I spent a lot of time looking at the Cajon Pass layouts of Bill Pearce and Otto Kroutil as featured in the 1999 Model Railroad Planning. I've learned a lot from these two examples, and was especially inspired by Otto's version of the San Bernardino station and yards. With Otto's version as my guide, I developed a new plan for the San Bernardino end of the layout.

This version allows through-trains at San Bernardino, plus fits in a lot of yard tracks as well. Most importantly, it provides an entry into the station that more closely matches the original. I was also inspired to make the UP tracks south of Keenbrook a loop that connects to the Palmdale Cutoff above Silverwood. This will allow a UP train to run continuously and unattended, while the BNSF tracks are run normally. The Metrolink trains also run automatically, so with only one operator, I can easily have three or even four trains running at once.

In the small world category, the other day at work, I went to a demo on an automation project. After the meeting, my wife and I ran into the presenter at the train station. Turns out Tony is a big railfan and was there to get some shots of the trains before he traveled on to the next stop in his road show. Tony is interested in all kinds of power, not just the rolling variety. He was telling me about the Society for Industrial Archeology. The SIA is made up of over 1,800 members, world-wide, who have a strong interest in preserving, interpreting and documenting our industrial past and heritage. This might be something other railfans would be interested in as well.

Okay, so I haven't posted in a while, but I've been pretty busy at work and at home. Sherry told me today I need to spend some time with my trains, and I just might take her up on that. I've got to stay home on Thursday for the dishwasher repairman, so I should try to get to the layout then.

There is a guy named Robby, who calls himself "Mr. MRL" over on TrainOrders. He just hiked up to the top of a hill above Swarthout and took some great photos. You'll need to be registered at TrainOrders to see the photos, but check these

Today I snuck out with some of the guys from the club for a field trip to Riverside to measure and photograph the old buildings. Many of the buildings are being torn down for the redevelopment of the area. Pictured are left to right, Ray, Kevin, me and Hugo. If anyone but our mothers wants to see a larger version of the photo, just click on it.

I'm heading out to the garage soon to knock out some more on the benchwork. Maybe for my birthday next week I'll get a nail gun? I built two four-foot square rolling stages so I can use the area under the layout for storage but still be able to roll the stuff out of the way to get under the layout. If you decide to do something similar, I recommend going to Ikea for the casters because you can get them for half the cost that Home Depot charges.