Santa Cruz Beach/Boardwalk Penny Arcade 3-rail O-gauge Train Layout (California USA)
Does anyone have photos of this layout since it began ???
I know a few precious seconds of this layout exists in the movie ‘Harold & Maude’.
I remember growing up during the 1960s that this was the FIRST thing I would go to when my family visited !!! Seems to me this layout was around before I arrived on the scene, and I remember it had changes from the 1960s until it was removed some time during the 1970s.
I remember that it had 2 loops of 3 tracks each. The tracks were labeled 1 thru 6. That the throttles (1-2-3 and 4-5-6) were at each end of the layout (narrow side of long rectangle). An ‘Engineer’ could put in a dime (later a quarter) to operate a short train for a few times around the loop of track. If a ‘Red Track Signal’ was ran, a pinball machine like knock could be heard, and a light would glow on your control panel next to the message, ‘Your train is late.’. The track signals were on a timer with train detection. The layout had some Lionel operating accessories (445-Tower, 197-Rotating Radar Antenna, 26-Bumper, 30-Water Tank, 145-Automatic Gateman, 394/494-Rotary Beacon, etc). Spurs with a lighted bumper were ‘feathered’ into the mainline to look like a switch was there off the main. I would operate The General and Turbine trains the most. Great Fun !!!