prbharris

Thank you for all of these tips. We will pore the maps over the weekend and come back with detailed comments [and requests for further advice] if that is OK! Yes - I am sorry if the itinerary seems hectic. We are in CA for a mere three weeks and we always try to do too much. We thought we had cut it down, but as Roadhound said it will be a good reason for returning. The Santa Barbara to Sonoma run should be broken up, but there just seems no room in the plan to stay overnight en route, but this is something that I will look at, given the advice. I rather fancy the Big Sur, but it will add a few hours. We will have 12 hours to do the run, so it should be possible. The Tehichapi trip is a day for me, and we are heading specifically for the loop - I have got quite a lot of advice from railroad forums on where to locate. Speed will be the essence to get there, so it will have to be the Freeway north I'm afraid. Many thanks - excitement is building. Peter

We are planning a trip in California. Last time we traveled up the West Coast by train - this time we are traveling by car. We are looking for interesting diners [especially the older, unusual, Mom and Pop style] and road related sites [and any other oddities] on the following trips: Anaheim to San Diego [mid week] San Diego - Santa Monika [saturday] Santa Monika to Tehichapi Pass and return [mid week] Santa Barbara to Windsor [sonoma County] [Friday]- 300 miles so not much time for sight seeing, I guess - but we would like to go north up the Peninsula and across the Golden Gate Bridge, rather than go via Oakland Your thoughts would be appreciated as we plan this vacation. Peter Peter Harris Nottinghamshire UK

I like the decoration and style of the James Farm Road Bridge, although it is later than I expected, being built in 1940 The Merritt Parkway Bridges are more stone looking than I was expecting. I am hoping for the clean lines of off-white concrete! English typecasting of what constitutes an American Freeway bridge, I guess. Thanks I will try these too Will do - although this is a long term project! Thanks again Peter

This is really helpful - but the double deck is a bit beyond what we are looking for I suspect. The details on the Western Hills viaduct are a great start. Thanks. Any other pictures of wide concrete arch(es) built in the 1930's would be really useful. It is details like the sidewalls and arch fronts that we just can't find easily. Peter

As a bunch of modelers based in the UK, we are looking for some pictures of interesting Art Deco Freeway bridges as examples to model for our Exhibition layout. We need the bridge to span a number of tracks, but we will adopt the example to match. We are looking for some of the archetypal clean lines of the 1930 designed bridges. Our bridge will be nearly a yard in length and we hope to include a slip road in the design too. However, trying to find some good pictures and examples is not easy from here in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, so I am appealing for help. Trying to search for this has been caught by the 'four letter rule' in this group [searching for 'art deco'], so apologies for asking if this has already been covered - pointers to other threads would be helpful Thanks in advance. Peter Peter Harris Black Diamonds N Scale Group http://freespace.virgin.net/sr.lamb/blackdiamonds/home.htm