Announcement Email

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June 13, 2024

Content

2024 Festival Participants/Sponsors

Below is a list of confirmed Participants and Sponsors so far for the 2024 Central Coast Railroad Festival. If you or your organization is interested in participating, click the Contact page.

Railroad Festival's New Website

The Central Coast Railroad Festival's newly updated website is up and running. You'll find that all the "old stuff" has been removed so that only the most current (and slightly forward looking) material remains. See you at the Festival!

Festival Schedules Now Available

The overall Central Coast Railroad Festival Schedule for 2024 is now available on the Festival website. Also, the detailed 2024 schedule for the SLO Railroad Museum is also available on the Museum's website. Of course, both schedules are subject to change as the Festival approaches, so be sure to check in once in a while for the latest information.

Free Weekend at Goleta Depot June 15-16

The South Coast Railroad Museum / Goleta Depot is having a Free Weekend June 15-16, 2024. From their website: "Calling all train lovers! Visit the Goleta Depot on June 15 & 16 and ride the train for free. Ride the miniature train, jump in the bounce houses, ride the hand car, tour the museum, play games, and more...all free of charge. This fun event is generously sponsored by the Rotary Club of Goleta."

Paso Robles Historic Train Depot

Immediately south of the Amtrak Station (also known as the Paso Robles Transit Center) in Paso Robles, CA is the original 1880s railroad depot/station which today houses numerous retail businesses. One of those businesses is Cypher Winery which is participating in this year's Railroad Festival. Here's your chance to check out the depot building and enjoy some wine tasting at the same time! Here's a fun fact... Ignacy Paderewski, reknowned pianist, toured the U.S. by private railcar, including stops in Paso Robles where he ultimately purchased thousands of acres of land in 1914 which he named Rancho San Ignacio. He planted mostly zinfandel and petite sirah grapes which were first used by the famed York Mountain Winery. Epoch Estate Wines owns and operates the property today including wine production from the original Paderewski Vineyard.

G-Scale Trains at SLO Botanical Garden July 14

Large scale trains will be running on display at the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden on July 14, 2024 from 10am to 2pm. Admission is Free. El Chorro Regional Park charges a $3 per vehicle admission fee on weekends and holidays from April through September. Parking lots are located directly across from the Garden.

Free Oceano Depot Tours Sundays 1-3pm

Free guided tours of the Oceano Train Depot & Dunite Cabin are available on Sundays from 1pm to 3pm. No appointment necessary. Tours also available by appointment. Start your tour in the waiting room. Guided tours last approximately 30-45 minutes. Donations are appreciated.

Arroyo Grande's Swinging Bridge Restoration

The famous Swinging Bridge that crosses the Arroyo Grande Creek in Arroyo Grande, CA is being restored. The project just started and is scheduled to be complete by September 2024 (ahead of the Railroad Festival, hopefully). It was built in 1875 by the property owner at the time and is located very close to where the Pacific Coast Railway (PCRy) crossed the same creek in the early 1880s. Here's a photo published by the Santa Maria Times of that PCRy bridge. And here's a KSBY article about the Swinging Bridge project.

Pacific Coast Railroad Photos/Videos

The Pacific Coast Railroad's Facebook Page now contains photos and videos of their Memorial Day weekend activities. The event is called The Best of the West and included not only the trains and train rides at the Santa Margarita Historic Ranch but also blacksmith demos, a tractor parade, military salutes, earth moving demos, and plowing demos. Two videos show a doubleheaded steam train with Locomotives #2 and #3.

Mountain View Garden Railroad

Bob Chaparro (of the Model Railroads of Southern California) recently shared (on Facebook) a video by Paul Patterson of the Mountain View Garden Railroad (G-scale) in the Santa Ynez Valley. It's an amazing railroad with over 2,000 feet of track and untold trees (many are Alberta Spruce), plantings, bridges, buildings, water features, railroad collectibles, rocks and stone, and even a full-size caboose. Here is Paul Patterson's 9-minute video. Interestingly, your editor took still photos of this same railroad about 15 years ago.

PCR/NMRA 2025 Convention in SLO

The Pacific Coast Region of the National Model Railroad Association will hold its 2025 Convention in San Luis Obispo March 27-30, 2025. Details will develop on the convention's website: PCR2025.org.

NMRA Convention, Long Beach, August 4-11

Surfliner 2024 NMRA National Convention will be held in Long Beach, CA, August 4-11, 2024. The NMRA is the National Model Railroad Association, and their conventions include a plethora of activities from modeling clinics to tours to presentations. All the details are available on the Surfliner 2024 NMRA National Convention website.

CA State Railroad Museum Excursions are Back

Last summer, the California State Parks and the California State Railroad Museum Foundation invested a combined $1.8 million toward the replacement of approximately 1,000 feet of mainline south of Capitol Mall along the Old Sacramento Waterfront. And they're up and running for 2024. Here's their Excursion Webpage.

Model Railroads of Southern California

Model Railroads of Southern California is a good Facebook group to follow if you're interested in model railroading from nearly any angle, including how-to-build tips and tricks, announcements of model train shows and events, and photos galore. They also organize model layout tours throughout the SLO-San Diego area. Our Railroad Festival's Model Layout Tour has been organized by Bob Chaparro of this group since the beginning! Nearly 800 layouts have been included in the 60-some tours this group has organized since 2006.

A National Train Day Story

In last month's Announcement Email, we asked for people to share stories from their National Train Day experiences on May 11, 2024. We got one! Jamie Foster, SLO Railroad Museum member who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, tells of visiting the Trolley Museum in Colorado Springs for the first time. And to his delight and amazement found three fascinating things. One was a set of trollies from Philadelphia that his Dad may well have ridden or seen. The second was a Southern Pacific Daylight dining car MCRX 10400. And third was an HO yellow trolley that was the spittin' image of one he used to run on his Dad's HO layout at their home in Kansas City. See photos at ToShinyRails.com.

Railroad Day in Long Beach June 22

If you happen to be in the Long Beach area on June 22, 2024, you may want to catch one or more of the three railroad clubs holding an open house at their respective railroads. The clubs involved are the Belmont Shore Model Railroad Club (N-scale, website) in San Pedro, the Los Angeles Model Railroad Society (HO-scale, website) in Harbor City, and the Angels Gate Hi-Railers Model Railroad Club (O-scale, website) in San Pedro. Each will be open from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, June 22, 2024.

Nine Ride-on Railroads in Los Angeles Area

There are nine miniature railroads in or near Los Angeles that you can ride on! For a rundown on each, see this Timeout.com article, "Take a ride on these 9 miniature railways in and near L.A.""

Union Pacific Historical Society (UPHS):
2024 Convention Moving to Online

The 2024 UPHS Convention originally scheduled for early May in Perris, CA was cancelled. The good news is that UPHS is planning to do a 1-day, online convention later this summer with many of the originally planned presentations. Watch the UPHS Convention webpage for details. This gives many of us a chance to see what the content of this convention looks like without the time and expense involved with travel.

Coyote, CA Train Depot Moves to San Jose

The 1869 Southern Pacific Railroad train depot in Coyote, CA was recently moved to History Park in San Jose, CA. The city, which now owns the building, plans to have it fully restored. Among other fun projects, they intend to connect the depot by telegraph with the Coyote Post Office which has been located at History Park since 1974. Here's a Mercury News article about the move.

Area Railroading Opportunities

There's a plethora of railroading going on in our area (broadly speaking, in some cases). Check out this Index of Area Railroading. Be sure to check with any of interest to you to verify their open status and schedules.

Want Your News/Event Promoted?

Do you have a Central Coast railroad-related event or news item to add to our next broadcast email? It's free! And it doesn't have to be part of the Festival itself (could be any time throughout the year). Email the details to: addevent@ccrrf.com. The next issue will likely be in a month or so.

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