The initial concept track

The initial concept track plan. Feel free to comment (nothing is set in stone...)

EDIT: Since the originally uploaded image went away... and in order to have the thread with a plan so that it makes sense, I am re-uploading one of the iterations of the plan i was working on for the Surfline concept. Since then i have moved to a 2nd district concept that i am working on (food for another topic though).  The plan goes from a yard (north), to Oceanside, then Miramar, North San Diego and ends up with the ATSF depot in San Diego.

Surf Line

I have been helping a friend of mine build a model of the Surf Line in a 1500-2000 sq ft basement for the last decade or so.  If you are ever in Omaha, you should look him up.

The depot was only a termination for the passenger trains.  The freights went past there to 22nd St where the freight yard was, the engine terminal was even further south in National City.  The "freight yard" at the San Diego depot was only for industries right around the depot.  The tramp jobs move cars from 22nd St to the depot and outbound cars go from the depot back to 22nd St to make connection with the northbound freights.   North of the depot was a wye with a tail track that went into a Marine base.  All the passenger trains from LA turned at San Diego by having the 44 tonner that was the San Diego switcher on the rear of the train and the whole passenger shoves back around the wye and turns to head north.  Its always a highlite on my friend's layout shoving a 14 car train of brass passenger cars back around the wye to  turn the train.  North of the wye is Old Town an industrial area, then the bridge over the San Diego River and up the hill.  The through freights set out and picked up at Oceanside.

There was very little on line switching.  Everything south of Cudahy is switched by the engines based out of San Diego.  I would suggest two options:

1.  San Diego (Miramar Hill/staging to National City, including Old Town, San Diego, 22nd St and National City).  That would give you an interchange with the SD&AE (SP).

2.  Oceanside (staging to Oceanside to staging) and focus on the two branch lines.  That would be reefer madness since that was a big fruit and nut packing area.

Dave, many thanks for the

Dave, many thanks for the detailed reply! It was exactly what i was looking for and it saved me a lot of trouble (making me realize that my plan wont work as i would want it to). I was afraid the majority of the points you raised (not a lot of online switching etc, working out of oceanside etc...) would be true. Glad to have made this post and getting your reply! For sure if i ever come stateside and get to Omaha i will look this up.

I am examining the options you proposed in detail.

When you mention south of Cudahy, you don't refer to the Cudahy in LA right? If that is so, all the switching in Buena Park area, Anaheim, .... up to San Clemente lets say, was done by engines out of San Diego?

I am examining/researching my Plan C now, using an almost identical trackplan, to make point A (north end after staging), Hobart Yard (mini version of it), Point B (south end before staging) fictional coastal city before or after San Clemente. In between A and B i would include in sequence, urban LA scene (main street with entertainment/retail businesses), industrial area south of LA (like Buena Park, Irvine etc..., rural Orange county (where my Miramar hill area was) and finally coastal town in point B. Plan is to have local freights originating from Hobart, doing all the switching south of the yard including Orange County up to the coastal town and return. Also to have SD bound freights originating from Hobart w/o any switching, plus the San Diegans. I hope that will work, and wont have similar issues to my initial scenario (with San Diego).

Slightly OT: Would the Signor's book on the LA division of the Santa Fe help here? I already have another 4 books about the ATSF in southern CA, two of them about the surfline but focusing mostly on the passenger side of things.

Many thanks again Dave!

Surf

I do mean Cudahy in San Diego. 

There were switchers near Los Angeles, switchers near San Diego, locals at Oceanside and not much in between.  There was no local that ran the whole distance.  Thru freights would originate at San Bernadino (most mixed freight) and Los Angeles (perishables and some priority freight) and work (set out and pick up) at Oceanside. 

There were maybe 3 freight trains each way a day.  Then there were the passenger trains.  There were also the trains to the race track at Santa Anna. 

Cheers Dave, Understood the

Cheers Dave,

Understood the concept and gotcha on the Cudahy.

I saw several photographs of LA originating (i think) freight trains switching industries in Santa Ana, in the 50s and 60s. I suppose these trains originated from Hobart? Thus my plan of having small local freights from LA down to Orange county's southern end is viable?

Many thanks again Dave.

Yannis

Based on the good advice of

Based on the good advice of Dave and some intensive further reading,I revised the trackplan by including further to the south of the depot, a version of the 22nd street yard and a loco servicing facility (which should have been further south in National City, but this is my selective compression) and that is my southernmost part of the layout. Going north, we have the ATSF depot in downtown, northern San Diego with industrial switching up the start of the climb to Miramar. After the Miramar hill, descend to the coast up to a fictional town south of Del Mar, where possibly i ll have a rail-served cannery/seafood industry and maybe a fruit packing house earlier on the Sorrento Grade.

My local freight will be the San Diego - Del Mar Turn, a local freight that used to exist, originating from the 22nd street yard, doing switching up to Del Mar and back. Also i plan to have the SD-LA (No.136/Night coast) and SD-SB through freights as traffic from/to the 22nd street yard with the opportunity to assemble the trains given cars from local industries and the interchange with SD&AE. All this in combination with San-Diegans and possibly another sort of freelanced local passenger train from National City to Oceanside.

Love the concept!

Rob, apologies for replying

Rob, apologies for replying late to this, i just saw your post! Glad to meet another fellow modeler into the surfline!

Sorrento Grade and Miramar hill are refering to the same-ish area. Sorrento (valley) is on the north side of the hill, Rose Canyon on the south side. Other names included Linda-Vista, great place, where tomcats used to "live".

For the San Diego depot, i will scratch-build it, as it was in the mid sixties (as well as the majority of the structures on the layout). Essentially my line will start on the yard of 22nd street, pass from the depot, pass the downtown (fictional) main street area, enter the industrial area (Old Town / Cudahy) and then start the scenic run on Miramar. Leaving Sorrento, it will enter the coastal area where the line will finish in a fictional coastal town.

LA to Hobart and down to Orange country is also a great location, which i actually seriously considered. So you cover LA to Fullertone right?

Looking forward to seeing your layout as well!

Yannis

Yannis, hope you've coped

Yannis, hope you've coped well with the recent heat waves. Look forward to any future posts of your.

Deemiorgos, thank you very

Deemiorgos, thank you very much for asking. All is good here. We had some heat and then storms.

I made some radical changes both to my current layout and to the plans for the future one. Moved up north to the 2nd district following further research on both the 4th and 2nd districts. The advice and insights that i got for the 4th district ones from members such as Dave, was very helpful in making more informed decisions. I will post relevant material soon.

Good to hear from ya, Yannis.

Good to hear from ya, Yannis. Look forward to more of your posts.

The picture of the trackplan is unavailable:

It looks as if the picture of your track plan is unavailable. Try uploading it to a different host or directly to the site? I would love to check it out! 

Re-uploaded one of the latest plans

I re-uploaded here at MRH one of the latest iterations of the plan to replace the broken link. Since then, i have moved away to the 2nd district. As i said, the learning process for this plan/district was very valuable in order to better understand which plan suits me better.