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.
Of course, my primary love is model railroading, hence the many pics of the model RR layout. About a quarter to third of the station is taken up by the model RR club. Here is 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 (Northern Pacific Railroad) & PC (Pacific Coast 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.
This is a beautiful scene representing the San Luis Obispo station (‘50s era).
This is a familiar scene – members working on the layout! The guy to the far left, sitting on the stool, is William, my son-in-law.
The trestle is a model of the Goldtree/Stenner Creek trestle.
This pic shows the two deck construction. On the lower deck, you can see the representation of the crossing between the NP (standard gauge) and PC Ry (narrow gauge). I’m not 100% sure I have this correct, but the PC had an established line before the NP came through. Hence, the tower and signals are for the NP – the NP had to wait for the much smaller PC to clear the line around the crossing before NP could cross!
Another great pic of the two deck construction. On the lower right corner of the pic, you can see a panel removed from below the layout. Since it was a work session, a very tall member of the club was somehow making his way into that cubby hole below the layout for some wiring tasks!
Again, beautiful scenes, both decks, showing a lot of operational capability. And, a work cart for ongoing scenery work.
While the stock pens on the lower deck are obvious, (if my memory serves me correctly) the many gondolas are carrying sugar beets for processing on the back track and structure to the far right. This is an industry we should represent on the Cincinnati Northern!
…more scenes.
This pic provides a partial view of the crew call board.
This is the PC Ry wharf in Port San Luis, modeled earlier in the 20th century. The white building in the background was the famous Hotel Marre. You can also see features of Morrow Bay on the backdrop. Note the waves in the water near the wharf – whoever modeled this did a fantastic job of representing the buffered tide waves inside the bay.
Again, this is part of the earlier era scene, the town above the wharf.
Now for some historic photos: Here is PC Ry #111, a narrow gauge 2-6-0. It looks like, as common on the west coast, that #111 was oil-fired.
Pacific Coast Railway #106.
Here’s a few photos care of Richard Wilkens. The roundhouse…
…a 2-8-0 boiler-less chassis sitting in front of PC # 7.
…a pic inside the roundhouse showing a Plymouth gas powered switcher.
The next 4 photos are care of Chick Sweeney and his blog, https://on30pcrwy.blogspot.com/ .
…a view of the wharf and hotel.
Here is PC #105.
Pacific Coast Railway #110.
Here’s 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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