Apr10 Written by:Tom Farin
4/10/2008 4:00 PM
North Pacific Coast RR Tour
You are going to have to use your imagination !!
The South end of the line is Sauselito.
It's just a culvert, you say? I told you to bring your imagination !! The main line will pass through the culvert and the window into a staging yard about 6 feet off my basement floor. From there it will wind through my workshop into my basement family room which was all but gutted this winter. When I rebuild the basement it will incorporate the Sausalito engine service facility, shops, and the NPC dock. Most of my most detailed structures will be out of the weather. In winter months, this part of the railroad will function as a switching pike.
In my one major deviation from the prototype trackage, my San Rafael branch will come off before rather than after the Mill Valley branch. I'll explain why when I get to Mill Valley. So in this photo we're looking at the city of San Anselmo, where a branch came off the main line and headed toward San Rafael.
The main line from Sausalito comes in from the lower left of the photo. It curves to the right along the right side of the raised bed staircase (more on this structure later). After crossing a stream begining to the right of the Salsalito opening in the previous photo, a branch heads to the left through the higher of the two tunnel openings in the raised bed. Once on the other side of the raised bed, it continues on to San Rafael. You can see the upper holding pond in the previous photo.
The stream will hug the landscape timber bed losing elevation till it reaches a lower holding pond slightly above and to the right of the second (lower tunnel opening.
The main line coming out of San Anselmo will curve back to the right reducing the grade then curve back and head throgh the lower tunnel. From that point on down, the entire hill portion of the railroad will be on the opposite side of the raised landscape timber bed.
The next shot is looking at the opposite side of the landscape timber bed, and will contain the NPC trackage in San Rafael.
If you look closely, you can see both tunnels running underneath the landscape timber bed. The branch to San Rafael will emerge through the upper tunnel. It will go around a large loop near the bottom of the photo then back through the lower tunnel. Within this loop will be the city of San Rafael. Once through the lower tunnel, the line will move directly onto the San Quentin dock which will extend out onto the lower holding pond.
As mentioned earlier, the main line will also go through this tall wide lower tunnel. The tunnel width allows for two lines (main and San Rafael/San Quentin branch). The tunnel height allows the two lines to move through the tunnel at significantly different heights - a feature needed to deal with the terracing needed to level the area contining the lower holding pond. In this photo you can see the route of the main line headed toward the lower tunnel along the edge of Spruce Point.
Yea, I know, there was no Spruce Point on the NPC. But Home Depot had all these neglected looking Dwarf Albertas on sale for $2.50 apiece. What's a tree lover to do? My Dwarf Alberta hoard now totals over 100 trees.
This shot from my new railroad viewing platform (patio) shows the hill on the left side of the landscape timber bed. The main line will snake back and forth across the hill between the large evergreen by the pond, and the light post also by the pond until it reaches the base of the hill.
At that point, the Mill Valley branch will head to the left along the base of the hill. The main line will pass to the right of the base of the evergreen between the evergreen and the right side of the pond.
In this photo, your feet are in Mill valley and you are looking up Mount Tamalpais (or at least my version of Mount Tam).
Why did I violate the NPC track plan branching to Mill Valley after San Rafael. Because I wanted Mill Valley located at the bottom of the hill. Why? I lied to you. I'm actually modeling two railroads.
In Mill Valley, the NPC junctioned with a railroad billed as "The Crookedest Railroad in the World". The Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods RR was a tourist line that climed to the peak of Mount Tam over a winding stretch of 7 miles. You are looking at the MT&MW RR trackage my friends, or at least where it will go. I'm going to cheat a bit and model it as a NG RR even though it was a standard gauge line.
It's going to be a hoot to have the MT&MW RR's famous Double Bow Knot trackage on the side of my hill. And won't it be a treat to take a gravity car ride down the hill to the Muir Woods park? Ah, now I understand why Farin is hoarding all those Dwarf Albertas !!!
I get a kick when I hear how other Garden Railroaders are taking steps to slow down the growth of their Dwarf Albertas, in fear they will get too tall. A mature redwood was over 300' tall. That's 15 feet at 1:20.1. I don't think i'll ever see a Dwarf Alberta get that tall. Grow, baby, grow.
This next photo is the future site of Occidental, California. Tomales will preceed it next to the big evergreen at the bottom of the hill tow photos ago. Occidental was the beginning of logging country.
From there, the railroad will wind around to pond, passing through Lumber Mill towns like Duncan Mills and campgrounds and resorts along the Russian River like Camp Meeker and Elim Grove.
The end of the line will be Cazadero, at the base of the lamp post.
I hope you enjoyed the tour. Got that imagination working yet? Of course as I actually build out these communities and features, i'll share the track plans, photos, etc. that will guide the conversion of a hill and a lot of grass into a garden railroad.
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