| Owner | Rick Watson |
| Location | Tempe AZ |
| Prototype | Southern Pacific, |
| Los Angeles Division, | |
| Exeter Branch | |
| Scale | HO |
| Era | 1980 |
| Locale | San Joaquin Valley, |
| Central California | |
| Forwarding | Car Card / Waybill |
| Branchline operation | |
| Control System | NCE DCC |
| Size | 18' x 19' |
| Style | Along two walls of room, |
| with two peninsulas | |
| Communication | Verbal, visual track rules |
| Access | Basement; 3' aisles |
| Pets in home | Dog - not in layout room |
| Smoking | No |
| Website | Not yet |
| Crew Size | 5 |
| Jobs | |
| Five | Local switching |
| Hotel Distance | 2 miles; 10 minutes |
Southern Pacific Railroad
Los Angeles Division
Exeter Branch
The Exeter Branch was designed for operations. The track plan and industries are derived from Southern Pacific SPINS (Southern Pacific Industrial Numbering System) diagrams of the region. The majority of the industries existed with a few industries added for operational interest and the owner’s druthers.
The prototype location is in the San Joaquin Valley in California. The area is located north of Bakersfield, south of Fresno, and east of the SP mainline. The year is 1980 and produce traffic is always ‘in season’. The primary commodity is produce throughout the region.
The layout has ten towns in the following order from west to east: Fresno (staging), Locans, Sanger, LacJac, Reedley, Dinuba, Exeter, Lindsay, Vance, and Redbanks. Redbanks exists on the line of the Visalia Electric. As the layout models 1980, the Visalia Electric subsidiary of the SP and just a memory and all equipment is SP.
All motive power are four axle. Rolling stock ranges from 35’ covered hoppers thru 57’ mechanical reefers. The rest is a mixture of cars primarily 50’ in length.
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Operations: The layout employs a car card and waybill operating system. Four one man crews required. The control system is NCE DCC using tethered cabs. All turnouts are controlled by ground throws with the exception of staging which uses a turnout matrix and switch machines.
General comments:
General comments: 1) Staging is 5 tracks in Fresno and 5 tracks in Bakersfield; 2) all outbound traffic will go to Fresno or Bakersfield regardless of destination; 3) Fresno or Bakersfiled bound trains will go into an available track in staging; 4) staging tracks available will have an empty card slot; 5) Locomotive numbers are indicated on the loco card in the card-slot next to the turnout matrix. 6) all train movements require a caboose unless within a town; 7) reefer traffic is always a priority.
Trackplans
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