What's New? Arduino for MR page added. See the Wireless DCC page for information about the new Tam Valley Depot DRS1 wireless control system.
The Tam Valley Model Railroad
Welcome to the Tamalpais Valley Railroad website. Be sure to visit the gallery page for lots of photos of the layout. The Tam Valley RR is a point-to-point HO model railroad that wanders through the bedrooms of our house and is roughly based on the real Southern Pacific with a lot of modeler's license. The route starts at Tamalpais Valley, continues through the Central Valley, over the High Sierras, across the Nevada desert to terminate at Ogden with branches to Sausalito and Mill Valley. The roster consists almost exclusively of surplus Southern Pacific equipment from with some other western roads and some old logging locomotives. I mix times up as I wish, modeling 3 dimensions is plenty, I have left the 4th one indeterminate on the TVRR.
The layout is built, owned and operated by me, Duncan McRee, and I live in San Diego. Model railroading has been a hobby of mine for over 30 years. If you wish to comment, you can email me at dmcree (at) tamvalleyrr dot com.
Nevada County Narrow Gauge #9 at Long Ravine
Features of the Website
Trackplan - The trackplan of the layout including a photo tour of the entire model railroad from Sausalito to Ogden.
My Blog - Articles about the model railroad, model railroading and other layouts I found of interest - updated weekly. You can subscribe to the RSS feed and your get a link that will update when a new blog added.
This month's poll - You can vote on interesting issue's for modelers. This month the poll is on SP diesel paint schemes.
How-to Articles - A few articles on techniques I find especially useful in making scenery.
Links to other sites - Lots of interesting sites to find more layouts, vendors, prototype information and local San Diego hobby shops and model railroad supplies.
Prototype Info - Some information and photos of the prototype relevant to the Tam Valley model railroad.
SP Railroad Atlas - Google powered maps of the divisions of SP relevant to this site and for railfanning the SP. A great way to find roads to the tracks to railfan from. Also many links to photos I have taken while railfanning myself.
Surveying the New Construction (click on image for more)
Latest Photos
Snow in Ogden - see the blogs
SD45T-2 at Cape Horn
Lee Christopher's McCloud Railway - see the blog for details