USMRR Aquia Line and other Model Railroad Adventures: Back in the Saddle

December 28, 2022

Back in the Saddle

Snow covered San Georgino Mountain stands behind Joshua Tree National Park

We are back from a week long trip to Palm Springs., CA to spend time with family. The timing of our trip was perfect as we missed a nasty spell of cold and bad weather back home. Luckily our house survived the cold snap with no apparent damage.

We didn't do much train watching out there. Alicia and I did hike several canyons including two on tribal land, two on Joshua Tree National Park, and the Coachella Oasis that sits directly on top of the San Andreas Fault.

A lucky person gets a ride in a P-51

A highlight of the trip for me was the visit to Palm Springs Air Museum. They have a fine collection of WW2 and later aircraft. Many of them can still fly. They offer rides in some. On the day we visited we saw a P-51 Mustang in the Tuskeegee Airman Red Tail livery take two lucky, (and wealthy - the cost is about $2000 for a 15 minute ride) patrons for rides (one at a time.)

This large scale cutaway of the USS Rasher is one of the
models produced by the husband-wife team team.
Note the smaller scale models in the background.

They have a nice ship model collection in their hanger devoted to naval aviation. They have about 6 large scale ship models. Most of them were built by a husband and wife team.

They also have an extensive collection of smaller scale ships model. A docent told me that they were built by a single individual. When he passed away, his wife wanted to put them in a good will shop. However, a museum volunteer heard about them and managed to get them donated to the museum. They built a nice large display case to exhibit them. I enjoyed looking at them in great detail. For more images of the museum please see my facebook page.