Welcome to the
Oakhurst Railroad!
October 28, 2011
The Oakhurst Railroad is an HO scale model railroad running through the central Sierra town of Oakhurst, California. Although no real railroad ever ran through Oakhurst, the area is rich in logging and gold mining history and several railroads and logging flumes operated nearby. My parents and brothers used to live and work in Oakhurst and I spent many summers there. After about 20 years of planning and dreaming, my son and I built the first 16-foot by 16-inch Oakhurst Railroad in the garage at our previous house in Downey.
In 2004 we were house shopping in the Los Alamitos/Rossmoor area and spotted our new house. I was quick to find the “office” that a previous owner had built into a portion of the garage. My wife Nancy was thinking kid’s playroom/junk room but that idea never had a chance. We made a quick offer on this house and it was accepted. The next day I bothered the sellers by asking to take measurements of the new “train room”. I spent the escrow time planning the track plan and layout arrangement. By the time we moved in, finished unpacking, and fixing a few things, I was ready to start construction of the new Oakhurst Railroad. Within about 3 months, trains were running. About 3 months later, basic scenery was in place. Since then I have slowly been adding details to the layout.
The Oakhurst Railroad is a two level point-to-point railroad with a helix and an optional continuous run. For operations, trains are put together in the Oakhurst yard and then travel to the logging or mining areas on the upper level. Logs are taken from Camp 3 or Central Camp to the North Fork sawmill. Cut lumber and mining ore are taken to Oakhurst for interchange with a Southern Pacific branch line that connects to the mainline in Fresno. Passenger trains take guests to and from the Yosemite resort in Wawona.
I hope you enjoy your trip on the Oakhurst Railroad!
Marty Bradley
Check me out on Facebook
Check out the Oakhurst Railroad page on Facebook
Recent Updates
(October 2011):
I rearranged and greatly improved the logging rigging at Central Camp using pulleys and other hardware from Rio Grande Models Ltd and grey Berkshire Junction E Z Line. It was difficult to get good photos of the rigging, but take a look. I have installed a high line and a log loading rig. Also added a new steam donkey from Bachmann. It is actually an O scale model, but it is about the right size to represent a large steam donkey in HO scale. The HO scale Bachmann steam donkeys are very small.
Recent Updates (Sept
2011):
1) Check out the new Oakhurst Railroad page on Facebook
2) Three formal operation sessions were held in July, August, and September. They were a great success, at least judging by the comments of the operators. If you are interested in participating in a future operating session please contact me.
Helix and Construction Photos: Construction and Helix
Map and Track Plan: Track Plan
Layout Grade and Elevation Diagram: Grade Diagram
Station Tour Photos: Station Tour Photos
Locomotive, Passenger Car, and Freight Car Roster: Locomotives and Rolling Stock
Train Schedules and Operations: Train Schedules
Pictures and discussion on how I added a gallows to the Atlas turntable: Turntable Gallows Construction
Pictures of the Railfan Excursion Event and Barbecue: Railfan Excursion Event
Movie Clips: Movie Links using Photobucket Movies.htm
Photos of Logging Areas: Logging
Areas.htm
“Aerial” Photography: High
Angle Photos.htm
Other pictures of the current Oakhurst Railroad:
Photobucket:
http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n183/mkbradley_photos/
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=542&id=1067838506&l=3dcbd0fb98
I’m learning to take better pictures as time goes on, so hopefully the quality of the pictures is improving along with the quality of the railroad …
Link to pictures taken by a visitor at the February 2011 Open House tour:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayer8ha/sets/72157625999022931/show/
Link to photos of the OLD 16 foot x 16 inch Oakhurst Railroad:
Link to the model railroad club where I am the superintedent of the Sequoia Pacific logging branch:
Los Angeles Model Railroad Society (website)
Los Angeles Model Railroad Society (Facebook)
Our local model railroad group led by Bob Chaparro. He organizes model railroad tours:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/
Link to the actual Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad in Fish Camp:
Book References:
1) Johnson, Hank, “The Whistle Blows No More – Railroad Logging in the Sierra Nevada 1874-1942”, 1984.
2) Johnson, Hank, “Thunder in the Mountains – The Life and Times of the Madera Sugar Pine Company”, 1995.
3) Johnson, Hank, “They Felled the Redwoods – A Saga of Flumes and Rails in the High Sierra”, 1996.
4) Sargent, Shirly, “Yosemite’s Historic Wawona”, 1979.
5) Wurm, Ted, “Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Railroad – San Francisco’s Water and Power Project”, 2000.
6) Johnston, Jeff, “The MDC Shay Handbook”, 1997.
7) Westcott, Kenneth & Johnson, Curtiss, “The Pacific Coast Railway – Central California’s Premier Narrow Gauge”, 1998. (Turntable)
8) Johnson, Hank, “Short Line to Paradise – The Story of the Yosemite Valley Railroad”, 1971.
9) Ferrell, Mallory, “West Side Pictorial”, 2000.
10) Furlow, Malcolm, “HO Narrow Gauge Railroad You Can Build”, 1984.
11) Coleman, Matt, “The Model Railroader’s Guide to Logging Railroads”, 2008.
12) Bryant, Ralph, “Logging – The Principles and General Methods of Operation in the United States”, 2008 (original printing 1913). (Yes, I actually finished this on! It took 3 years …)
13) Newell Deane, Dorothy, “Sierra Railway”, 1960.
14) Kreig, Allan, “Last of the 3 Foot Loggers”, 1962.
15) Johnston, Hank, “Railroads of the Yosemite Valley”, 1963.