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Cazadero
Elim Grove
Duncan Mills
Camp Meeker
Occidental
| | North Pacific Coast RR Research
Overview
The North Pacific Coast Garden Railroad will attempt to model its prototypes,
the North Pacific Coast Railroad and the Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods Railroad as
closely as possible subject to the constraints of the model railroad's location,
scale, and other limitations. In order to model accurately a fair amount
of time has been invested in researching the prototype. Research has been
gathered using a number of different resources.
 | Railroad specific books and articles - Information on the NPC and the
MT&MWRR was gathered from a variety of books and articles. But the two
most important sources of information were:
 | Narrow Gauge to the Redwoods - The Story of the North Pacific Coast
Railway and San Francisco Paddle-wheel Ferries - Dickenson, Graves,
Graves and Wurm |
| The Crookedest Railroad In The World - California's Mt. Tamalpais
and Muir Woods Railroad - Wurm and Graves |
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| Books on histories of communities served by the two railroads
Other book and article sources are in the bibliography. |
| Driving Tour - On August 3-5, I embarked upon a driving tour of the
route of the NPC. I followed the old road bed as closely as possible,
stopping to take photos of railroad structures, historic artifacts, current
state of NPC yard locations, and historic buildings. I also talked
with a number of people with information on railroad history. |
Research Documentation
At various times in their evolution there were in the range of 50 stops along
the lines of the NPC and Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods RR. When a model
railroad is going to model a real railroad, even one as short as 90 miles, some
compression is required. Compressed at a scale of 1:20.3, the garden
railroad would be 4.5 miles long. I plan on a main line of in the range of
1,000 feet. That means a further compression in the range of 1:25.
It would be terribly unrealistic to model 50 stops in 1,000 feet of track.
One of the features of the NPC was its travels through rough terrain in moving
from stop to stop. The line was studded with tunnels, trestles, bridges,
cuts, and other railroad attempts to deal with a terrain that was far less than
ideal. So there needs to be sufficient distance between stops to show off
some of the challenges faced in constructing this railroad. So the 50
stops need to be compressed to no more than 10-15. The MT&MWRR had only
four stops but two mark opposite ends of the line, and a third is the end point
for the railroad's unique gravity car ride. As a result, research focused
on the most significant stops and the more interesting trackage between stops.
Stops were selected considering the following criteria.
| Services delivered at the stop. The NPC did everything a railroad
could be reasonably expected to do in 90 miles - hauling commuters and
vacationers, bringing lumber to market, hauling farming goods, interchanging
with a tourist railroad, and connecting with paddle-wheel ferries. In
addition, the NPC had very sophisticated engine service facilities and shops
for a railroad its size. The MT&MWRR was a tourist line snaking up
Mount Tam to the tavern at the top of the mountain. A branch line ran
into Muir Woods. Stops chosen collectively deliver all of these
services. |
| Significance of that particular stop in the railroad history. For
example, why was Elim Grove chosen over many other camps and tourist stops?
Because Elim Grove was the site of the Austin Creek Tragedy, leading to the
most significant loss of life in the history of the railroad. |
| Existence of research information including track plans, historic photos
and descriptive information. |
| Present existence of historic buildings that can be photographed from
multiple directions and for which dimensions can be taken off. |
So research focused primarily on the communities and stretches between that
meet the above criteria. Stops for which research data was gathered
include the following stops. Because the list comes to more than 15 stops,
it is likely one or more of these stops will be eliminated in constructing the
NPC Garden RR. The research data is presented in spite of the possibility
of elimination of one or more stops in the event you wish to include these stops
in your model railroad. A listing of these stops is provided on the left
side of the page. Click the links to access the research information.
| Cazadero - The north end of the NPC line containing a sawmill and a
number of historic buildings. |
| Elim Grove - A hotel and resort area in the midst of redwood forests and
the site of the Austin Creek Tragedy. |
| Duncan Mills - A community whose primary focus was serving the logging
camps in the area of the Russian River. The Howe Truss Deck Bridge
over the Russian River was on the way out of this community. A branch
line goes to Markham. |
| Camp Meeker - A stop containing a hotel, cabins, and recreational
facilities in the midst of the redwoods. |
| Markham - The end of the line for a NPC branch line out of Duncan Mills
and site of a significant logging operation. |
| Occidental - A community that is the gateway to the Russian River
containing hotels and a number of other historic buildings. |
| Freestone - A small community containing a NPC water tank and some
historically significant buildings. The Browns Canyon Bridge was was
slightly to the North. |
| Tomales - A community delivering the most significant farming services
to the dairy and potato farms in this area. |
| Marshall - A small fishing community on Tomales Bay. It contains a
number of interesting historic buildings. |
| Point Reyes Station - A community that is the gateway to the Point Reyes
National Seashore. It contains a former NPC station and was a
significant stop along the line. |
| San Anselmo - The community where the NPC main line branched to San
Rafael and San Quentin Landing. |
| San Rafael - A very significant community, second in importance to
Sausalito. |
| San Quentin Landing - One of the two ferry stops across the Golden Gate
from San Francisco. |
| Sausalito - The location of NPCs most significant ferry facilities and
the location of the NPC shops, yard, and engine service facilities. |
| Mill Valley - A community at th end of the Mill Valley Branch. It
is where the NPC interchanged with the MT&MWRR. |
| Tavern of the Tamalpais - The tavern at the end of the MT&MWRR. |
| Muir Woods - The end of the branch line on the MT&MWRR and the end of
the line for the gravity car ride. |
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