This model interurban has been seen by probably tens if not hundreds of thousands of people over the decades at the Richmond California "Golden State Model Railroad Club", usually posed next to Oakland's 16th st. station.
It's an important part of Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley and Albany history, so it's great to get to work on this model. The real Interurban Electric Railway connected all of these cities with the Mole, a huge ferry terminal that took people efficiently to San Francisco on giant steam powered ferries. It ran from 1912-1939, the last couple of years it went over to the Transbay Terminal in SF over the lower deck of the Bay Bridge.
One of the members who built the entire Oakland streetcar network built it decades ago and now it needed to be upgraded to DCC. Fortunately he did a spectacular job with the drivetrain, using a really high end can motor and great quality gears. So the conversion was actually pretty easy. It was a really fun upgrade and hopefully the model will now be seen in operation running automatically between the giant Mole ferry terminal and the depot.
The model itself is 100% scratchbuilt from wood, styrene sheet and brass. It's deeply impressive. I initially thought it was a brass import when it was on the layout but was deeply surprised to find out it was built by hand.
It's always fun to bring old models back to life, especially one that's so widely admired by people who come visit the club museum. Now it'll hopefully bring even more joy to watch it run!
