DVL's Narrow Gauge

In Its Own Pictures & Words...The Narrow Gauge portion of the Diablo Valley Lines is maintained by a small band of high detail kind of modelers. Not really rivet counters, but working intensely on creating a prototype scene with details down to dirty rags laying on an oil drum. Not just words, this page contains some beautiful pictures of scenes they have created. 

	Majestic pine trees soaring into the sky isn't the only way to receive inspiration. This church is modeled after the red church up Washington Street in downtown Sonora. Joe built it from blueprints of the church. Details include stain glass windows.
	The Narrow Gauge lives in the woods. At Buffalo Landing logs are loaded, and kerosene (oil) is unloaded and trucked off to the worker camps. If you climbed to the top of a log loading spar pole, you'd see stumps of harvested trees, and roads leading to the high camps where the timber-people live and work.
	Fixing things and keeping tabs on the equipment is constant given the tight budget of a narrow gauge railroad. Yard track is laid down right in the dirt with minimal ballast. Spare parts are always on hand, and the hoist (made from harvested logs rather than steel girders) helps lift cars for wheel replacement or weld together an under frame brace.
	Only a few people ride up from Thompson Flats to Buffalo Landing, and the upper yard with terrain modeled after the Colorado highlands. Older people seem to have the time to enjoy the excitement of life along the 3 foot rails. The station serves both railroad operations and passenger service. And a place for the town dog to wander...
	The "Woody" van is a resin cast model hand painted by Joe Piazza. The track behind the station is now dual gauge (standard and 3' narrow gauge). In the background is our sawmill. It's a wooden kit heavily modified. The narrow gauge modelers are planning a sawmill log pond, but where it will be, they still aren't sure...