Multiple generations of adults can vividly recall waking up on Christmas morning to find a model railroad train set circling around the holiday tree. The allure of model trains followed the growth of the rail industry- first, in Great Britain, where the railroad was born, and spreading to the United States, where millions of people found a hobby, passion, and community within the world of model trains.
The members of the Mendocino Coast Model Railroad and Historical Society represent a cross-section of model and actual train enthusiasts, fabricators, artists, and historians who come together to operate a beloved local non-profit dedicated to the construction, maintenance, and presentation of a model train layout that depicts life during the heyday of the logging industry along the Mendocino Coast.
The Society is headquartered in a large building next to the Skunk Train’s Fort Bragg depot, featuring a “G Scale” model railroad that traverses through the inside and outside of the building. Along with providing a delightful experience for lovers of model trains, the Society is dedicated to educating the public about the history of the region’s rail lines. A lending library houses over 1,000 publications, and the layout itself is chock-full of written information, with Society members available to answer questions and provide historical context about logging and the layout. For those wishing to dive deeper into local railroad lore, the layout’s history and the process of creating it, their YouTube channel and website offer hours of entertainment and education.
The story begins with the Society’s founders, Tony Phillips and Roger Thornburn, who both hailed from Great Britain and had a passion for the Mendocino Coast and the trains that once inhabited the seafront communities.
Visitors may view the model trains run both inside and outside the building, where trestles like this one were recreated from photos of the actual rail trestles once used throughout the coast. (Carole Brodsky — Ukiah Daily Journal)Chuck Whitlock, the Society’s President Emeritus, explained that the Society went through several developmental iterations. “About 25 years ago, there was a collection of individuals who had their own layouts.” Both Phillips and Thornburn were far more than retirees with a passion for toy trains. “Tony was the Auditor for the Bank of England, and Rodger was the Vice-President of Hewlett-Packard’s European Division,” Whitlock continues.
There were about a dozen men who helped forge the foundation of the Society, including Paul Tay, who was the owner of the Blackberry Inn, and Dan Fetzler, former Chair of the California Public Utilities Commission and a law professor at the University of California.
“Scale” is an important component of model trains, which refers to specific measurements that model trains, tracks, and all the ancillary accessories are “scaled” to. Enthusiasts tend to gravitate to a specific scale size, with the public most familiar with the “HO” scale- the size of trains usually found chugging around the Christmas tree. “Most people had HO scale trains,” says Whitlock. “We decided to attempt to build an outdoor layout about 22 years ago. Dan was into G-scale trains. We decided to migrate to G scale and started to build a layout near the beach. We built a platform about three feet tall, but because of the sand, the platform’s sections kept moving. We definitely learned a lot from our mistakes,” he smiles.
After another attempt at a new location on Franklin Street, the group found themselves at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, where Phillips and his wife ran the food concessions. “Tony installed a little layout at the entrance, and from there, they built a temporary HO layout and migrated it to the vegetable garden area.” Times changed, and new management had different plans for the gardens, which is how the group ended up at their current location.
“This building was built sometime in the 1930s. It was used for repairing cars that the railroad owned,” Whitlock continues. Back then, as most locals know, the local railroad was a full-fledged commercial line, complete with box cars and flat cars that transported all manner of goods besides lumber. “Laura Scudder potatoes had a contract here, so potatoes, grapes, and lots of produce got shipped out from the coast.”
“Now we had a facility, so Tony, Roger, and Dan decided to create the organization. The bylaws were drawn up in about 2011. It took about two years to clean out the redwood building, which for many years had been used for refuse. The concrete floor was painted. We left the benchwork on the east side. Underneath, there were sand casting molds and tubes for steam locomotives. The bench itself was about 24 inches thick and 12-14 feet long- one huge, long piece of wood.”
Phillp’s vision was that the organization would become a world-class model railroad that also focused on historical relevance. “Tony patterned his vision off activity at the coast from about 1885 to 1950,” says Whitlock. The layout represents a coastal swath from Elk, Mendocino, Caspar, Albion, and Navarro, up to Cleone, DeHaven, Rockport, and Whitethorn, where logging railroads existed during the height of timber harvesting.
The layout depicts all aspects of life on the coast from the late 1800’s through 1950. (Carole Brodsky — Ukiah Daily Journal)Thornburn, however, could give a hoot about trains. “Because of Roger’s background, he was very interested in the electronics that went along with creating the layout. Roger set up our original website and graphics.” Gradually, pieces of the layout began to come together. “Some people were modelers. One fellow was a background artist for Walt Disney, so he got into the landscaping. We had a father and son team who worked on creating the Mill Building for the layout. We had some redwood stock, and a young man sat at a card table, cutting the stock into small blocks that were to the scale of the shingles on the Mill building. He chiseled and hammered, making each one of those little shingles by hand.”
Authentic pieces of timber and other elements for the layout were scrounged and donated. “Some people donated actual timbers that came from the Greenwood Trestle. We have virgin redwood milled here around the turn of the century from the interior of the Colombi House on Main Street. The owners were putting in new wainscoting and donated all the old stuff to us. It’s stacked up in a good drying shed,” Whitlock continues.
“Dan created the original drawing for the layout. Originally, it didn’t include anything outdoors.” The layout went through several redesigns, including the construction of a U-shaped model utilizing “to and fro’s” so the trains could travel through the entire building. “Our first layout was just three rail lines and a ‘dog-bone,’ smiles Whitlock. “Then things started to grow. I can’t tell you the number of things we tore apart. Things didn’t always fit, so we’d readjust. That mountain at the end of the layout was our hidden workshop. There was a hollow space underneath, and that’s where Jim Williams did all our maintenance. We called it his troll cave,” laughs Whitlock. “That tiny hollow was our only workshop. We had no other structures at that time- only this building.”
Today, the Society has its own workshop, plus a meeting room and library, with the layout extending outside. “Toy” Brio-style trains and tracks are available for children to enjoy, as the layout itself is a “no-touch” museum-style installation.
Steve Worthen got into model trains as a child when his father took him to a live steam operation in Southeastern Massachusetts. “Those trains were used for cranberry bog harvesting until they realized that people wanted to ride them. That was the first train I ever rode.” The construction of model trains became a family project, and when he moved to Fort Bragg, Worthen decided to join the group, helping out with the layout installed at the Botanical Gardens. He is now a resident docent for the Skunk Train as well as for the Society, and attends to the local logging history- the maps, photos, books, and more.
The current layout, notes Worthen, is a mixture of reality and fantasy. “The outdoor trestles, the railroad station, and the logger’s mill houses are very accurate. There are other parts of the layout, like the turntable in the roundhouse that we didn’t have here, but that represent a historically accurate depiction of how trains operated at that time. The buildings in ‘Fort Bragg’ are representative, but not geographically accurate.” The library includes books on the history of railroads- both real and model- and includes scale models of trains so visitors can view different scale models. The library also includes lots of local history, including maps of Pomo People’s settlements, the history of the types of redwood trees, railroad magazines, and more. “We do our best to refresh our website,” says Worthen. “It’s got about 400 pages of content right now.” He notes that part of society’s success is seeing children tearing up outside, “because they just don’t want to leave us,” he smiles.
In addition to constantly upgrading the layout, Society members are rebuilding a full-scale caboose located in the Skunk Train’s Roundhouse. Originally constructed around the mid-20th century, the frame was rebuilt and placed in service in 1963 by California Western Railroad employees. The caboose remained in service until 1989, when it was placed in storage. Damaged by the damp coastal environment, the Skunk Train offered the caboose to the Society as a rebuild project. After completion, it will be used by The Skunk Train for special excursions, and the Society will have use of it for special events.
Jim Williams is the Society’s fix-it guy, who can usually be found in the maintenance shop. Grateful for now having a comfortable workspace, Williams has a full duty roster consisting of trains and accessories in various states of disrepair. “I was getting too old to crawl underneath that mountain every day,” he smiles. Williams and the team have converted the trains from electric to lithium battery operation, and do not shy away from employing whatever works to get the job done.
“I knew a guy who had the account for all the CD jukeboxes back in the day,” he says. “So he had hundreds of empty jewel cases for the CDs. I took them off his hands, and they form the basis for one of the mountains in the layout,” he smiles. A ton of creative thinking goes into building a model train layout. “See these rivets on this engine?” he points out. “Those are all hundreds of straight pins, painted black. If you looked inside this engine, you’d see the pins sticking all over the place.” Modern technology, such as the use of CNC, is welcomed.
The Society is a 501(c)3 organization, so all donations are appreciated. What they really like to receive is train-related “stuff.”
“Give us your old trains,” smiles Worthen. “We recently attended the International Rail Fair at Cal Expo, and we were able to liquidate some of the donations we’d received, which helps to keep the organization solvent.” Objects, ephemera, and anything that has to do with railroading, logging, model railroading, and more are appreciated.
The layout’s hours revolve around the hours of the operation of the Skunk Train’s Pudding Creek Express, notes Vice-President Don Landers. “Basically, when the Pudding Creek Train runs, we’re open. If there’s one train a day, we open before and after that train runs. If there are two trains, it’s the same- we’ll be open between 10:00-2:00 and 12:00-4:00. We try to put our hours on our website calendar, based on the operation of the Pudding Creek Express.” The layout is generally open Saturdays/Sundays through the holiday season, and almost every day during the summer, starting around Memorial Day. “The price of your Skunk Train admission includes admission to the historical center and the model railroad,” notes Worthen, and more than a few visitors have called it the perfect capstone to their ride on the Skunk Train.
For those without a Skunk Train ticket, admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 2-12, with annual, regular, or supporting memberships available. School field trips are welcome by appointment, and the public is invited to attend the Society’s monthly breakfast meetings. The best way to access the layout is to drive to the end of West Redwood Street and park in the parking lot to the right. Walk north through the double gates to the building entrance.
For information, visit the website at mcmrhs.org. The Society’s YouTube channel can also be accessed from its website.
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