Welcome to the San Joaquin Valley Toy Train Operators, Inc. We are an organization based on the collection AND operation of model trains in all scales. Our club is located in Turlock, CA, but we welcome members from all parts of the country.

Upcoming Club Events

The Annual Dinner will be held Saturday, Apr. 6, 2024 at the Fruityard. The April general meeting will be held at the end of the dinner. It will be a plated dinner with choice of BBQ tri-tip, chicken with marsala sauce, or stuffed ravioli. A signup sheet was provided at the meeting on Mar 3. If you were not at the meeting, please contact Ellie Chase to let her know you plan to attend and your meal choice.

April 20, 2024 we will visit and setup/run the HO-scale layout at Samaritan Village in Hughson. This will also be the Saturday workday for April.

The May Members Meeting is now scheduled for May 4, 2024 to coincide with the Denair Community Yard Sale.

June 8, 2024 will be the scheduled Saturday workday and we will also be touring three layouts in the Mariposa area. A signup sheet will be available at the club dinner/meeting on April 6 and the meeting on May 4.

A Little History

At the January member’s meeting, Club President Jack Smith presented two items of historical interest. The first was a railroad lantern owned by Stanley E. Jacobson who ran a switch engine in Modesto (the railroad was not identified). It is a small electric lantern powered by a large battery. Here are photos of the lantern and the letter from Stanley’s son, Neil Jacobson who donated the lantern to the club.

Also, Jack shared a copy of an article written by Darryl Woods, one of the founding members of the club. This is a copy of the article as it appeared in whichever periodical it was published. The full text is provided below the photo.

Remembering
By Darryl Woods

To the best of our recollection the San Joaquin Valley Division of TTOS was chartered in 1975. We believe there were 20 to 25 members at that time. If this figure is incorrect, I remember we were required to have a certain number of members before the club could be chartered by TTOS National and we had over the required number.

Prio to becoming the San Joaquin Valley Division we were a group of train enthusiasts who would meet together and talk/play with our trains The driving force behind the group was and is Harold Lindquist. Harold has had a lifelong love for toy trains. He began repairing trains for his friends in 1950 and encouraged all of us to share our enjoyment of running and collecting Lionel Trains. The group consisted of Tony Levy (deceased), Joe Bargas, Ralf Parton, Harold Lindquist, Darryl Woods, and Tom Gibson from the Sacramento area, who later became the TTOS National President. Ormel Steely and Stan Hahn were also early members. I am sorry I can’t remember the rest of the names in the group and apologize to them for my forgetfulness. We really had a great group of dedicated members who built layouts, met in each others’ homes, purchased and sold train items to each other and later traveled to Sacramento and Oakland for the TCA meets as well as the two Cal-Stewart meets held in Northern and Southern California each year.

Our group of train friends continued to grow and Joe Bargas arranged for a meeting in Modesto in 1973 to form a club and begin to look for a chance to join a National Club and form our own Division. Our San Joaquin Valley Division of the Toy Train Operating Society came to fruition in 1975. Our first president was Ralf Parton and Tony Levy was vice-president. We met in a room at Cunningham School in Turlock. Ralf made arrangements for us to use this facility. In these days we purchased our new trains at Jensen’s 5 & 10 Variety Store on East main Street in Turlock. Ralf made arrangements for us to get a discount on our train purchases from Jensen’s because we bought in volume. Later on, Jensen’s moved their business across the street to a building currently occupied by Endsley’s Coldwell Banker Real Estate Firm. Jensen changed its name to Jensen’s True Value Hardware and still sold us trains until it closed.

Harold Lindquist later set up his retail store called the Square Roundhouse and took care of all of our train purchases and repairs at one location. His wife, Paula, was an ever present figure at the SRH and a great help to all of us when Harold was away from the store.

During these early days of the SJVD we would purchase our trains from want ad listings, tips from friends who knew of someone who wanted to sell their trains, each other, and train meets. At our meetings we discussed how we could help people get interested in trains and join our club. We wanted to display a layout at a public gathering and ended up making arrangements with the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds to set up a layout during the annual fair.

We also formed a team to build modules at home to join with modules of other teams. We spent a lot of time joining the modules together for a large layout and even more time trying to get the electrical connections completed so the trains could run on all modules.

We put on a December Meet at the County Fairgrounds with layouts and trains on display and for sale. This meet, which is open to the public, celebrates its 25^th anniversary this year.

Most of our members were adults but did many wonderful things for young people. During the Christmas season many would put together some extra locos and cars and make small sets with track and transformers as gifts to the less fortunate children. They never publicized this gifting but many felt warm all over for their kindness to others.

Today’s youth will miss the memories we have of standing at the Turlock Train Depot—as close to the tracks as we dared—and feeling the earth shake, hearing the whistle blow and the steam hiss and watching the passenger train come to a stop and drop off Aunt Mittie and Uncle Sam.

However, we hope that the younger generation will get the “bug” to enjoy, run, and collect toy trains thereby preserving the hobby. Great memories and great times together with good friends enjoying a great educational hobby. No e-Bay! A Thought Provoking Hobby! Building Empires! Making New Friends!