San Luis Obispo, Pacific Coast Ry
I spent a few days in San Luis Obispo, CA with my wife, daughter, and son-in-law. William, my son-in-law, and his friend Mike set us up for an off-hour private tour of the San Luis Obispo RR Museum and model RR club. Mike is on the board of directors for the museum. Apparently, Tuesday morning was a work session for the model RR club. I got to meet several of their members, hard at work, during the tour. The museum shows the history of the Northern Pacific in the area as well as the smaller narrow gauge Pacific Coast Railway. The displays included many pieces of railroad equipment and tools, both inside and outside. They gave us a tour of a combination diner/club car that they are restoring. I should have taken more pics of the museum displays; it’s well worth visiting if you are in the area on a Saturday!
Here’s a pic of the order board outside with their sign.
and a shot of the station/museum.
A diagram of the layout. The top schematic is the lower deck and the bottom is the upper deck. Much of the layout represents the NP & Railway during the ‘50s era, but they also model the PC Ry dock during an earlier era. (Ellie, my daughter, is on the left, and Mike, our tour guide, is on the right).
San Luis Obispo Station: A beautiful scene representing the station in the ‘50s era.
Work Session: Members working on the layout. William, my son-in-law, is the guy on the far left sitting on the stool.
Goldtree/Stenner Creek Trestle: A model of the trestle.
Two-Deck Construction & Crossing: A shot of the lower deck showing the crossing between the NP (standard gauge) and PC Ry (narrow gauge). The PC had an established line before the NP came through. The tower and signals are for the NP, which had to wait for the much smaller PC to clear the line before the NP could cross!
Under-Layout Wiring: Another view of the two-deck construction. In the lower right corner, a panel is removed from below the layout where a very tall club member had made his way into a cubby hole for some wiring tasks.
General Operations: Beautiful scenes on both decks showing a lot of operational capability, along with a work cart for ongoing scenery work.
Industry Operations: Stock pens on the lower deck and many gondolas carrying sugar beets for processing on the back track and structure to the far right. (Note: This is an industry we should represent on the Cincinnati Northern!)
Additional Details: More general scenes and a partial view of the crew call board.
Earlier Era Modeling:
PC Ry Wharf (Port San Luis): Modeled earlier in the 20th century. The white building in the background is the famous Hotel Marre, and features of Morrow Bay are on the backdrop. The modeler did a fantastic job of representing the buffered tide waves inside the bay near the wharf.
Town Scene: Part of the earlier era scene showing the town above the wharf.
Historic Photos:
Pacific Coast Ry #111: A narrow gauge 2-6-0. It looks like it was oil-fired, which was common on the west coast.
Pacific Coast Ry #106.
Three Photos via Richard Wilkens:
Pacific Coast Ry roundhouse.
A 2-8-0 boiler-less chassis sitting in front of Pacific Coast #7.
Inside the roundhouse showing a Plymouth gas-powered switcher.
Photos via Chick Sweeney (from his blog: https://on30pcrwy.blogspot.com/):
A view of the wharf and hotel.
Pacific Coast Railway #105.
Pacific Coast Railway #110.
A photo of the Hotel Marre.
One final note: if you plan to do some research on the Pacific Coast Railway, be sure not to confuse it with the Pacific Coast Railroad. The PC RR was farther North in Washington.
It was a wonderful stop – the museum and layout are well worth a visit if you are in the area (open on Saturdays).
Thx, Kevin
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