National Ice and Cold Storage

In the Riverside California scene during the era of which I model (40's and 50's era) stood a tall behemoth of a structure called the National Ice and Cold Storage.  As far as icing service for the railroad goes I think it only served the Union Pacific.  None the less it sat right in between both the Union Pacific and the Santa Fe right of ways.  It has been a real tough assignment collecting dimensional and photographic information especially from the Santa Fe side of the structure.  Thankfully Jim Lancaster has offered some of his Citrus industry collection on line.  His website along with some personal attention to this particular project of mine have been very critical to putting this scene together, Thanks again Jim.
I have had one false start on this project already and hope to get it nailed down this next go around.  It remains the last major part of my Riverside scene.  The rest of the structures that I will be making will be less specific to the locale and more of an improvisational effort.  That is more emphasis on the type of service they provided.  So as it is now I will have the National Ice and Cold Storage at one end and the Santa Fe/Pacific Electric interlock at the other end.  All of the major structures in between will be in their proper place and order and as accurate as I can make them.  With the exception of this National Ice and Cold Storage all these structures are for the most part done.  Catipillar building, Santa Fe Passenger station,  Santa Fe Freight station, Hal Kelly's Feed,  The McDermont Packing house.

Thanks to Pals

This weekend (2-25-12) I met Tom and Bill two of my railroad hobby pals at the Round House Gang's swap meet.  The Round House Gang model railroad club has been hosting these swap meets for decades and have gotten quite good at it.   As a participant it appeared that the event went well.  Hopefully those in charge and the Church parish are pleased with event and we'll see more here. This particular meet was held at the Adelaide Catholic Church church in Highland.  The event had been previously held at the Janet Goeske Senior center in Riverside, before that the Redland's Armory.  So to Larry C, Gary W and Herman of the Round House Gang and to the Adelaide Catholic Church Thank You.
While at the event Tom found an A&B set of 200 class SF F7's that he set aside for me.  The F7's This was a pleasant surprise as I had my eye out for a set of these for a while now.  They will be shopped and then put out for service very soon.  Apparently the previous owner of the F7 pulled out the pilot coupler and never repaired it.  However that is easily fixed.  The real treat of the event was a SD&AE caboose that Tom S prepared at his shop and a Datsun truck that Bill gave up out of a set he had purchased.  Thanks Tom and Bill for another great swap meet Saturday morning.