San Diego "Old Town Model Railroad Depot"

As a matter of fact I saw one of the SD Clubs members helping out in Oldtown and he is from Las Vegas like me.

Very nice layout. Great videos. Balboa park is always a great stop. thank you.

I have been to the depot in old town. Very nice work they've done there. So nice to see a layout of that quality and then be able to drive over to Balboa and see the wonderful museum layouts they have there. 

 

From what I understood, the owner is a member at the museum and helps build the layouts there. The depot is his side/dream project.

Well the owner left the SD3R and started his own group which is the Depot. The next thing is it took 4 months to build the layout. Now we as a group are having fun trying to find people to run on the days he use to run on. We have lost members because he lets people run on his layout for FREE!

A shop with a layout like that in Old Town - a location heavily visited by tourists - is a boon to the hobby.  The real estate in that area has got to be expensive.  I hope they are successful as a commercial venture.   I hope I can get to visit it.

How much do you charge folks to operate on YOUR layout?

Hot Water the San Diego 3 Railers has a due system you have to pay your dues every year and I believe the price vary's on what membership you chose weather it would be a senior membership or different.

OK, I understand the annual dues process but, he implied that anyone can come in and operate for free at the "new place", whereas the San Diego 3 Railers charges "visitors" to run. Maybe I misunderstood his comment.

Okay let me explain it a little bit more. Pretty much the San Diego 3 Railers is a club layout located in the Balboa Park model train museum and the shop that is in old town is not part of the San Diego Model Rairlaod Museum they are completely separate and run different witch mean's one charges people for membership to run on the layout and be a club member and the other is just free with no membership. To sum it up they are just 2 different place's by 2 different owners.

You have to be a member of SDR to run, and it's $80-$100 for the annual dues. I pay it even though I only run a few times a year.

Old Town is privately owned, and I have run there several times as well. No dues or fees, you just need to ask Gary. I have videos of both clubs on my YouTube channel, but persoanlly I like to run in Old Town better. The fees make no difference to me 1 way or the other.

Thanks. Now THAT makes a lot of sense. Wonder why Tim had to make the comment the way he did, with the "frowning face"?

There is some bad blood between the 2 and some of the guys...

It's tough to get on the schedule to run trains at SD3R, and I usually have to do it months in advance. During the week, it's normally the same guys, week after week. I usually run on the weekends because I go down to SD with my wife and we make a weekend out of it. I can usually call Gary at any given time and ask him to come down and run.

For me they both have their own plus sides.

And yes it is hard to get on the 3 railers running list.

the difference between the two layouts is the SD 3R's is organized as a club, you join and can run whatever you want as long as it will run on a 3 rail track. I, running on most tuesdays will permit any visiting train person who brings a 3 rail engine, to pull what I am running. the engine does not have to be scale.

 

the old town railroad depot as I understand it, is a 3 rail scale only layout.  it is wired as a dcs layout but, if you bring your legacy base you may hook up. however you must run scale trains.  the rules that the depot has made is because a single person used their own funds to build this layout. 

 

this person used to run at the 3r's layout but did not like the way the layout was run. mainly that we decorate for holidays and run anything that can run on three rails and they wanted to turn the 3r's into a scale layout and modernize the 3r's.  there was a dispute with other members at a membership meeting and it was voted to keep the 3r's as a 50 to 60's theme and not modernize the 3r's layout.  several people have left the club as a result of this and they ran mostly on the weekends so we are having a small issue filling the weekend slots.

 

However, we are fully committed to continuing the 3r's well into the future and have already signed up enough members to replace the members who have decided not to renew their membership.

 

We hold no hard feelings and even have the depot's flyer to hand out when people want to know if there are any other train places to visit.

 

The other clubs in the museum model certain areas of central and southern calif.  these are serious modeler's from the way they lay track to running trains on an official operating schedule.

 

we built a layout to not be so serious and yes they charge more for dues.

 

one thing to understand is the san diego model railroad museum entrance fee's are not used to maintain any layout in the museum.  the entrance fee's pay for the electricity, a museum staff and during the week some people running the layout are paid minimum wage to guarantee trains are running.  on the weekends it is all volunteers. I an not a paid person.

 

each club is responsible for maintaining their layout, by collecting dues and getting donations.

How did I not know about this.  Thanks for the info.

 

 

Got some alerts on this thread.  Edited out the inappropriate banter.  Charlie was trying to share a great model railroad with all of us...so.....keep it that way. 

 

 

Thanks for alerting us about this new 3 rail layout.  I will plan to visit the next time I get to San Diego.  It is very unusual for a person to have the resources to finance and build a display like this in a tourist area.  This sounds like a wonderful addition to the hobby.

 

I have been fortunate to visit the Balboa clubs several times.  The San Diego 3 rail layout is truly awesome and is worth the visit.

 

San Diego is my favorite city in all the world.

 

NH Joe

Joe the Old Town Depot is great as it's right there on the main drag. Tons of great food, drinks, and shopping just foot steps away. Like Charlie said, it's FREE ADMISSION. Gary operates on donations only.