Anything in San Diego, Palm Springs or Yuma.

[Will_annand]

This is the question I got from my mother.

She and my father are going to be in those three cities over the next three months. They are both model railroaders, father does the track and the operating, mother sets the scenes.

I think that they are looking for both LHS, father has a wish list, and "Open Houses" to model railfan. Mother will probably have her laptop with her so she can show off their layout.

 

[jim currie]

no hobby shops in yuma very few modelers also.

 

[nachoman]

San diego has a huge model railroad club in balboa park.

kevin

 

[BLVDBUZZARD]

Yes there is a huge model railroad museum in Balboa Park. It has O, HO, N, Leggo, and Toy trains. It is easy to spend most of the day there. They may have some of the building done on a new section of the HO layout.

Here is thier web site. http://www.sdmodelrailroadm.com/

Dru.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

There is also the San Diego Railroad Museum in Campo a small town on state route 94 just West of I-8 in Eastern San Diego County. The museum is staffed by volunteers and is only open on weekends. There are a few model train shops in San Diego, but I'm not familier with any of them first hand. There are really quite a few things that are interresting to do and see in San Diego including the zoo and the Wild Animal Park. Both attractions are operated by the San Diego Zooalogical Society, and you can get combination tickets to give you both attractions at a discount instead of paying a separate price for each individually. San Diego also has "Old Towne" which is the original pueblo and was the first settlement in California by the Spanish in th 1600s or early 1700s. I don't know of any model railroading in Palm Springs, but the Palm Springs Tram is interresting. Just dress warmly. You board it on the North side of Palm Springs in the dessert where temps may be in the 70s or 80s, and it goes up the side of the mountain by cable to 7500 feet elevation where they may find snow! For railfanning there is the old S.P. main through Whitewater over the pass at Beaumont and Banning. Just North of Beaumont at the first off ramp North of the I-10/60 junction is the 14th Street off ramp. If you go East you are on 14th Street in Beaumont, but if you go West it becomes San Timoteo Canyon Road. The road runs along side the old S.P. mainline down San Timotea Canyon from the top of the hill to Redlands on the way to Colton Yard. I just checked the Yuma Sub forum on www.SoCalRailFan.com and they report typical traffic on the Subdivision from West Colton Yard to Yuma, Az through San Timoteo Canyon as 50 trains per day average. There is a budget level hotel that is fairly new on highway 138 at the 15 in the middle of Cajon Pass if they want to take a couple of days to visit Cajon Pass while out here. Again according to the So Cal Railfan Forum, the train frequency over Cajon is about 80-100 trains daily. The BNSF has a double track mainline through the pass and U.P. has a single track through the pass and over to Mojave to go up Tehachapie. U.P. also has trackage rights over the pass on the BNSF main from West Riverside to Daggett.

 

[Will_annand]

Thanks, I will pass on the information.

 

[CalFlash]

Palm Springs isn't too far (east) of Perris CA which has an operating train museum 1:1 size and holds swap meets 2 times a year on the grounds. I believe the spring one is on March 4th.

 

[Will_annand]

Jerry, I will let my parents know, thanks.