# San Diego Regionals: Two Tales of Renewal



## Gary Woolard (Jan 2, 2008)

If I was asked to select a one-word theme for this year's Western Regional Convention in San Diego, I think I'd pick "renewal". If I could add a few words to that, they might be 'simplification' and 'maintainability.' The very first layout we visited at the convention was an illustration of all three: *Ed and Faye Broz's Cajon Railroad*. 

We'd visited the Broz's during the National Convention in 2000, and again during the Regionals in '04; so we thought we had an idea of what to expect. We were wrong. This year the Cajon Railroad had a whole new feel to it! The 'old' Cajon RR had been planted with 160 evergreens; this year half of them had been taken out (as well as many of the switches) and replaced with heat-resistant cacti and other lower-maintenance succulents. The landscape had been largely 'desertified', giving it a much more open look. Many vignettes which had been hidden behind thick foliage were now out where you could appreciate them!

I can show you! Here's a shot from 2004, as Ed is re-railing an engine just past a bridge by the control station. If you look along the left border of the picture, you can notice the stone chimney on a cabin --










Same bridge in 2012. You can see the chimney sticking up behind the bridge, but look how different that background is!










Ed tells me, btw, that you have to be careful about picking your cacti -- many of the species commonly sold in garden centers won't tolerate sustained heat as well as you might think! 










Those orange-ey looking plants growing out of the rocks are spiny little clumps of 'Hiawatha' plants. The Broz's discovered it in Arizona. Faye tells me that the drier it gets, the redder the plant gets!











And of course, there are still plenty of these miniature evergreens. (I think these are in the cypress family?)










Most of the vignettes are in same locations -- you can just see them better! 

A garden that never needs watering..










A farmer hauls a wagon of produce to the freight depot.










Meanwhile, at the other end of the depot..










Here's Faye's dream ranch, the Circle-F.










A railroad work camp










I could show you a dozen more, but we've got to stop somewhere! Before we leave the Cajon RR, however, I should acquaint you with the line's rules and regulations. They're posted in plain sight.











I have to admit I was a bit anxious about what I'd find going on at *Bob Treat's Snow Creek Railroad* this year. This pike has made multiple appearances in GR, FineScale, NGSLG, Model Railroader, and if memory serves, Sunset Magazine. The combination of slightly exaggerated topography and attention to detail has drawn continued comparison to John Allan's Gorre & Dapheted and has made it, simply, one of the absolute favorites of the hobby. 

So when Bob wrote in the Regional's program that the layout was being reconfigured, relandscaped, and rebuilt for easier maintainability, I gulped, hoping Bob hadn't fixed what wasn't broken. And I was already hearing rumors & second-hand reports before I even got there -- everything from "don't bother, it's a pile of rubble" to "it's different, but better!"

The fact is, the layout did sorta' break. A year of heavy rains saturated the soil behind those looming concrete mountains, and slowly pushed it all apart like pieces of Humpty Dumpty's shell. And Bob has been fixing it, with an eye toward reducing maintenance, and with an artist's prerogative to change the canvas to match his changing vision. Treat's new Snow Creek has more of a high-desert feel, and is configured for more and better operations. New mountains are coming, new water features course through the landscape... Snow Creek is once again at that exciting stage of being 'a work in process.'

Okay, time to show what I'm talking about. Here's one of the first things you'll see coming into the yard -- Bob's great copper-topped depot at the head of what I'll call the 'eastern peninsula' of the U-shaped layout.










And here's a very similar perspective from June of 2008! You can just make out Snow Creek through the branches, and the depot was in a different place then.










The new course of Snow Creek makes it a much more dominating feature of the landscape.











In this shot from 2000 or 2004, we're looking up the eastern side of that same peninsula, to where the depot had been situated. You can just see the 'witches hat' spire near the right edge.










And here's that eastern side today.











Once again, we take the way-back machine to 2008, to see a 'reverse angle' on the depot. Notice the cattle pens.










In 2012, those pens have been moved back and up the hill to this newly terraformed high desert.










A look north along the 'western peninsula', where there is still plenty of forest










A closer look at the overpass, and Snow Creek's ubiquitous switcher. The detail on those retaining walls is a hallmark of Bob's modelling skills. (He's been saying for years that he thinks of Snow Creek more as an outdoor model railroad than a garden railroad!)










There were actually several engines running on the Saturday that we visited. Here's Forney No. 5 crossing the high trestle.










Some buildings, such as the 'Slippery Pickle' (now featuring live jazz), have survived at their old location. But I suspect that even here, modified track work has created some new opportunities for switching.










This mill (?) is another typical Treat building. But the exposed chicken wire and cracked bridge illustrate the damage the elements have caused. 










As we were about to leave, I chatted with Mike Pfulb of Mike's Backshop. He said an odd thing to me... that he missed Snow Creek's old scale retaining walls, the stone ones that had drains coming from them. He felt that they were an iconic bit of modelcraft, instantly recognizable as being part of Snow Creek. 

Iconic drains? But the more I thought about it, the more I agreed with him -- and so does SWMTP. This 'blast from the past' illustrates what Mike was talking about.












Here's a shot from the north (the bottom of the 'U', sort of) looking south across the layout. Those exposed blocks were once covered with mountain, and I suspect they will be again, since Treat is planning a new, large mountain feature near this spot. Who knows, there might even be a new retaining wall with a drain!


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Great pics and reviews, thanks for posting!


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Great shots Gary, Thanks! 

Even Southern Californians living along the coast in reality live in a desert, a historically very dry one at that! "Drought Tolerant" and "Minimal Watering" are words most gardens out in SoCal either live or die by. Water rates are only going to up, likely a whole lot in the furture. Planning for a garden or layout that requires minimal watering to me is a base prime directive planning any kind of planting whether theres a train running thru it or not. I am totally not surprised by these layouts being reworked to minimal watering requirement, it just makes sense, between the watering, weeding and the water bills any kind of "traditional" garden (railroad included or not) just doesnt make sense here unless you live where theres alot of year round rain, like in Northern California coast regions, otherwise 3/4 of the state falls into potential drought effective territory. 5 years ago we opted to remove our water thirsty grass lawns and replace them with a Xeriscape garden with drought tolerant species and drip irrigation lines. Its been very successfull for us. I never have to water in the winter months and only once a week during the summer. If I ever get a chance to rebuild outside it will be along these lines as well.


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Awesome! 

Best, 
TJ


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Great images of the tour layout changes, Gary Thanks for posting.... 

Wish we could have made it over....


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## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

Very nice pics and narratives. Thank you for posting and sharing.


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

Very nice Railroads! Enjoyed the pics very much, thanks guys. 

Chris


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