6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 5-11, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com 831 Mark Dorman flips on the lights inside an old freight building at the Salinas train station, illuminating a large, two-tier diorama that spans the entire length of what is the Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad Museum. The curvy structure snakes around from one end to the other, serving as the foundation for a never-ending, HO-scale model train loop, carefully painted and designed to look like Monterey County circa 1953. Dorman, superintendent of the museum, leads a visitor past miniature versions of the region, starting from the northern terminus of the Logan Quarry in Aromas, and heading through Watsonville in Santa Cruz County, and then southward into Monterey County, through Elkhorn Slough and Castroville and all the way down past King City to Bradley, including the spur that hugged the coast to Monterey, Cannery Row and Pacific Grove. The model trains that run the track whir past miniature train stations, farms, factories, homes and churches. Tiny farmworkers are harvesting crops in the fields and over at Fort Ord, troops are marching in formation. The tiniest details are shown using different materials, like using fennel seeds to represent sugar beets piled up in train cars. A small broken piece of scenery catches Dorman’s eye. “Oh dear, oops. I’ll have to show that to our scenery guy,” he says. The model version of Monterey County and the transportation system that allowed it to prosper and grow in significance as an agricultural powerhouse and tourist destination came to life, thanks to thousands of hours of volunteer time by members of the Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad Historical Society, which formed in 1993. The diorama is an ongoing project of the club, which currently has around 35 active members. The group meets every Thursday evening to tackle new projects. “It’s a combination of working on small projects or sitting back to relax a little bit,” Dorman says. There’s always work to be done to keep the model trains running—the electrical system that operates the track is always a challenge—plus maintenance on the building and on the full-scale engine and train cars that sit just outside of the museum’s entrance that includes a rare 1918 S-10 super-heated Southern Pacific Switcher steam locomotive and a vintage wood 1916 Southern Pacific caboose. The society found its home in 1998 inside what was once the Railway Express Agency building, a former national delivery system, after entering into an agreement with the City of Salinas, which owns the building. The society maintains the building and the engine and railcars in exchange for rent, with the proviso that they focus on the historical aspects of Salinas Valley’s railroad system. While crafting an intricate diorama and running model trains might be fun for members, the real delight comes from sharing it with others, which is why the first full weekend of each month the volunteers open up the museum to the public for free, in addition to hosting special events, tours and school field trips. The society also sponsors a junior engineering program, where young students can come and learn how to run the trains. One student remained in the program all the way through high school, went to UC Santa Cruz and became an electrical engineer and today is an adult member, Dorman says. “We have several junior engineers now but we want some more,” he says. “The future is the junior engineers.” Those future model train engineers will have much to do: Dorman says there are plans for installing a prototypical signaling system that will mirror the one the full-scale railroad used in the 1950s. “It’s a massive project,” he says, one that will take several thousand dollars or more to build. The group relies on grants and donations to pay for expenses and regularly raises money by working at races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in exchange for a donation. The Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad Museum is open 10am-4pm Saturday, Sept. 7 and Sunday Sept. 8, and the first full weekend of every month. 15 Station Place, Salinas. Free. 789-8097, msvrr.org. Rail Ways Monterey County’s railroad past comes to life inside an all-volunteer Salinas museum. By Pam Marino Dana Peterson adjusts a model train that traverses through Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad Museum’s miniature version of Monterey County’s rail system. The diorama is a depiction of the railroad at its height, about 80 years after it was originally built. “The future is the junior engineers.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE DANIEL DREIFUSS EXPO BUSINESS monterey bay 2024 presented by CLAIM YOUR BOOTH! EXHIBITOR REGISTRATION NOW OPEN Connecting businesses throughout Monterey County THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2024 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM EMBASSY SUITES - MONTEREY BAY REGISTER NOW AT MONTEREYCHAMBER.COM
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