Our home club, the
Silicon Valley Lines Model Railroad, was invited for a
visit and joint operations tonight by the California Central Model Railroad
club. The California Central Model Railroad has been in the historic
depot building on the other side of the tracks from Sun’s Santa Clara Campus
(formerly Agnews State Hospital) since the late 1960’s. It is located at:
-
4185 Bassett St
Santa Clara, CA 95054
(408) 988-4449
John and Paul and I did not stay for the entire session but saw
much to admire at this friendly club. The building is small but they
own it and pay nominal rent
to the railroad that owns the land itself. They thus do not have the high
monthly rent problem that plagues many clubs. The building is fully built
out with a raised floor layout. The space under the layout is well
used for corridors, the dispatcher’s desk (with monitor screens and
switches), access to remote layout areas, a lavatory, even a small
coffee room. Communications with the dispatcher are by dial telephones
mounted to the panels under the layout. Paul was fascinated by the
dial telephones (he had never seen one used before)!
Cal Central Meetings are Fridays, 8:30-11:00 p.m. Their
National Model Railroad Association
(NMRA) listing says:
-
Call for directions and upcoming show/events.
The layout is HO scale with a dual guage branch line for those of the narrow-minded persuasion. The layout is a “folded dog bone” or point to point with a turning loop at each end and is located in the turn of the century South Pacific Coast Agnew Station. The main line is approximately 300′ and the scenery is 90% complete. This club layout has been on several convention tours and also on the cover of RMC and MR multiple times. There are several NMRA Master Modelers in the ranks and even some past NMRA officers and it shows in the layout.
We took away many good ideas from our short visit. This is a club
and layout worth seeing.
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