Construction Update #9 - Redbanks Depot Loading Dock and The Redbanks Fruit Company Packing House

 

Redbanks Depot Loading Dock

Jaunuary 20, 2025

 

I started the Redbanks Depot, aka the Paso Robles Depot, several years ago by combining two AMB Southern Pacific depot kits along with a couple of scratch built additions.  Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, somewhere along the line the parts to finish the structure including the roofing, loading dock parts and some windows were lost. 

The depot was originally painted with Floquil Armour Yellow lightened with reefer white for the body and Floquil Roof Brown for the trim.  While I still had a bottle the brown, I didn't have a bottle of Armour Yellow.  Instead I used a mix of True Color Union Pacific Armour Yellow, white and brown to get an acceptable match.  All the components, except for the floor were painted before assembly.

One thing I forgot to consider was the length of the freight house portion of the depot.  Parts from a second kit were used to lengthen the original freight house by about 40 scale feet to better match the Paso Robles Depot.  In other words the loading dock was too short.  Stripwood, from my "leftovers" bin, was used to extend the length of the dock.  I was careful to make sure the joints would end up under the trim.  Strip wood was also used to supplement the laser cut trim provided in the kit.

Other than the added length and some additional bracing, the loading dock was built per the kit instructions.  The deck was stained with Silver Wood and weathered with craft paints.  I am still looking for additional AMB 3-Tab shingles.

 

 

Several people have inquired about the depot's prototype. Here are a couple of pictures of the prototype Paso Robles, CA depot with it's bathroom addition on one end and the second story addition.  Why the Paso Robles depot?  I spent several years living in Paso Robles while I was going to college.  At the invite of Sam White, the depot's 8 pm to 4 am operator, I studied for school in the charming confines of the old depot's office two or three times a week.  I normally arrived around 9 pm and hung around until the passing of #'s 373 and 374 about  1 am.  #'s 373 and 374 normally passed through town about 30 minutes apart.  Sometimes they met at Paso when #373 was running late.  Both were  "hot" timetable freights that sped up and down the coast between Los Angeles and the Bay Area on a expedited schedules.  The first time I ever saw #373 was at GEMCO in the San Fernando Valley around 1966.  At that time in ran with solid sets (6-8) of passenger FP-7's.  By the early 70's, in Paso Robles, it was storming through town over powered with 3 or 4 big 6-axle EMD's and the occasional 6-axle GE.  Sam referred to these trains as "The Zippers".

 

Here is a picture of the now discontinued AMB SP depot kit(s) used to build the model.  Any one having one of these or the Type 23 depot kits laying around, I'm interested.

Redbanks Fruit Company

January 21, 2025

Back on January 8th, I cut out the basic components that would make up the Rebanks Fruit Company packing house shown below.  At that point, construction came to a halt while I waited for the laser cut brick material to arrive from Monster Model Works (Larkspur Laserart).

 

 

The laser cut brickwork was painted with a combination of craft paints starting with a gray mortar color followed by several shades of red and finally white.  The panels were all cut to the same size and the pilaster between panels 1 and 2 was cut to length and glued in place.  This was followed by the next panel, pilaster, panel, pilaster, etc until panels 2 through 6 were finished.  Then panels 1 and 7 were cut to size.  While the pilasters were glued in place, the brick panels were not.  This way, the panels can be removed while the rest of the wall is pained a concrete color.

 

 

Here is the end result with the "Sunkist" sign panel temporarily set in place.

January 24, 2025

The office portion of the Redbanks Fruit Company is kind of a "what it could have been" addition.  It's a pretty simple addition using the left over brick material, an entry door from a Walthers kit and Evergreen styrene.  The warehouse doors are from Tichy.

 

The pre-cooler building on the east end of the building was built with Evergreen sheet and strip styrene.

The total length of the structure is 44".  The packing house and pre-cooler building portions are 1.5" deep.  The office portion is about 1/4" deep.  I'll get it painted and post a picture of  the structure on the layout in the next post.  The Redbanks Fruit Company packing house is the last major structure on the layout.

As always, your comments, questions & suggestions are welcome.

sdepolo@outlook.com

Construction Update #8 - The ATSF Olive Depot, LokSound CV Settings, The Redbanks Team Track and a Drainage Ditch.

Pump House... No, Depot... Yes!

My good friend Kurt Boyd set me straight on that small "adobe" structure across the tracks from the Olive Heights Packing Association.  Turns out it was the Santa Fe Olive Depot.  The Santa Fe closed the depot in 1960 and it was used by the US Postal Service for a few years until about 1963.  It was eventually demolished for road improvements.

Ken Mason built the really nice HO Scale model pictured below.  More pictures and details can be found on Ken's Facebook page.  The link is just below the photo.  

https://www.facebook.com/southwestandsantaferailway/mentions

LokSound Version 5 CV Settings

Up until a couple of months ago I had used Tsunami2 decoders exclusively for both steam and diesel locomotives.  Lately, I have picked up several Walthers Proto series locomotive equipped with LokSound Version 5 decoders including two Southern Pacific SD-9's.

Southern Pacific SD-9 #3865 switching the Redbanks fertilizer dealer.

I made a few simple programing changes that I think make these locomotives better suited for a shelf layout in a spare bedroom/office; lower volume and more realistic throttle response.   The changes took about 3 minutes using a NCE Power Cab.  The default values were changed as follows:

• CV3 to Value 25 - Acceleration (Momentum)
  
• CV4 to Value 25 -Deceleration (Momentum)
  
• CV5 to Value 124 - Max Speed (Reduced Max Speed)
  
• CV6 to Value 44 -  Mid Speed (Reduced Mid Speed)
  
• CV29 to Value 46 - Enable Long Address
• CV63 to Value 128 - Master Volume (Reduce Sound Levels)
  

CV16 and CV17 were used to set long address.  Simple DCC long address calculators are on the internet.  Reducing the max speed puts the speed steps closer together and this along with some acceleration/deceleration (momentum) creates "weight" and a more prototypical "notching" of the prime mover.

The East Redbanks Team Track

January 12, 2025

Since it will take about a week or so for materials, progress on the Redbanks Fruit Company structure will have to wait.  In the meantime, I decided to work on the East Redbanks Team Track which is located on the near side of the mainline in front of the packing house.  I started out by using a Sharpie to outline the team track's asphalt pavement.

Measurements were taken from the outline and transferred to a piece of 1/8" thick rolled cork.  It was glued down with Titebond.

 

 

 All the cork in place with push pins holding it in place until the glue drys.

The edges of the cork were then chipped away with an X-Acto knife and smoothed with a finger.  The track and edges of the cork were sprayed with a earth color and the pavement was brush painted with Apple Barrel "Pavement" and weathered with a combination of craft paints and powdered pigments.  It could probably weathered up (lightened) a bit more. 

Drainage Ditch

January 14, 2025

Drainage ditches running along the side of railroad right-of-ways are common.  I decided to add one along the tracks near the front of the module in Redbanks.  I used Sharpie to draw the outline and then cut away the top layer of cork and gouged out the pink foam to form the channel.  The culvert pipe is from Green Belt Models.  The channel was painted with Folk-Art craft paint, the culvert pipe glued in place and the initial layer of rock was glued in place.

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January 16, 2025

Here is a up-to-date photo.  Ground cover is a combination of paving sand and Woodland Scenics ground foam.  Shrubs were made from course ground foam, Woodland Scenics shrubs and saplings, Heki wild grass and Scenic Express scale leaves. Grass tuffs came from Walthers, JTT, Scenic Express and Noch.  Crossing and whistle posts came from Tichy and switch stand came from Details West.  I still need to add static grass and water.

 

 

Also, slowly adding a few details to other areas.  The very cool Milwaukee Road box car was given to me by Bob Graff

Wanted

My Redbanks depot need shingles!  Somewhere along the line the shingles for this modified AMB Southern Pacific Type 23 depot got lost.  AMB has ceased production so if anyone has any extra AMB HO 3-Tab shingles, part #285, I would love to acquire them.

As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com

Construction Update #8 - Finnishing up Barr Packing & Starting Redbanks Fruit Co.

Barr Packing Company

Southern Pacific GP-9 #3451 spotting the first PFE 57' reefer at the near finished Barr Packing Company Door #1.

 

The Barr Packing Company started by combining the Showcase Miniatures kit on the right with a scratch built section on the left. 

 

 The scratch built section was inspired by the packing house at Hillmead, CA.

 

January 4, 2025

Here are a series of photos of the nearly finished model.  I painted both structures with Rustoleum flat white primer.  The windows got a coat of Rustoleum gray primer followed by a dark gray craft paint.  The corrugated metal roof over the loading dock of the scratch built portion came from my leftover parts stash.  The roofing on the scratch built portion was made by cutting painters tape in 3-foot wide strips and painting it a weathered black.  The Showcase Miniatures kit came with some nice "peel-n-stick" material.

The  Barr Packing sign was made using Excel, printed on plain copy paper and glued to a thin piece of styrene.

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The sign on the right side of the building was found on the internet, modified in Photoshop, printed on plain copy paper and glued to a thin piece of styrene.  Both signs were give a coat of Tamyia flat to protect them.

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The Redbanks Fruit Company Packing House

When I first started on the layout, I kit-bashed a Walthers out of production packing house shown below to represent the Redbanks Fruit Company.  Recently, I decided it was to small and the wrong color (most Southern California citrus packing houses are painted white).

The last packing house in Redbanks was torn down in 1983 and since I couldn't fine any photographs of the old structure, I decided to search the internet for a plausible alternative...

Yorba Linda Packers Association

This picture of the Yorba Linda Packers Association was probably taken in the 1930's.  I found the exposed brickwork interesting.  This packing house still stands having been converted into modern commercial space (Packing House Square).

 

 This picture was taken in the late 1950's or early 1960's.

 

 Recent Photograph 

Olive Heights Packers Association

When I first saw the following picture of the Olive Heights Packers Association I thought it was the same Yorba Linda packing house shown above. While similar, a closer inspection of the photos revealed they are not one in the same. The Olive Heights packing house was smaller, featured a large "Sunkist" sign stretching the length of the main building a pre-cooler building and an attached office/sales office. The building was demolished shortly after the color photos were taken.

 

 

The pre-cooling building appears to be a later addition.

 

Note the office space and nice landscaping on the near end and the large covered open area beyond the pre-cooling building.  There is also a interesting small structure accross the tracks in the foreground of the picture. There was no date on this photo but I suspect, based upon the automobile in the lower right hand corner, it taken in the 1950's or 1960's.

The Plan

I decided to base my my model primarily on Olive Heights while incorporating elements of Yorba Linda including the exposed brickwork.  I used a Google Maps (satellite image) to calculate the length and height of the building, pilaster spacing, size of the door opening and other key elements.  Using my available space, about 36", I drew up a scale plan using 3 sheets of plain copy paper taped together.

The resulting plan was then taped to the wall behind the spur to validate the design and get an idea on how the structure would look once it was on the layout.  Note the old Kilburn Packing structure is now gone to make room for the Redbanks Fruit Company packing house.

Getting Started

January 8, 2025

For those of you who have followed this and my RGS 1st District Blog https://sn3rgs.blogspot.com/ you already know that most of my scratch built structures are built around a styrene core.  For the Redbanks Fruit Company packing house the same method will be used.  Most of the structure will be built with Evergreen #9106 .060" sheet styrene and various sized strips.  Monster Model Works #OLD12X6H116 laser cut aged brick will be used for the brickwork between the pilasters.  I built the Monster Model Works S-Scale Placerville Store for my Sn3 layout and they have some great kits in multiple scales.  Their laser cut brick and stonework sheets (basswood) are, in my mind, the best.

https://larkspurlaserart.com/monster-modelworks/                   

The plan was transferred from paper to the sheet styrene and cut to size.  At this point, I have to wait for additional styrene strips and the laser cut brick sheet to arrive before I can go any further.  That should take about a week.  Since this structure will be up against the backdrop, it will only be about 1.5" deep

Any Thoughts?

While doing doing my research, I noticed this small structure across the tracks form the Olive Heights Packing Association.  It's an interesting structure, adobe I think, and I have room to include it.  Anybody have any idea of what it was used for?  Maybe a pump house for a well?

 

As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome

sdepoio@outlook.com

A Larger Version of The Visalia Electric

Introduction

I thought it would be fun to research and develop a plan for an "expanded" Visalia Electric Railroad in HO Scale.  The plan was designed to fit in my existing layout room (27'x22') but it could probably be compressed to fit a slightly smaller room.  No, I don't have any plans to replace my existing Sn3 layout. 

I apologize up front for the quality of some of the photographs used for this posting.  Photos of the Visalia Electric and the packing houses that provided most of roads revenue are very difficult to find. I also used Google satellite photos and street views for reference.

Most of the railroad, with the exception of a small segment in and around Exeter has been gone for at least 34 years.  I tried to duplicate the actual station platts as closely as space would permit. 

Finally, the plan is a point-to-point affair, which I prefer, with no provision for continuous running.

Developing the Plan

The following plan is based upon a 19 mile subsidiary of the Southern Pacific (Visalia Electric) in California's lower San Joaquin Valley.  During the period I model, mid 1970's, it stretched between the interchange with parent Southern Pacific at Exeter to Redbanks, California.  Luckily for those interested in this relatively unknown segment of the Southern Pacific there is an excellent book "The Visalia Electric" by PHillips C. Kauke published in 2003 by Signature Press.  For those of you who are interested, the book is readily available on ebay.  The book contains excellent maps, station platts, and photographs.

The Visalia Electric (VE) as of October 1976.

I started the planning process by plotting out the station platts for each town and cut them out as shown below.  SCARM Version 1.9.6 track planning software was used to develop the plan.  Then an attempt was made to fit all the station platts into the available space (27'x22').

 

Eventually, after a lot of trial and error, I came up with the following plan.  There are no grades and the minimum radius is 32".  In the process, I decided to expand the plan for Exeter in order to more closely replicate the prototype,  This change required the elimination several others stations due to space limitations.  I also made sure that west was normally to the left and east was normally to the right when facing the layout from the normal viewing angle.  Numerous attempts were made to place the SP mainline through Exeter against a wall.  None of them worked.

Exeter

Exeter was the center of operations on the VE.  For that reason, I wanted to duplicate it as closely as possible.  The plan, as it turned out, is almost a perfect replica.  I did leave off a couple of Southern Pacific tracks that parallel the Fresno to Bakersfield mainline. 

A portion of the car-barn was moved to Fresno and several of the car-barn tracks were pulled up at some point prior to the time this photo was taken in 1983.  The prototype, after passenger service was discontinued in 1924, rarely required more than one locomotive and crew.  In later years, locomotives provided by parent Southern Pacific were rotated on and off the VE for required inspections and repairs.  Since we modelers tend to accumulate locomotives and rolling stock, I chose include all the car-barn tracks.  My operating plan, see below, includes three crews instead of the prototypes one or two at the most.

The car-barn is still in use by the San Joaquin Valley Railroad.  The VE offices were located north (off to the left}of the car-barn.  And at one time, there was a bunk house and shower/water closet located to the north (right) of the car-barn

One interesting aspect of the VE in Exeter was the street running and Santa Fe crossing along East Walnut Street shown below.  The old VE car-barn is shown in the distance.  The San Joaquin Valley Railroad still uses this trackage to reach an industrial area a few blocks east and south of this location.  There is a little room on the plan to incorporate a block or two of street running.

Rocky Hill 

Rocky Hill, formally Wirts, was located 1.6 miles east of Exeter.  It was the junction with the VE's mainline and the Strathmore Branch.  There  were several packing houses at Rocky Hill along with a ice making plant (IMP) and a 5-car single platform operated by the Rocky Hill Ice Company.  Pacific Fruit Express contracted with Rocky Hill Ice Company for the initial icing of reefers originating on the Visalia Electric.  The IMP was no longer needed after the introduction of mechanical reefers but I have included it in the plan anyway.

Of interest is the fact that the Southern Pacific installed over 6 miles of welded rail over this portion of the VE in 1973.

In order to include Rocky Hill in the plan, I had to flip it horizontally.  The available space also dictated the location of the ice making plant.  The branch was built between 1917 and 1918.  It was just under 18 miles long and with the exception of a few spurs in Rocky Hill was never electrified.  The last remnants of the Strathmore Branch were formally abandoned in 1973.

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Merryman

Merryman, Milepost 3.9 had a interesting track arrangement that fit into the plan with very little modification.  The short spur to Dunagan was eliminated from the plan.

 

I could only find one picture of Merryman prior to the abandonment of the line in 1990; the Bonnie Brae Packing House.  The Bonnie Brae Packing House, one of the last ones standing in Merryman following the abandonment, was turned into a restaurant (Orange Blossom Junction) and later Merryman Station (a venue and banquet center).

 

Here is a 2024 view of Merryman.  Most of the packing houses were stretched out to the north of Avenue 296.  Note the path of the old right-of-way curving away from the road, through the groves, to the left.   The spur to Dungan paralleled Road 208 to the north.  Dungan isn't identified on Google Earth and I haven't been able to find any pictures.

The Kenweah River Bridge

The Kenweah River crossing should really be railroad east of Lemon Cove instead of to the west as shown in the plan.  Narrow bench-work, along the wall, and the inclusion of Woodlake required the change of location.  The Sand Pit spur was located east of the bridge.  There was a rock crusher and aggregate plant located on the spur.

The bridge was heavily damaged by flood is 1950 and 1955.  About 300 feet of trestle work on the north, railroad east, side of the bridge were wiped out.  The river was finally tamed by US Army Corps of Engineers with construction of a dam and reservoir in 1959.

Lemon Cove

Lemon Cove, Milepost 10.6, is another close representation of the prototype.  I did reduce the number of tracks in the small yard from four to three.

The packing house, small yard and depot at Lemon Cove.  The Lemon Cove depot was one of only three depots I know of on the Visalia Electric.  The others were at Exeter and Woodlake.  From the limited number of pictures available, the depot appears to be a Southern Pacific standard Type 22.  I've studied the satellite photos and I can't find any remaining traces of the Visalia Electric in Lemon Cove that I can positively identify.

Woodlake

Woodlake was located at Milepost 16.  Woodlake had a pretty simple layout.  A short siding that paralleled Naranjo Blvd and a depot.  The depot was probably a built to a SP standard type.  I think a reasonable HO model could be built by modifying a AMB Type 23.  I took a little modeler's license and added a house track to Woodlake.  I did this to create a logical layover spot for a locomotive and caboose.

Just to the west (railroad east) of Woodlake was Woodlake Jct.  From there, a 3 mile long branch went north to Elderwood.  I would have loved to include branch in the plan but there wasn't enough room. 

East Redbanks

East Redbanks and Redbanks were located at Milepost 16 and 16.6 respectively.  While Redbanks was geographically west of East Redbanks, it was timetable east of East Redbanks.  Confused?  The plan here is pretty accurate but the two locations were condensed to fit the spacke

The only packing house picture I could find taken in Redbanks or East Redbanks was this contemporary screen shot taken at East Redbanks.  This structure shown on Google Maps and the Woodlake Packing House Company shown on the map in the Phillips Kauke's book appear to share the same location.  If they are one and the same then the structure was obviously enlarged and modernized over the years.  James Lancaster, on his website, refers to this structure as a Sun Pacific packing house (2008).

The Santa Fe had a crossing just to the east of the packing house shown above. The packing house shown below was actually served by the Santa Fe.  On the Santa Fe, this location was referred to as Hillmead.

 

As some of you may recall, from an earlier post, I built the model of this packing house shown below in S-Scale.

My current HO Visallia Electric shelf layout has a packing house under construction that includes elements associated with the Hillmead packing house.

Redbanks

The previous location of Redbanks and Barr Packing Company south of  Avenue 344.  To date, I haven't found a picture of the old packing house.

Redbanks (ATSF)

The Redbanks Fruit Company packing house was located on a spur the branched off the main line between East Redbanks and Redbanks (The locations of Redbanks/East Redbanks on the Visalia Electric and Redbanks on the Santa Fe should probably be swapped on the plan).  The track here was jointly owned by the Visalia Electric and the Santa Fe.  The packing house, the VE and the Santa Fe are long gone having been replaced by the Tree Source Citrus Nursery.

This view was taken looking north.  the Redbanks Fruit Company is on the right and the jointly owned ATSF/VE tracks on the left.  Based upon what I have learned, the Visalia Electric and the Santa Fe rarely or never interchanged cars at this location.  Note the overhead wires.  Diesels took over from the electrics in late 1944 and early 1945.

Well, there you have it....  A plan for a larger layout...  One other thing.  If I were actually going to build a larger layout based upon the Visalia Electric, I would have to include a few other industries to add a little variety.  I have done so on my VE shelf layout by adding a fertilizer dealer, scrap yard and a team track.

Operations

So, how would the layout be operated?  I think 3 crews would do the trick and make for a laid back operating session taking a couple of hours.

1.  A yard crew to work Exeter and Rocky Hill

2.  The turn, originating Exeter, to work Merryman and Lemon Cove.

3.  A mixed, originating in Woodlake and working Redbanks, East Redbanks and Woodlake before running to Exeter and returning Woodlake.

As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome.

sdepolo@outlook.com