The old L&C: Part 2

From time to time in this blog, I’ve posted historical images of my layout as it once was, construction photos and early operations. (These can be found by using “L&C” as the search term in the search box at right.) The previous post on this topic is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-look-back-at-lompoc-cuyama.html . As I’ve often stated, L&C stood for Lompoc & Cuyama.

There was a comment to that previous post, asking if the mainline tunnel on my layout represented the actual Tunnel 12 near Sudden on the Coast Line. Yes, it does, and here’s a photo on the layout, including the typical SP tunnel number in white on a black background. The concrete portal is typical of SP practice on the Coast; it’s a commercial part.

I mentioned using USGS topographic maps to devise a route for the L&C. I still use one of the old USGS’s molded plastic versions of quadrangles, in this case the Santa Maria map. The town of Santa Maria is at the top center of the map. You can readily see the much more mountainous terrain at the upper right corner, which is the edge of the Sierra Madre range.  

In addition to what was mentioned before, my goals for the layout were to include a fair amount of the canonical California countryside, golden grass with oak trees, both on modeled scenery and on the backdrops. Here’s a photo of the prototype landscape: 

I chose to use Harriman Consolidations as the foundation of the L&C’s power, both SP and UP brass engine models. Here, for example, is L&C No. 12 switching at what was then Jalama, with a reefer being iced at the foreground icing deck. This area on today’s layout, now called Shumala, is otherwise much the same as this. 

I’ll close with a photo shown before but which I’ve always liked, in part because it vividly shows how the town of Ballard once looked. This is L&C Consolidation No. 10 arriving with a short freight. Some of the buildings you see here are in the identical positions today: the depot, the winery in the distance, and the wholesale grocer and Nocturnal Aviation against the backdrop at right. The other two industries, middle distance, have been relocated, and additional structures have been added. 

After the move from Pittsburgh to Berkeley, that hill in the distance above had to be entirely rebuilt (as I described in a series of posts, culminating with this one: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/01/repairing-ballard-hill-conclusion.html ). But of course that’s only one of many examples of how time marches on.

Tony Thompson