The 46th annual convention of the SP Historical & Technical Society

Last weekend the SP Historical & Technical Society had its annual convention at Visalia, California. Like all organizations post-Covid, attendance was well below what it once was, but the 120-person attendance was better than last year and certainly an encouraging sign. I definitely enjoyed the meeting, but then again, I almost always do. Here’s the convention logo, with Visalia Electric power shown.

There was a good clinic program, with a number of excellent presentations. I especially enjoyed Mike Osborne’s talk about switching Gemco yard. Whether my own talk would qualify, I don’t know, but it was a repeat of a talk that I’ve given before, on modeling SP operating practices (see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/01/handout-for-modeling-sp-operations.html ).  

As always at these meets, there was a large and active vendor room, thronged with browsers between talks every day. Below is a view of the room. 

The most stunning display in the model room, and the talk of the convention, was Larry Saslaw’s HO scale model of the Oakland Mole. It was difficult even to get an overall photograph of it, but this will convey some of the impact. 

In the model contest, I liked Tom Cockle’s model of an SP automat car, made from a 6-6-4 sleeper, just like the prototype, by filling multiple windows. And as was the case on the prototype, you can see indentations at each former window location. (You can click to enlarge.)

Thursday afternoon, we had a guided tour of the beautifully restored Kingsburg SP depot, superbly re-done, even to the agent’s quarters upstairs. Here is a view of the office area, with the ticket window in the distance. (See my recent post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-business-side-of-depot.html .)

Another thing the Kingsburg people have accomplished is to rescue the SP switcher, Class S-10 1238 and its 4700-gallon “sausage” tender, that had been sitting in the dirt at Fresno for years. How far they intend to go with restoration, I don’t know, but it is nice to at least see it on rails again. 

All in all, a lot of interesting things at this meeting, and I for one certainly found it fun. Whatever your prototype railroad, you might find it worthwhile to attend one of its historical societies’ conventions someday.

Tony Thompson