East Side of Town
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Another
revenue producing item found in Model Railroader late last year and represents the type of
conventional coal burning power plant in my feature story, "Coyote." I really like this building and attached
baghouse. Sam would be proud of it. It occupies space on the layout in a fine
manner. It was a must find and I wouldn't have any other.
Eighty-five points and out. That was company policy. In 1989 I was 55, and had worked for the company over 33 years. Goodbye! We moved from Palmdale to Tehachapi in July and I began my retirement in a very quiet manner. 33 years of work without a break suddenly came to a screeching halt. It was like a switch had been turned off in my brain. Working in aerospace keeps you on edge day after day after day. Suddenly there was nothing.
So I turned to one of my hobbies I've enjoyed since I was a boy. Airplane model building. I had just quit a job that took me from testing autopilot systems in F-86 sabres, B-52 radar, bombing computers in the old A5 Vigilante, Minuteman guidance systems, playing astronaut on the left crew couch of the Apollo 8 spacecraft which ended up in Houston's high altitude chamber, participating in manned Apollo launches at the Kennedy Space Center, working on the B-1 and B-1B, working on the Air Launch Cruise Missile program whiile on loan to the Boeing Company, Logistics in LA, unloading hoppers in North Dakota, and here I am building airplanes.
It didn't last long. With technology what it is today, off-track betting on thoroughbred horse racing was nearly at our fingertips. Racing fans are now flocking to their nearest off track satellite location, instead of driving for miles to tracks on the west coast. Lancaster and Bakersfield have such places that are conveniently located at the fairgrounds and are short distances from freeways for easy access. My favorite is in Lancaster. The Facility Supervisor Therese and the folks that do all the work at the windows are always polite, patient, and helpful. There's Gloria, Al, and Armelia, among others.
There I may mingle with friends like Danny, Don, Sean, Big John, John P., Sammy, and others, once or twice a week, not only to take a shot at some exotic type of wager but to socialize and take my mind off those weeds at home that seem to follow me around all year long. Then there are all those fruit trees, year after year they yield so much fruit that I've given up trying to keep up with them.
The watch and wager facility represents peace of mind to me, and I am very fond of the way the W&W displayed on my layout turned out. The building itself was to be a library of old but I didn't like the way it looked so I modified it to what it is. I chose those two figures at the door waiting to gain entrance to the place out of so many at my disposal because they remind me of a couple that rush to get in only to take two hours at the window to make a $2 bet.
Click here to see Sean and me at the Kentucky Derby.
This
is a model of a ready mix plant that uses cement, sand, gravel and water to make concrete.
If one lives in Tehachapi or just happens to be driving on Highway 58, you can't help
noticing that magnificent Monolith Cement Plant, now the Calaveras Cement Company, a few
miles east of Tehachapi. This plant produces nothing but cement. It was
instrumental in providing much of the needed product during WW2. It has been in
operation for many years. However, it would take many hours to duplicate such a
structure in model form and having a cement plant on any layout is a tribute to those who
produce such a needed product. Click here to
see the real thing.
Fourteen months ago when I began planning my layout, I decided I definitely was going to have three items on display: an airport, a power plant, and a drive-in theatre. It was August of last year when I went to Bakersfield in search of Nothin' But Trains, one of two model railroad hobby stores listed in Model Railroader magazine. I found it to be very well stocked and very friendly. Leaving the store, the lady behind the counter handed me a copy of the August issue of Model Railroad News. Already excited to be surrounded by all of these trains and by having so much to do, I got even more excited when I began to read the magazine that lady had given me. On Page 31 I found an ad for a drive-in theatre. Within seconds I was on the phone placing an order.
Drive in theatres have been a part of my life as well as my family. Many times we piled everyone in the car and headed to a local theatre. I remember the Vineland in La Puente, Floral drive-in in East LA, the drive-in's in Titusville, Florida, equipped with air conditioning to keep cool and to keep from getting eaten by mosquitoes. Even today, on Saturday night, I catch the Lost Drive-In Movies hosted by Bruce Dern via satellite. Well here it is, my version of a drive-in theatre displayed on my own layout.
Farmers and commercial businesses use the grain elevator to store grains, feeds, and other crops for a certain time while awaiting sale and shipment or for providing drying facilities to prevent spoilage. The product is received by either trucks, a rail system, or both. Rail cars are unloaded into openings between rails and are transported by conveyor systems to the tower, where the product is distributed to holding tanks, the silos. Silos are constructed of corrugated steel sheets and are usually painted white to reflect heat for the prevention of spontaneous combustion, as grain dust is highly flammable. To reduce the danger of fire, elevators use dust collectors to filter the grain dust from the air.
The grain elevator in my layout is a late addition, purchased just recently on a trip to Nothin' But Trains in Bakersfield. The kit was there and I needed at least one more revenue producing factory in my industrial site. I had to relocate the coal bunker to make room but it worked out okay and I am really proud of the way this picture turned out.
Click here to see the real thing.
The addition of a second section of 4/8 plywood was the result of a conversation I had with a friend I met in Bakersfield during a swap meet held by the local model railroad club. "Revenue for the railroad," he said. Up to this time my thoughts were with filling empty space on the layout with structures. It wasn't enough to have a village with trains passing through so I decided to provide the railroad with revenue-producing businesses.
It was in November or December of last year when I ran across an ad in Model Railroader featuring new kits to be released in December. The brewery would look fine on my layout. The size was just right and it provided railroad car access. I asked my wife Micheline to let the children know what I wanted for Christmas and they responded with donations to pay for the kit and shipping costs.
Thank you Susan, Marilyn, Henry, and Kathy.