Layout visit - Tommy Holt's Western Pacific's First Subdivision
Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 12:30AM Work took me to Austin, Texas recently. I travel infrequently these days. I spent a lot of time travelling earlier in my career. But these days, I’m content to be a commuter and have dinner with my family. When I do have to travel, I like to identify some railroading diversion to make the trip appealing and to offset the drudgery that goes along with flying domestically these days.
The WP’s First Subdivision in HO Scale
So in planning my trip to Austin, I arranged for the dates to overlap with an operating session at Tommy Holt’s Western Pacific’s First Subdivision, an impressive 1500 square foot HO layout representing the WP’s line from the San Francisco Bay Area to Stockton in the San Joaquin Valley. Tommy’s layout will be familiar to readers of MR’s Model Railroad Planning 2007 which features an article on the layout and it’s construction.
Here’s a glimpse:
Stockton Yard is on the right and the towns of Cochran, Lathrop, French Camp and Ortega are on the left. I was assigned train SWG (my train is at lower left) under the watchful eye of my pilot, George, who is conferring with Stockton Yardmaster in the photo above.
Here is the trackplan for Tommy’s layout as shown in Model Railroad Planning 2007.
My Qualifying Run
This is a large layout and new operators need to qualify before managing a train across the line solo. Qualification is required in both directions to ensure familiarity with the track configuration, protocols and communications needed to get a train across the line.
My rookie assignment was the SWG, a manifest loaded with cars from the Bay Area destined for the Santa Fe Highline connection at Keddie, Ca. We collected our train at West Yard (depicting Bay Area locations) and headed east, passing through Radum, Livermore, Trevarno, and Altamont, the highest point on the line. After obtaining clearance to proceed, signal indications control the flow of traffic. The signals are beautiful replicas of WP signals and they greatly adds to the realism as you watch out for each approaching signal.
There are also many grade crossings along the route, most with flashers. Tommy’s locomotives are equipped with sound which further adds to the realism as engineers blow the horn for two long, a short and another long over each crossing.
At west switch Tracy, SWG’s progress is slowed by a yellow over red “Approach” signal and we proceed carefully down the main along Tracy siding and tie up at the east end facing a red signal.
SWG waiting for clearance at East Switch Tracy.
Views along the line
The First Subdivision main line is single track so at various points along the line and trains stop and waited occasionally for opposing traffic. These breaks in the action provided me an opportunity to take a few shots of the layout. Since photography was not my main priority, these are representative shots and more pictures are found in the the HO Layout Gallery.
This is the Kaiser Sand and Gravel plant between Radum and Livermore.
Looking east at the west end of Livermore siding.
Tracy looking east. The SWG is on the main toward the rear of the layout.
The meet
After about ten minutes, the westbound train we were waiting for rounded the turn and took the siding. In the photo below, the westbound local is diverging onto the siding. The siding track extends east here to become the SP Interchange at Lyoth.
The westbound local rounds the curve at Lyoth.
The westbound meets the SWG.
As the caboose of the local drifted down the siding, we looked toward our eastbound signal hopeful that it would blink to green. Not this time, we needed to call the dispatcher to get clearance which is not surprising as there was a lot of activity on the line. Once clearance was received from the dispatcher to continue to Stockton Yard, we proceeded through Lyoth and eased through Lyoth, Cochran, Lathrop and French Camp before holding at Ortega to confer with the Stockton Yardmaster. Here we are moving through Lathrop.
Stockton
Tommy’s layout has a great representation of Stockton Yard. On this particular operating night the Yardmaster (Tom) was accompanied by an additional switcher (John). The work to switch cars on our train was handled by the yard switcher. Tom lined us into one of the receiving tracks. The SWG had four refers to be switched to the Stockton ice racks. Once parked, we cut off our power and moved out of the way.
Since there was not much else happening in the yard while we were there, we cooled our heels in the caboose yard. Our power is just on the other side of the three cabooses.
In the pic below, we are looking down the A and B leads. You can see John’s S-1 collecting the four refers from the head end of our train.
Beyond Stockton
With the cars switched out, we were given permission to continue on from Stockton. We transferred onto Diner Siding. In the picture below, the SWG is facing a red signal. The dispatcher granted permission to pass the red as due to a problem, was not able to clear the signal for us. Tommy has a crack team of craftsmen assisting with the construction of the First Sub including the signalling system which is due for another upgrade of its software.
The line east of Stockton has numerous industries and grade crossings. No time for pictures here. As we rounded the curve near the WP freight house, we faced a red over red signal. Ahead of us is the Flora Street Flier, a local from Stockton which handles the industries between Stockton and Flora Street Yard.
With clearance obtained and our track lined up for us, we ease past the Flier and end our run in the East Yard.
CIX - California Illinois Express
Our second assignment was the CIX, a hotshot bound from the Bay Area for Illinois. Here we are leaving West Yard at Radum.
Rather than take you over the line again, I’ll leave you with this shot as we cruise toward Livermore.
A fortunate group
Tommy and his crew of a dozen operators enjoy this great layout on a monthly basis. I was thrilled to have the chance to join them in an operating session. Running the trains was a great pleasure and I was well coached by veteran operator George.
I also really enjoyed meeting this experienced crew in the lounge on the first floor below the layout. I’m looking forward to my next visit to Austin!!
- Coxy
Reader Comments (4)
these are great photos. i'm not sure why i love these little models so much, but i do.
very nice!
Thats is one of most amazing HO layouts I have see in my life. Congratulations!
Hello,
Great shots. I'm going to be in Austin next week. Can you tell me how to contact Tommy Holt?
Thank you,
Frank Kenny
Los Angeles area
310-344-9145