Hi, my name is Ron Tindall,

Secretary and Web Master for the club

On my page you'll find a bio of myself, what I like to model, a switching puzzle layout and some photo's.

I've also added 258 pictures of the evolution of my railroad from day 1 making the frames until a year and 6 months later, where it's almost 90% complete.

We hold operating sessions on Friday nights using the Rail Ops computer operating system along with Digitrax DCC radio equiped to power the layout itself.

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Name: Ron Tindall, Age: 58, Occupation: Local Area Network Administrator

Hobbies: Model Railroading, Astronomy, Woodworking, Crafting Native American Flutes and Gourds

BIO: I was born into railroading. My Grandfather was an engineer for the Soo Line in Wisconsin in the 1940's. My father had interests in railroads since his childhood and started his own model railroad when I was a young boy. When I was 10 years old I started going with my Dad to the local model railroad club. It's been an ongoing love affair ever since.

My first layout was an 8' x 10' in a single car garage when I was in my twenties. In the early 70's I got involved with a private club that met at Campbell Scale Models which at that time was located in Santa Ana. Four of the gentlemen in the club owned model railroad manufacturing companies including Leo Campbell himself. I was very heavy into the scenery and made many diorama's for the group. These dioramas where used in local shops, trade shows and displays around the country.

I also designed structures and built prototypes for them which was a lot of fun and rewarding to see something go to market as a commercial kit that you made. I learned a lot from this group and had a blast working with them.

In the 80's I moved to Riverside, Ca. and built a 22' x 18' layout of the Yosemite Valley Railroad. An informal group of regulars would meet each Friday night for an operating session where they ran schedules with a fast clock. That layout was my pride and joy!

I put many years of work into it and was pretty much finished with huge mountains, canyons, rivers that followed the Merced River from Yosemite Park to Merced, Ca. where the yards where located. The layout featured a working 70% incline logging railroad with cars winched up and down just like the prototype.

During the late 80's I had the privilege to actually be an engineer on a narrow gauge railroad. It was at a theme park and the engines where like the steam engines they have at Disneyland. I drove a 0-6-0 saddle tank with a shorty tender and usually pulled 6 to 8 passenger cars. It was fun for a couple years, but the cab was an extremely hot place to work in the summers.

The 90's brought me to San Diego. Unfortunately I lost most all of my equipment and I had to setup out of model railroading for a while. Just a hint for you readers, "Rule #1, Never spend more time and money on your railroad than your wife!" Lesson learned the hard way... trust me.

After a 12 year drought, I decided to get back into the hobby. When I heard about Poway Station being a modular club I couldn't wait to see what it was all about. So I met the gang and joined the club. Turned out to be a great bunch of guys who love trains.

What I like to model:

Favorite Roads: Yosemite Valley RR & Southern Pacific

Favorite Loco's: I'm a steam guy... I love Shays and the GS4 Daylight

(though of recent a couple diesels have caught my eye, geesh, I thought I'd never say that)

After a visit to Yosemite National park many years ago I fell in love with the area and it's history. The Yosemite Valley Railroad ran from Merced, Ca. to El Portal, 3 miles from the Park Entrance, a short line tourist carrier up until 1945. Along this rail line there was also a lime/cement works, and a bustling logging industry. Part of this unique area was the logging operations done by the Yosemite Sugar Pine Co., so I freelanced and started to model my own road named The Yosemite Sugar Pine RR.

I am also partial to Southern Pacific, probably due to the fact it had the GS4 & Cab Forward which I like and the SP also connected to the Yosemite Valley RR.

Module building is a new adventure for me because I currently don't have room to build a permanent layout right now. I have built a two modules of a four module design set which represents the Yosemite Sugar Pine R.R. , 1907 - 1945, 77 miles of track running from Merced, Ca. to the entrance of Yosemite National Park, just like the prototype Yosemite Valley R.R. did.

The two mainlines at the front of my modules represent the mainline of the YSP RR.

The Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber Co. cut trees from the forests on top of 8,000 ft. peaks and used incline railways to get the logs down off the mountain to be picked up by the YSP R.R. and taken to the saw mill.

The back tracks and the track above are the logging railroad of the Yosemite Sugar Pine R.R., owned and operated by the lumber company itself. (YSP R.R.) Modeled here is also a working scaled down version of one of the inclines. A steam hoist house, winches the loaded logs down the steep incline where the log cars are disconnected from the winch and a steam engine moves them to the saw mill. The real inclines where over a mile long and at a grade of more than 70% (7 feet down for every ten feet forward). Empty cars where then winched back up the incline for the next load of timber.

Two more modules are planned for completion this winter, to represent the yard facilities at Merced, Ca. and numerous industries which would use the wood products.

Stop back and check it out.

Photo's

Switching Puzzle Layout

I am currently working on a switching puzzle fold up layout. Now that's a mouthful. I'll have some pictures of it up soon. There are two 24 inch deep by 48 inch long sections or mini modules. They are basically 1/4 inch 9 ply birch plywood for the top surface and 1 x 2 frame running around the outer edges. The two units are hinged in the middle so the whole layout can fold into a 24 x 48 x 4 inch thick layout. I put a handle on it and it looks like a large suitcase. Very light weight too. All the switches are manual ground through switches, code 100 nickel silver with bumpers at the ends of many of the tracks and a series of rerailers here and there to keep things on the rail.

The whole thing can be setup in minutes. It will run DC or DCC. I am currently working on industrial buildings to put on all the sidings. There is one track strictly for incoming traffic, one strictly for outgoing traffic and there is a mainline running across the whole thing from one corner to another, which you can use to move around but not park cars on during operations.

Once all the scenery is made I will concentrate on labeling all the industries, buying correct cars for each type of industry and then make up Way and Freight Bills for the operators. ( Can be run singley but it works very smoothly with one person as an engineer and one as the switchman/brakeman.

Nothing is glued down except the dirt, grass and roadbed. When you pop the unit open you merely place the buildings where you want them, set the cars in there locations, plug in the power pack and your ready to go.