Soroba and Dunbeg Railway
The Soroba and Dunbeg Railway began life as a narrow gauge route using 32 milimetre gauge of track and ran up one side of the garden.
Since then it has changed quite a bit. This came about due to a maturing interest about seven years ago in standard gauge lines of the North American Continent. About the same time an american manufacturer released a new model in 1:29 scale of a modern diesel loco. The specifications of the model were very impresive - four motors, ballrace bearings, fan blown smoke units etc and I was sold. I ordered a couple of units as the prototype almost always ran in multiple and at the minimum as a back to back pair. The models were of the second generation SD 45 built by the Electro Motive Division (EMD) of General Motors. Rated at 3,600 hp they were state of the art in the late 60s. The models themselves weigh nearly 18 pounds each.
.
While waiting for them to arrive I started adding a third running rail to the existing route. Fortuneately the original line, or a major part of it, was laid to generous curves and so the change of scale and gauge was still able to follow the original right of way. The line had been built with wooden sleepers and bullhead rail. Much of this was replaced with second hand tenmille gauge 1 track and plastic sleepers. A hole was drilled in each sleeper to accept the chair of the 32 mm rail so maintaining the narrow gauge facilty to the top of the garden.
The summer of 2000 saw the development of a storage yard behind the garage with a dual gauge junction. Six sets of dual gauge points were built to give access to the yard roads at the west end of the line. This has since been demolished to make way for a large train shed planned to be built behind one of the buildings.
At the east end at the top of the garden there was a problem. A full size footbridge crosses the narrow gauge line on the skew where the return loop begins. The curve was also too tight at this point for the standard gauge and there was not sufficient head room for an easier curve. My wife came up with the answer – a new route across the lawn! Way back when the the railway began it was considered but it was just a pipe dream. We had too many other things to occupy us like rebuilding the house,barns fences and the daily routines of keeping livestock. The new route was certainly a solution and ten years on became a possibility. The garden had developed and matured and the new line became possible but produced new challenges.
Having crossed the lawn it had to negotioate a rhododendron bed and then cross a path. It also left the railway 18" above ground level. The railway had to pass behind a rose bed which was prone to flooding during wet weather. The answer was to build a block wall 18" high and 20 " wide. Against this was placed several digger loads of topsoil and compost for the rose bed, and the railway was built on top of the wall. The final link was a descending 15degree (13foot radius) curve at 1in 80 which brought the line back to the original alignment. This was completed two years ago and also produced a drier rose bed..
The move from steam to diesel power also led to a new problem. The original line was powered by butane fired steam or battery power. Putting electricity through the rails meant re engineering some of the point work to insulte frog rails and electrically bond many joints. The power draw of these big diesels , particularly when working under heavy load would fry most ordinary power controllers. All controllers are rated at 10 amp at 24 volt and use the Aristocraft train engineer RC sytem which can use power through the rail or from a trailing battery car coupled behind the power units.
In the last few years the line has settled into the garden quite well. It represents a part of the Southern Pacific empire on the west coast. To put it in a geographical context, particularly for those of us on the Scottish side of the pond the line represents a small section of the Southern Pacific mainline in northern California and runs north from Roseville to Dunsmuir on the Cascade Line. The line has several steep grades , up to 2 % (1;50) and many tight bends. This calls for a lot of power to move heavy trains and seemed ideally suited in model terms to multiple power and relativly short trains. To the north is Portland, Oregon and an end on junction with the Burlington Northern Railroad. Further still would take you to the Canadian border.
To the west of Roseville is Sacremento and the Pacific Ocean. To the east is the Donner Passand SP’s conection with the Union Pacific at Ogden , Utah. To the south lies the rest of the Southern Pacific empire all the way down the Californian coast and along the Sunset Route through Arizona , New Mexico into Texas and, through its 1930 take over of the St Louis Southwestern or Cotton Belt as it is known, right up into St Louis Missouri. All along the route the line connects at various points with the Santa Fe and Union Pacific. In 1995 the Santa Fe and Burlington Northern merged to become the BNSF. The only survival option for the Southern Pacific was to allow itself to be taken over by its long term competitor, the Union Pacific. As from 1997 UP became heir to the entire Southern Pacific empire.
Since distances are so large trains originating in one area may work through into another railroad . It is quite comon to see power units from neighbouring lines either as a set or mixed in with local power. On the Cascade line one might see the green and black of the Burlington Northern, Orange and black of the newly created BNSF, yelow and blue of ATSF, Yellow andgrey of the UP, black and gold of the Rio Grande and of course the grey and red of the Southern Pacific, Repaints to equipment are only usually done during major overhauls so the old liveries wil be seen for a while yet.
The line itself is a wandering circle around the garden of about 300 feet. There is a passing siding through Roseville, behind the rose garden, which will hold about 25 fifty foot cars. This is prototypically rather short but as there are few places where the whole train can be seen at one time it seems longer. Even so a train be can forty to fifty feet long . Two or three locos in the power set can add another seven feet or so. The lines signature train is an intermodal double stack container train. Made up of single cars and five unit articulated sets it is quite impressive.
Since the period of the line is around 1997 it is definately in the modern era. Power is all diesel. The most modern units are of the third generation General Electric AC4400 CW-9 known simply as ‘dash 9’s. Comfort cabs, AC control and 4,400 h.p. from a four stroke V16 prime mover. The products of General Motors (GM) are well represented with a third generation SD 70 introduced in 1993 and a number of older six axle SD 45’s and SD40s and four axle GP 38s.
Rolling stock consists of mainly 50 to 60 foot freight cars from various manufactures including a number of home built items. Many box cars still have roof walks which will need to be removed at some point. They were banned from use in the mid eighties for safety reasons. Other vehicles are intermodal doublestack container well cars, covered hoppers, coal hoppers, tankers, bulkhead flats and flats car. One vehicle type under consideration is the 89 foot flat car for carrying road trailers. These do take up a lot of siding length however. The railway is always evolving and imperceptably moving forward.
More as things develop.
