General information about Yorba & Southwestern


The Yorba & Southwestern RR Co. serves an undisclosed area of the southwestern United States, and is modest enough to have remained in virtual seclusion over the years. Here in the early 1960s the Yorba Verde gold mine is still producing sufficiently to keep the miners and several merchants in town busy, and out of trouble.

After a hard day at Golddust #5, one of several operational units at Yorba Verde, the mine workers enjoy some puerile musings at the Vanderbeck Drug Store soda fountain before resting up at the Rico, one of the few hotels around. The locals drive in from Cedar Valley, the nearby bedroom community for Borrego Springs and a hole-in-the-wall called Las Palmas. Pecos Creek is usally dry, but long ago formed the majestic Clearwater Canyon, and finds its occasional source high in the Chocolate Mountains. Clearwater Canyon divides the Yorba area asunder, but locals have transformed part of it into Pecos Wash Rd, the only road connecting Borrego Springs and Las Palmas.

Employees from the Y&SW railroad, the businesses in town, and the local gold refinery enjoy their modest ranches in nearby Cedar Valley, and most own a few horses or cows.

This layout is my first attempt at modeling such a thing, and it has been quite time consuming. I started this back in the summer of 1996, worked on it for a year or so, and let it sit idle for the next several years. I finally started back up in December of 1999, and have made considerable progress since then. I endeavor to mostly finish it up this year (2000). When it's done, maybe the kids will be able to operate it without busting it all up (after all, I made it for them, yeah, that's the ticket)!

All modeling techniques come right out of John Olson's book, Building an HO Model Railroad with Personality (ISBN 0-89024-042-6). He depicts the Jerome and Southwestern, with all its myriad intricacies. What a great layout! Ideas of my own, or power supply design can be had in the miscellaneous section.

Yorba & Southwestern <hatch@cs.utah.edu>