Silicon Valley Lines: Upper Level

Mount Marvel

This area is serviced by a private narrow gauge railroad owned by MMLCo. The new management team may widen the rails to allow bigger steam engines to haul all those logs.

Construction in this area of SVL is just getting underway. Only the single track mainline and a stub switch to the future timber line exists at this time.

Marshall

Marshall is a large staging yard hidden behind the Mt. Marvel Lumber Company scenery. It provides an additional fiddle yard for building up and tearing down trains which begin or terminate in Nowheres.

Nowheres

SVL's Nowheres Shops is the home to most of the railroads diesel locomotives. As you can see, SVL acquires its power from other bankrupt railroads, and very rarely repaints engines unless they previous road number is already in use.

Operationally, Nowheres Yard in the center of SVL's operation. Trains which originate in Nowheres can either continue on the upper level towards Windsor, descend the grade down to Kaos Junction on the way to Bakersfield, or head over to Marshall for interchange.

Nowheres Passenger Station

Nowheres also has a large passenger station and service facility, including a commissary to provide fresh food for dining cars. The Railway Express Agency delivers the fast freight service that SVL customers expect. The Railway Express Agency also still does a bustling business here in the pre-FedEx era.

Nowheres yard is on the outskirts of town, as the mainlines moves northward, we pass near downtown. After Nowheres, the SVL mainline heads to Proctor Hill, an major source of revenue for the railroad.

Proctor Hill

Ferrum Mining Inc. is a major customer of the SVL. Unlike other ore companies, FMI has been blocked from using traditional ore mining techniques due to government intervention. To prevent damaging the sparse habitat of the rare spotted gopher, ore in Proctor is mined by deep underground tunnels, not by digging a large pit. As a result, of these regulations, this mine sure looks like it belongs back in coal country, but rest assured that those little ore cars don't haul anthracite.

Proctor Hill is a company town.The ore miners depend on railroad alone for their connection to the outside world, as the town is unteachable by highway. SVL and the mineral rights holder keep things that way by a special arrangement. A sporadic mixed train sometimes brings supplies, mail, and visitors from the outside world, but most of the time, these folks are stuck in the 1940s and 50s.

The mining company is still upset with an old coot who hauled his mobile home up a hill nearby. Recently, the squatter has worked out a deal with the government to conduct a biannual census of the spotted gopher population in order to prevent being himself from being evicted.

Quinn

The Quinn Branch bypasses some of the most treacherous, yet scenic parts of the Silicon Valley Lines. Blasted through the native gypsum and styrofoam, this cut-off allows the railroad to bypass most of the Silicon Mountains.

Originally intended as a spur to service distant industry, Quinn sees more traffic now than originally planned.

The railroad is still working on constructing the mainline through Ravine, Silicon, and Tracy, so all revenue freight headed in or out of Windsor must do so via this branch.

Ravine

Ravine is just past Proctor, and is aptly named due to the surrounding landscape. Unlike much of the SVL, the ground isn't flat here. Instead the engineers need to duck in and out of the tunnels, tiptoe across redwood trestles, and cope with the harsh weather.

As you can see, the track crew is still busy blasting through the styrofoam strata, so in order to continue the end of the line, SVL is utilizing the Quinn branch to bypass Ravine and the remainder of mountain range.

Silicon

The high trestle in this area should be awe-inspiring... A nod to the legendary John Allen, this area will feature stunning mountains, waterfalls, and probably some rock climbers!

Victoria

Rogner Rock and Coal is a new customer of the SVL. Despite originally being located off line, the company decided to relocate their entire facility in order to gain more paying customers.

This complex was scratch-built by a former member of SVL, and donated to the club when he needed to find a better home for this fabulous model.

Speaking of scratch-building, Bill Goodenough, one of our recent recruits, has been working a large Ice platform to keep the Pacific Fruit Express cooled off.

Windsor

Windsor is the end of the line.

There are 13 lucky staging tracks, which allow us to originate and terminate as many trains.

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