Fresno to Friant (Sept 2025)

Posted byTrevorPosted inCalifornia Dreaming in Proto:48, Eat Drink and be Merry, Layout Design, Layouts by others, Operations, Where to find me
Ryan and Pierre discuss their moves in Clovis. Behind them, a mostly single-tracked stretch of layout gives one a real sense of going somewhere as the train passes through orange groves and vineyards.
Robin and I worked the freight to Friant. Here, he takes care as our train negotiates Tulare, watching for spirited drivers.

I was in southern Ontario earlier this month and spent a couple of days with my friend Pierre. He rounded up a couple of our mutual friends (Robin and Ryan) and on a Saturday afternoon the four of us enjoyed excellent company, a good lunch and a delightful dinner, and an operating session on Pierre’s HO scale Southern Pacific Clovis branch layout.

Our power for the local to Friant. This little 2-6-0 pulled a ridiculous number of freight cars, demonstrating why the prototypes were known as Valley Mallets.

This is a large layout for the subject: A southern California branch line that might have seen a single train per day. But by picking a branch and giving it room to breathe, Pierre has elevated the hobby from “model railroading” to “modelling railroading”. Unlike most layouts (including mine), there’s a real sense of going someplace as one leaves the staging yard (representing Fresno) and heads up the branch to Friant.

East Fresno on the left, with street running up Tulare Avenue beyond it. Fresno Yard (staging) on the right, with the end of the Pinedale spur in the distance.
An interlude at East Fresno. While it didn’t run herein reality, PE equipment is a favourite of ours, so it gets to make an appearance on an interchange track.
Tulare Avenue shows what can be done when one refrains from packing the benchwork with tracks and industries.
Pinedale is at the end of a branch off the branch and switching the warehouses here requires careful planning.
Friant is a small community at the end of the line. Here, we weighed some ballast loads collected on our way up the branch, and picked up a pair of stock cars for the return trip to Fresno.

Pierre resisted the urge – far too common in our hobby – to pack the space with more townsites, more sidings and spurs, and more industries to switch. His biggest deviation from the prototype is to schedule a dedicated train to switching PFE reefers into and out of the various packing houses at East Fresno and Clovis – a deviation that provides a welcome job for a second, two-person crew.

Working up the branch and back home takes a couple of hours. It’s relaxed, but engaging.

Passing a winery, a vineyard, and an orchard as we make our way back to Fresno. We had more than two dozen cars in tow by the time we tied up in the yard.

I helped Pierre design this layout several years ago (and thought I’d build something smaller, but similar, in O scale). But it’s been ages since I’ve seen it in person – my last visit was sometime before Covid – and he’s made significant progress since then. As I hope my quick grab shots with my phone suggest, the results have been amazing.

There’s still plenty to do – at this point, mostly structures and scenery – but now that Pierre has closed his hobby business (Yarmouth Model Works), he has more time to devote to the layout and reports he’s enjoying the change of focus.

I look forward to watching it evolve further – and to working another train up the branch on a future visit.

End of the line in the staging yard – and end of the tour.

Thanks to Pierre for hosting, and to Robin and Ryan for joining us: What a great day!

Published by Trevor

Lifelong model railway enthusiast and retired amateur shepherd who trained a border collie to work sheep. Professional writer and editor, with some podcasting and Internet TV presenting work thrown in for good measure.