"How To Build Rolling Stock For
Mountain Operation"
Since 1981, the La Mesa Model railroad club, part of the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park, has been building an HO scale replica of the mainline mountain railroad through the Tehachapi mountains in southern California, from Bakersfield, in the San Joaquin valley, to Tehachapi in the Mojave desert. This is a single track mainline with many passing sidings. The
steep grade requires helper units to move trains over 100 cars
long up the hill. Construction of the mainline is completed, with over 28 scale miles of track, rising from 33" off the floor in Bakersfield to
170" at Summit. Operating model trains over this difficult
railroad requires strict attention to standards of construction
of the freight cars. John Cathcart has been the
car department foreman for the La Mesa Club since it's early days
in Nebo Hall, La Mesa. His unique perspective on freight car construction
is shared in this interview.
This first video is a 10 minute YouTube
introduction.