The Fallen Flags Junction model railroad project is designed as a fun freelanced project, depicting the Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, and Burlington Northern railroads. I became interested in model railroads as a young boy – I was probably about eight years old – and my great aunt Louise gave me an HO model railroad starter set. I still remember that it included three freight cars, a Santa Fe F3 diesel locomotive and a red Santa Fe caboose.

I starting playing around with that model railroad, setting it up on the floor, and eventually, with the help of my dad, creating my first layout. By the time I was 10 years old, I was not only running trains on that first layout, I was building models for a well known model railroad store in West Los Angeles.

Allied Model Trains was located on Pico Boulevard, in a small storefront that was filled with railroad memorabilia covering more than 50 years. The proprietor, Howard London, initially thought it was kind of “fun” to see someone my age asking questions about kits, history, and other railroad related things. On a whim, he made a deal with me – “here are two kits of a small freight station,” he told me. “Build one for you and one for the store.” I guess he thought that would be a one-off deal. I ended up building kits for Allied Model Trains for three years. For a pre-teen with some modeling skills, it was a great opportunity.

I had a neighbor across the street, and their home had a basement (rare in California). That basement was filled, corner to corner, with a huge HO model railroad. They could run five trains at once, and some of the trains were 40 cars or so long – an impressive thing for a youth to watch. An interesting aspect to me, however, was that the layout had zero landscaping or scenery of any kind. That made as much of an impression on me as any other aspect of railroading.

My parents allowed me to take over one car space in our garage to build a layout. I did that for awhile, but it somehow “got away from me” or my parents needed the garage, but after a year or so, it was dismantled.

In its place, I built my first “soup to nuts” HO model layout – a 4 x 6 HO scale layout I dubbed the South Great Western Railroad. The SGWRR featured a mix of originally themed steam locomotives as well as early diesels representing the Southern Pacific. It was a freelanced southwestern railroad based on some of the neat exploration my family did in the southwest, exploring old silver mines and ghost towns. I crammed that layout into my bedroom, and it remained there for four years, until I was 16.

I also developed an affinity for the Southern Pacific during this time, but for different reasons. A branch of the SP traveled near my home, on Santa Monica Boulevard, from the 8th Street (SP) yard in downtown L.A. It was possible (although not very legal) to hop the train instead of a bus to get to West Hollywood or to the west side of town (depending on time and direction).

Separately, my dad, filmmaker Terry Sanders would take me to downtown L.A. every New Year’s Day for many years, and we’d spend the day taking photographs of trains, most Southern Pacific, including the bullpen off of Broadway, and Taylor Yard adjacent to the San Fernando Blvd.

Another family tradition was purchasing the annual Christmas tree at the 8th Street yard, just to the east of Alameda. Trains would come from Portland and other points north with boxcars filled with trees. When they arrived, they would be unloaded – often still covered with snow – and there were six or seven live auctions that took place, often late into the evening. Spending a cool night with a hot cup of cocoa, bidding on a Christmas tree, while several SP SW-1500 switchers sat, snorting and rumbling nearby was not only great fun, but it became a tradition for our family.

Nothing from that period of time remains. No Taylor Yard. No 8th Street Yard. No SW-1500 switchers. No Southern Pacific Railroad. But, the memories linger. And that is what led me to create the Fallen Flags Junction railroad project.

After dismantling a recently completed dual guage model layout, I was speaking with my wife about a possible next project. She asked, “Why not do something that brings back memories of things you really enjoyed – but make it as real as you can. Have the Christmas trees actually come from Oregon. Have them arrive in Los Angeles.”

I thought about what she said, and realized it was a perfect suggestion. I could recreate the two tracks that made up the 8th Street Yard in Los Angeles, and to do something similar up north. I’ve never built a point to point railroad before, and decided that the guiding principal would be that everything would have to be new and different, from the equipment modeled, to how the locomotives are managed, and so on.

Part of the adventure is the idea of recording the construction, history, research, and evolution of the distant past, into a fun, new adventure. The website is linked to a YouTube Channel that presents ongoing episodes covering the railroad from every aspect. It’s an opportunity to share a bit of history, nostalgia, and modern model railroad techniques that will be fun for anyone to watch, and for modelers to emulate. I’m pretty excited about it.

All aboard!