I learned a huge number of factoids during our tour of these models. The "Toy Train" operators bring their own personal trains to the model, and flip one switch. The train(s) then run non-stop for the entertainment of the visitors. The ambassadors stand in the center of the exhibit and answer questions. They even have a uniform - each wears a blue work shirt with their names embroidered on them. The "Toy Train" exhibit is decorated for holidays - the main ones being: Halloween and Christmas. The decorating takes several club members about 12 hours to both put up and take down the decorations. I also noticed how very dust free and clean the "Toy Train' exhibit was in contrast to the other three models. Doug and John confided there's a very petite lady member of the club who regularly climbs up onto the model with her duster and other cleaning supplies. (I should have known the reason it was so clean was because of the work of a woman!)
By contrast, the other three models are completely different in scope and intent. First, they are modeled on a smaller scale than the more well known "O" scale popularized by the Lionel Train Company and used by the Toy Train Exhibit. Next, the other 'clubs' have two types of members. One type of member pours over aerial photographs, and literally sculps the shown landscape to scale usually out of styrofoam. Rocks, brooks, trees, bushes, roads, and, of course, train tracks are added. There are also members who build trestles, tunnels, and bridges. Anecdotally, one club member confided they tore apart an entire section which had almost been completed because it was 2" off 'scale'. These members also build buildings and towns to scale and then paint them realistically. Here's an example of building constructed by one club.
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| Notice, we're having an employee meeting out front of the Sun Harbor Company. (This was a real building on this site during the time period of the model) |
The other type of member is less into modeling and more into railroading. Railroading means a club member actually runs a train in the model adhering to all the rules and regulations a real train engineer would have observed on that particular route. As one member who was running a train in the model told me, "In this stretch of track, the train may not exceed a 23 mph speed just as the rule would have been for the real train" Then, he whipped out of his back pocket a well thumbed 5"x 5" book of about 50 pages of 'rules'. As he put it, any member who is railroading (running a train on the model) who does not adhere scrupulously to the rules is in a world of hurt. These railroaders stand in the center of the model and make sure they are observing all the switches, and throwing all appropriate switches in addition to monitoring the speed of the train which changes as the train progresses through the model. The club railroaders struck me as being almost as serious as real train engineers upon whose railroading skills the lives of people riding a real train depend.
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| A railroader running a train through the model of the train route between Bakersfield and Mojave He's standing (actually sitting on a stool) in the center of the model. |
Finally, there was a lagniappe thrown into this museum. This guy is not a model railroader in the traditional sense. Instead he spent 22 years building his own 1/4th size train engine. Here is Ace Wischstadt, riding his creation which he started builting in 1957 and completed in 1979. He fabricated most of the parts himself.
As always, there are more pictures. I recommend you run these as a 'slideshow', so you can see the captions on the pictures.
