SP Jawbone Branch (Part 1) - Concept & Planning

 So for many years I've been interested and researching the Southern Pacific's "Jawbone" Branch and the Trona Railway which branch off to the northeast from Mojave 143 miles to Owenyo, interchanging with the SP's Carson & Colorado Narrow Gauge operations.  The SP Narrow Gauge was cut off from the standard gauge connection at the north end, originally with the V&T via Moundhouse, Carson City, and Sparks, and eventually moving to the Hazen, and through a number of re-gauging steps Mina becoming the northern end of the narrow gauge.

SP 3237 leads 3266 with a fan trip to Searles Station and the Trona Rwy. 5-30-1952 - Carl Blaubach photo - Brian Black Collection

The new California Aqueduct system was planned and built in the 1908-1918 time frame to move water from the Mono Lake basin to Los Angeles 300 miles to the south.  This construction spurred the SP into building a new branch to connect the Portland Cement Company's new plant at Monolith (on the Tehachapi Sub-Division) to the planned aqueduct route across the Mojave Desert, through Red Rock Canyon (now a park!) and up what would generally become the route of US Hwy 395 to the Owens Valley and connect with the narrow gauge Carson & Colorado.

Let's quickly follow the "Jawbone" Branch from Mojave railroad eastward and point out some stations of interest.  I'll be skipping a couple of interesting stations that I really can't model, and including a couple in this list that I will not be able to include.

Cantil - MP 402.5

Cantil looking eastward towards Searles. Jason Hill photo, March 2002.

Cantil looking westward towards Mojave. Note sand over the ballast and the second cut of covered hoppers. Jason Hill photo, March 2002.

The first water stop out of Mojave was Cantil.  In these photos taken in March 2002 we can see some of the same potash/soda ash cars used at Trona being loaded by a very simple conveyor lift.  Cantil was also past a small shoulder of the mountain range from Mojave, which made it a low spot before the track climbs back up to Searles and Tunnel 29.

Searles MP 428.4 & Trona

Trona interchanges at the station of Searles and is one of the main traffic generators for the branch with large amounts of potash and soda ash being shipped out by rail since 1916! 

Inyokern MP 447.2 & China Lake

The US Navy's Weapon Test Center at China Lake (Inyokern) is another, receiving all sorts of equipment and rockets, etc to test, even back into the early 1950s for the earliest of air-to-air guided missiles.  The track to China Lake branched off and entered the US Navy base, which was run by the 

in-base switcher.  The SP left the cars on an interchange track and picked up any outbound cars.

Atlas's 11k gallon USAX 8056 - Anhydrous Ammonia - Atlas 11k 105A300W-A tank car

One starts to wonder how they transported the chemicals to China Lake to the various rocket experimenting... Maybe the US Navy had some similar cars to this US Army tank car for handling Anhydrous Ammonia, which is a major component in making rocket fuel!

Inyokern was also the farthest north (RR East) that "big" SP engines could go, including AC's and GS class.  Beyond Inyokern the heaviest engines allowed were selected Mk-2/4 class 2-8-2s and for some odd reason the SP 3266, an Mk-5/6 class "big Mike" was also rated in some time tables.  T-class (4-6-0) and C-class (2-8-0) were also used for extra trains such as livestock movements and passenger excursions past Inyokern.

Linnie MP 461.5

The old SP right-of-way at Linnie looking North towards Little Lake in the pass at the left.  Jason Hill photo March 2002.

Farther north (RR East) on the branch the branch reaches Linnie, a station where logs were hauled down from the Kennedy Meadows area and shipped out by rail as logs or lumber in boxcars, flats, and gondolas.  The area was still covered in bark chips in 2002 when I went up there following the right-of-way!

Little Lake

Not much left at Little Lake in 2020.  Too bad, it had a lot of charm back in the day... One of the main reasons I would like to push it up the list onto my top four stations to model on the Jawbone Branch.

Little Lake looking South - Jason Hill 2020

Little Lake looking west - Jason Hill 2020

Little Lake looking Southeast - Jason Hill 2020

Little Lake looking East - Jason Hill 2020

Little Lake certainly has some rugged beauty about it.  One of the few places on the branch fresh water is track side.   Looking at one of Alden Armstrong's photos from around 1958-1960, with a light gray painted water car in it, there was a ore dump ramp, a small water tank, an NG boxcar body, a speeder shed, and a few other company buildings there in addition to the gas station and lodge for the adventuring travelers on US Hwy 395 in the 1950s.  This makes a nice small scene to model.  The exposed lava near the right of way also makes for more interesting views in the area and the shear lava cliff on the east side of Little Lake is always a cool backdrop.

Haiwee Summit (& Reservoir)

One of the main water transferring lakes with dams at the north and south ends to supply water for the California Aqueduct to Los Angeles.  The SP climbs way up about 1-2 miles from the lake, along the higher slopes of the valley reaching one of the highest points on the Jawbone branch.  While this would be a neat place to model if given the space for the vast cut-and-fill form of the track, it will take too much space.

Cartego

Nestled up against the Eastern Sierra foothills against Owens Lake, Cartego is a rather interesting place.  Still home to a water bottling plant for Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water the original industries were based on mining and salt-cake mining off the Owens Lake.

While a neat place in reality, I don't really have room for it.

Bartlett MP 509.02

SP 3237, an ex-AE 2-8-2 works the spur looking south at Bartlett. - Leo Barusch photo, Inad Akeb collection

When Eddie Sims showed me this photo it launched a "where's this" search.  I knew this had to be on the Jawbone Branch from seeing the Eastern Sierras for the last 30 years driving US Hwy 395.  A quick search with the road view on Google Maps lead me to rule out the first 5-6 areas I was thinking.  Combined with the switch under the engine, the search is narrowed to only a few towns which could have had a spur at the south end and this view of the Sierras.

Found it! - GoogleEarth

That's the Bartlett plant and road just at the right edge of this 3d view in GoogleEarth.  The background of the original photo is the left half of this view, with the right peak cut off, out of frame above.  This view was rather tricky to get as the camera really doesn't like being down on the ground.  Google Street View also doesn't have any vantage points on the old road out to the Bartlett complex... so that's not really an option.

Google Maps satellite view of Bartlett looking south - 2019 screen capture.

This is rather an un-natural view for me to see Bartlett from in aerial perspective... I flipped the N-S of the map to look as the photographer was.  Looking closely, one can see the switch to the Bartlett plant and sort out almost exactly which bush the photographer was standing at to get the shot with the 3237!

Lone Pine MP 518.8

Much of Lone Pine's fame on the SP comes from when the Owenyo Branch was cut back 13 miles and ended at Lone Pine for many years. thus the name of the branch changed in the Employe Timetables (ETT) to reflect the new end point.  The original station location was several miles east of the town of Lone Pine on Hwy 395.  While it might be neat to model, I feel that Owenyo will have more operational interest, so I'm voting Lone Pine off my model.

Owenyo

Finally, at the end of the branch, and the main focus of my concept layout, Owenyo.  It was literally in the middle of nowhere on the northeastern side of Owens Lake.  The SPNG extended a branch along the east shore of the lake to the Talc plant at Keeler.  The old stations of Cerro Gordo (famous for the silver mine) and Tramway were located along this section.  In the days before the California Aqueduct pulled off most of the water out of the watershed, Owens Lake had notable agriculture, even shipping the produce that wasn't consumed locally out by rail.  A steam-powered ferry which carried passengers and freight even across the lake on a daily schedule until there wasn't enough water left to float it!

SP 3203 switching in Owenyo. - Eddie Sims collection

The photographer in the above photo is standing in the Narrow Gauge track east of the Standard Gauge.  The depression in the standard gauge can be seen and the elevated NG ramp up (at right) to load the NG engines onto SG cars for transportation to the SP Company Shops at Bakersfield for shopping.

In front of the 3203 the switch stands can be seen for the wye and sidings.  The engineer is looking back as he shoves on a composite gondola.  Is it possible there was a farmer in the Owens Valley still trying to ship out produce in gondolas, or was this gondola being loaded with bulk ore from the NG dump trestle at the other end of town, or talc from the over-head conveyor at the transfer docks?

Rough Track Plan

Rough Concept for HO-scale "Jawbone" Branch - (click on the drawing to see full size)

This plan shows my work spaces and book cases in my shop.  I'm considering building a layout near eye-level above the work space and lathe.  The general concept is around-the-walls with an average grade of 1% to 1.5%, this should allow 3.7" to 5.5" height change from the west switch of Owenyo to the point where it will cross back under the wye at the SE corner of the plan.

Track Standards

The main line will use 48" Radius curves with 3/8" spiral easements.  This will match the LMRC's curve standards for equipment testing before I take anything down to San Diego.  I'm considering putting a connection track climbing back up to the upper level at the West Door to allow continuous running options.

Non-mainline spurs will use down to 24" Radius for operations with the Mk-class steam engines being the largest engines for 'regular operations' beyond 'circle running'.  I know the Mk-5/6 from Balboa really do not like 18" R curves, so something more around 24" should be happy for the wye and spurs.

Switches

Cast frogs and points from Terry Weggman (RIP), I believe DTW now has a line of these parts in their parts line.

I would like to build my own switches based on the LMRC's standard No.7 hand-layed switches.  These are for sale in the last few years from Details West with cast points and frogs.  The guard rails and point bars are fabricated to suit the standard switch.  This allows flexiblities in curved turnouts and smooth flow through the routes which is not available from commercial switches and even 'jig' switches such as Fast Tracks.  I have built a number of turnouts at LMRC over the last 15 odd years, so look forward to building some at home!  I'll probably go with ground-throw type controls for the switches as the 'game' with this layout will be switching the towns along the line.

To Mojave Yard or Not To?

No... I'm not going to build another version of this massive 450-car yard to serve my little branch line layout.  When I want to knock myself out with a 'proper' Mojave Yard, I'll go to the LMRC's beautiful rendition of the historical yard, only sans a couple of short classification tracks, the full engine house and the wye, which would be in the operators' aisle.

LMRC's massive Mojave Yard - No way I could or should do an actual working 'yard' at Mojave for my layout in the shop.

On my concept. if the track running under Owenyo works, I could add a couple of stub staging tracks along the South Wall to act as my 'Mojave' staging.  I'll probably put a crossover 'escape' path so I could rearrange and turn a freight train around without 'finger fiddling' with any equipment.  This staging would be great to store an 'excursion train' and maybe a second set of freight cars to swap cars and continue operating with the next day's Owenyo Turn.  Alternately, I could set up a 'Livestock Special' on one of those tracks too!

Modeling Options for the "Jawbone"

SP 3203 - Mk-4 for the "Owenyo Turn"

Another view of 3203 at Owenyo. - Eddie Sims collection

The SP's ETT's Special Instructions (SI) show usually four Mk-2/4 class engines were assigned to Mojave to work the various locals (KI - Tehachapi, "Blitz" - Palmdale, and Jawbone - Owenyo, plus a 'protection' engine in case there were any unexpected failures in one of the 'regular' three engines.

Right side of SP 3203, a Sunset Models Mk-4.

Left side of SP 3203, a Sunset Models Mk-4.

I still need to scratch build the 120-SC-style tender for this model as those tenders are VERY hard to come by.  The 3203 otherwise is a very nice proportioned engine to my eye, beefy but also small enough to get into just about anywhere the SP needed it to.  Basically these were the GP7/9s of the 1920s and were kept in larger numbers than their newer 'Passenger Mike' sisters which were reduced to a mere handful by 1951.   Where as the Mk-2/4s lasted for several more years, into at least 1954 and several finishing up on the Western Division around San Jose and Pleasanton in local road switcher work in 1956! 

SP 3266 - Mk-6 from Balboa

SP 3237 leads 3266 with a fan trip to Searles Station and the Trona Rwy. 5-30-1952 - Carl Blaubach photo - Brian Black Collection

If I continue with this project, I'll probably build a second SP 3266 for my own use on the Jawbone Branch layout.  I'm already finishing one for a customer for use at LMRC.  As I commented above, the 3266 was the only Mk-5/6 rated for operations all the way to Owenyo on the Jawbone Branch.  I am still not sure why this is the case, as the Mk-5/6s are substantially larger with 63" drivers and heavier than the smaller Mk-2/4 class engines with 57" drivers.

Painted & weathered Balboa model of SP 3266 with Ath-Gen tender - Left Side

Painted & weathered Balboa model of SP 3266 with Ath-Gen tender - Right Side

The Balboa Mk-6 I am starting with has worn out driver plating, but I bought it for a good price.  I plan to pair it with a Athearn-Genesis 120-C-6 tender, which has all-wheel pickup, so the dirt issues shouldn't be too bad for this model's operation.

Operations & Cars on the Jawbone Branch

The days' operation will primarily consist of the "Owenyo Turn" coming out of Mojave around 6-7 PM Monday-Wednesday-Friday and spending the night working up to Owenyo 14-16 hours later.  "Lunch" was taken at the Section House at Brown, about halfway between Inyokern and Linnie.  The switching work would be done in route and some cars probably dropped at convenient places to work them on the way back.  This would include SP Company Service cars, such as the common water cars along this desert branchline.

The Owenyo Turn usually is shown in most photos with 11-18 cars in tow.  If I can keep the grade down to 1% to 1.5% the Mk-2/4 should be able to handle 12 cars comfortably.  If I get more than that, I'll probably need a 2-8-0 point helper to "help get me over Haiwee Summit."

The Owenyo Turn would be finishing its run into Owenyo hopefully before the mid-day heat set in.  Once the train arrived, some cars would be worked if there was time, before going off duty at 15:59.  This would allow the crews to get 8 hours sleep and be ready to take the train out again that evening.

SP 84268, a Red Caboose B-50-20 with 'Return to Agent Bakersfield, Calif when empty" stencil.

SP 151344, a Red Caboose steel G-50-22 class gondola, common for ore loadings on the Owenyo Branch.

Industries at Owenyo would be primarily served with various types of SP 40ft boxcars, steel 40ft GS gondolas, and the assortment of SP company Bunker-C fuel oil tank car and water cars.  Foreign cars would be bringing in new machinery and supplies to keep the small isolated mining towns alive.  The occasional PFE reefer would show up with fresh food and other "refreshments".

SP 58215 - a kitbashed Athearn 12.5k gallon tank car.

I believe the Bartlett plant must have been oil fired, so there were probably a couple tank cars a week to supply that operation. 

Linnie - Lumber Operations of the 1949-53 era

SP 79934, one of the 130 F-70-3 class 60ft flatcars built in 1942. - Kitbash from F-70-6/7 Red Caboose kit

SP 43745, one of the SP's very common (2600 car strong) F-50-series cars.  These were being retired in larger and larger numbers after 1949 to 1956. OwlMtModels F-50-8 model shown.

SP 140635, one of 2050 new 1949 built F-70-7 class cars were part of the reason for the retirement of F-50-series cars. - Red Caboose/Espee Models F-70-7 shown.

The logging & lumber operation at Linnie would also provide a job for gondolas, flatcars, and boxcars.  Later era photos from the 1970s show bulkhead flatcars loaded with banded lumber.  I'll have to do some more digging if the saw mill was at Linnie or if it was farther up nearer Kennedy Meadows, and only the finished lumber was brought down to load in rail cars.  Given the large amount of bark at the Linnie site, I think there was more at Linnie than just truck to rail loading going on.

Once the crew came back on duty they would head back to Mojave Tuesday-Thrusday-Saturday nights, arriving the next day.  This cycle continued six-days a week with Sundays off.

NYC 111869, a BLI USRA-Rebuilt boxcar weathered for service in the 1950s.

Foreign boxcars obviously would be 40-60% of the boxcar traffic on the branch as smaller machinery and other supplies are brought in.  The occasional gondola or flatcar of larger machinery and equipment is shipped in.  

SPMW 2676, B-50-12 class Supply Car - the only such class car still in MW service by Jan 1956.

There would also be a fair number of SPMW supply cars sent up the branch to keep the various section gangs supplied and also the whole SPNG at Owenyo.  

Shopping Movements for SPNG Engines

SPNG 18 rides SP 79951 (F-70-3) back at Owengo after shopping at Bakersfield. - Eddie Sims collection

Lastly there will be the occasional F-70-3 special ordered by the SP Agent at Owenyo to move a SPNG 4-6-0 to the Shops at Bakersfield for shopping... and then the return trip of the SPNG engine back to Owenyo once the shopping was finished.

Also of note in the background of the above photo of SPNG 18 on the flatcar is a UP GS-gondola.  Red Caboose has produced this GS gondola and paint scheme.

Live Stock Extras

SP 2850 leads a stock extra.  SP/T&NO S-40-series Red Caboose stock cars in tow.

The SP also handled large movements of livestock between summer and winter pastures over the Owenyo Branch.  According to John Signor's book 'Tehachapi' these movements often were worked with C-class 2-8-0s and when needed would get a second 2-8-0 helper to get the heavier trains up to Haiwee pass.

Cabooses - Wood or All-Steel?

SP 213 brings up the rear of a freight at Magunden with a PRR gondola loaded with a large tank.

The SP used standard cabooses, I'm not sure exactly if the older C-30-1/2/3 class wood-sided, steel underframe cabooses were used on the Owenyo Branch or if they received any of the newer all-steel C-40-1 series cars by the 1950-53 era.  I wouldn't be surprised if the C-30-1/2/3 classes hung on in the local assignments.  The heat extremes were probably more bearable in a wooden caboose with more insulative qualities.

In Closing

This post might seem a bit scatter-brained but I'm just starting to put the general concept together for what the space could handle comfortably.  I'm going to reverse the spur at Linnie to be facing away from Mojave, per the prototype, but still on the "East" side of the track, which is opposite the prototype so that it can stub into the backdrop and not take so much space out of the aisle space over the lathe.

Also since I drafted up this rough outline, I have found that there was much more at Little Lake than is shown in this drawing.  Future plan revisions will expand on the company village and the lodge at Little Lake.  Hopefully, I can see if CSRM has the Val Maps available for these four towns.  If I can, it will allow me to do more accurate scale-compression of what was there.

Rough Concept for HO-scale "Jawbone" Branch - (click on the drawing to see full size)

I like layouts that are not over packed with track along the mainline keeping the 'open' space feel, which I really appreciate about the LMRC's Tehachapi Pass exhibit.  In a funny way, this will probably continue the operational aspects 143 miles from Mojave which I'm familiar with at LMRC.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 1) - Concept

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 2) - Researching and Changing of the Plan

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 3) - Consists and More Bartlett Research

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 4) - Freight Car Roster

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 5) - Pulling the Trigger (Buying the materials for the benchwork)

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 6) - Q&A Continuing Design Tweaks - Working out the logistics for the staging yards other details.

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 7) - Film & Construction Begins - Historic movie film clip of Owenyo Local and starting construction of the layout.

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 8) - Little Lake Grows - More research materials have surfaced for my modeling of Little Lake

Freight Symbols Over Tehachapi - Part 4 - SP Locals