Good Evening: We are incorporating San Francisco into our layout. We were hoping to find a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge in N Scale to use with our scenery. Would anyone possibly know of a manufacturer that would offer this item?
Thanks
An N scale model of the Golden Gate bridge would be 56 inches tall and just over 56 feet between abutments. It doesn’t carry trains and there are no railroad tracks anywhere near it.
You might consider a photo mural for a backdrop - with lots of that famous San Francisco fog to obscure the absence of detail.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Here’s a link where one can find some historical information on Railroads serving San Francisco:
http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/index0.2.html#railroads
I’ve never seen a N Scale (or HO) model of the Golden Gate Bridge. The only railroad lines currently in San Francisco are in the south part of the city,(Cal Train being one example which runs from SF to San Jose), there are no lines anywhere near the GG Bridge which connects the northern part of the city with Marin County. There is an Amtrak station in SF, located on the Embarcadero, but it only provides bus service to the Amtrak Depot across the Bay at Emeryville.
Wayne
The only models Google turns up are paper, Lego and 3D computer.
However it did travel by rail.
Parts of the golden Gate were manufactured in Eastern Pa. and shipped by rail to San Francisco. The Reading had a series of flatcars nicknamed the “Golden Gate” cars because they were built for that purpose, and they are easy to make. Take a USRA 46 ft straight side gondola, cut off the sides so they about 6 inches higher than the floor and put a piece of styrene across the top as a bulb. That’s exactly what the Reading did. Many of them survived to Conrail in MofW service.
Dave H.
Don’t mean to interrupt a thread but that is interesting information that I never knew. Thanks.
Wayne
That is interesting.
Thanks everyone for your input. Actually, the rail portion of our layout will enter and leave Sacramento. Plan on having a trolly set up in San Fran and the Bridge will be off in the distance. Think I will seriously consider putting my Dremel to work and constructing my own.
Again
Thanks
The typical route from Sacramento to San Francisco would be over the Bay bridge–and BART takes that.
Bart (Bay Area Rapid Transit) actually goes under the bay in a tube. There is currently no rail traffic on the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Wayne
Back in the dim and distant past, the Key System had two tracks on the lower level of the Bay Bridge. They were removed in favor of more pavement and more air pollution.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Have someone with artistic talent paint the bridge on a backdrop. The Golden Gate Bridge must be 5 to 7 miles west of Oakland/Berkeley, the nearest East Bay tracks (the only place with railroad where one can view the bridge at right angle unless one is modeling the most northern portion of the industrial railroad which once served the SF waterfront). That way, the bridge might be in the neighborhood of two feet long. (Let the mathematicians calculate a precise measurement.)
Mark
Yes the Key System did travel over the Bay Bridge and I’ve taken it hundreds of times, it was quite a thrill back in the day. Currently there is a huge construction project building a new span from Oakland to the Mid Point of the span on Yerba Buena Island. It’s been delayed for years and is way over budget…sort of normal these days. BTW: the toll for the Bay Bridge is now $4 and there are plans to raise that…also sort of normal these days. IIRC when the Key System was in operation the bridge toll was $0.25, the cost of a gallon of gas.
Wayne
The $4 toll on the Bay Bridge only applies for the westward direction. Eastward is free. Within my life experience it used to be 25 cents in either direction (50 cents round trip). Still, $4 is no bargain. The bridges generate large profits (thus, it is largely a tax and not a use-fee). All the 7 Bay bridges controlled by the State (this excludes the GG bridge) are $4 in either the westward/northward direction and free eastward/southward. The GG bridge is county, not state, controlled. I don’t know the toll there because I only travel on it using the free (northern) direction. Politicians promised the tolls would be eliminated when the bridges were paid for. These promises were not kept.
Mark
Actually, for two years (1939-1941) you could take an electric train directly from Sacramento to San Francisco via the Bay Bridge. Sacramento Northern’s passenger trains used the lower level of the Bay Bridge’s Key System tracks to reach the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco. Sacramento was the midpoint of the route, the northernmost point was in Chico but trailers were transferred to different head-end equipment in Sacramento because they ran on different voltages south of Sacramento. Unfortunately, SN stopped passenger service in 1941.
What era are you modeling, IC Dodger? Sacramento also had electric streetcars until 1947, then a 40 year pause until RT Metro Light Rail was introduced.
You’ll probably need more than a Dremel to model the Golden Gate Bridge in N scale…remember, it would be 50-60 feet long! Probably the closest steam/diesel railroad would have been the industrial belt line along Fisherman’s Wharf (the Muni F-line runs there now.) The Golden Gate Bridge would be kind of visible behind the Presidio, but it would be very distant and look a lot smaller than N scale, even if you are modeling in N scale.
Sorry, Mouse, but BART doesn’t use the bridge - BART goes under Frisco Bay via the Transbay to get from the Contra Costa to the Peninsula. The original poster would, however, be better served to model the Bay Bridge as opposed to the big Orange Monster; if he modeled the Bay Bridge prior to 1958 he could model the Key System; if he did it prior to 1941 he could model SP, Sacramento Northern as well as the Key System, all running on the lower deck.
Don’t forget the million and a half rivets!
All this complaining about a paultry $4 toll. Husdon river crossings to NYC, and most of the other bridges/tunnels in the area, cost $8!!![|(]
Oh, the dreaded “F” word: Uhhh, that would be the San Francisco Bay.[:)] Bart runs throughout many regions of the Bay Area but does not extend to the Peninsula past the SFO airport. And the actual tube under the bay runs from Oakland (Alameda County) to San Francisco, there isn’t a tube going to the Peninsula. And geez, describing one of the world’s most famous and beautiful bridges as an “Orange Monster?” [%-)]
As a native San Franciscan we’re very proud of our City and the GG Bridge,
Wayne