Pete Birdsong, Brian Booth, Dave Connery, Wayne Floyd, Lisa Gorrell, Paul Ingraham, Steve Lane, Doug Smith

(L-R): Steve Lane, Pete Birdsong, Paul Ingraham, Brian Booth, Dave Connery at the Concord Museum Layout Tour Video Shoot, January 7, 2023 / Photo: John Abatacola

Pete Birdsong, MMR

Pete, born in 1939 in Mississippi, was first introduced to trains (the real ones) at about 5 or 6 by his grandfather, an engineer on the Illinois Central Railroad.

At about 10 or 12, Santa brought a Lionel set and an Erector set, which, in addition to a bike a few years later, occupied most of his time until high school, when he got a car, discovered girls and abandoned trains pretty much, except for reading the magazines, until his wife Caggy gave him a small N scale boxed set in middle age.

That started the juices flowing again, and led to a medium-sized basement N layout, which was moved and expanded in one of the many job-related moves with IBM over the years.

When Bachmann announced its On30 Shay, a conversion to that scale occurred and resulted in a large layout which was featured in articles in Model Railroader and the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette. This layout was moved and downsized twice, but can still be seen at this link:

https://theon30fernwoodlumbercompanyrailroad.yolasite.com

Pete joined the National Model Railroad Association around this time, where he enjoyed many years of comradery and became a certified Master Model Railroader (MMR), earning all 11 Achievement Award certificates.

He joined the San Ramon Branch Line Model Railroad group when it formed, did some construction prototyping, developed the module standards, built two modules of the Danville area and created the original web site for the group. This led to a return to N scale and a small bedroom layout, which he continues to operate prototypically (his main interest from beginning to end) at 87 as of June 2026.

Pete lives in Danville with his wife Caggy and has 4 daughters, a deceased son, and 12 grandchildren.

Brian Booth

Brian, fellow San Ramon Branch Line Model Railroad Group member, long term model railroader and NMRA/PCR member passed peacefully at home in Lafayette early Sunday, May 31, 2026, after an extended illness due to a brain tumor. Brian is survived by his wife Ellen McGarvey. Brian and Ellen were often attendees at National Narrow-Gauge conventions and enjoyed driving across the country to attend. Ellen’s red hair was often a feature at PCR Coast Division meets and PCR Conventions, and she enjoyed running trains at Layout Tours.

Brian had been involved in many model railroad activities. As a long-term Model Railroader and PCR member, he was the Coast Division Layout Chair, Chief Clerk, and was part of multiple convention committees. Most recently, he was a fellow member of the N Scale San Ramon Branch Line Model Railroad Group. Brian built the two Walnut Creek sections and helped with the construction and rebuilds of several others. He brought his great sense of humor to our group and was a wonderful promoter for the project.

In addition to model railroading, Brian was an auto racing enthusiast and competed for many years in races and drove different race cars. He also worked professionally as a driving skills instructor. A day at the races with Brian was a treat – hearing stories of him watching auto races from childhood with his mom, and up to a couple months prior to his illness.

Brian was also a UC Berkeley alum and a dedicated fan and season-ticket holder for Cal Football. He would often wear the Cal logo. “Go Bears!”
Brian is dearly missed by his family all of his friends.

Dave Connery, MMR

Dave grew up in a family of railroaders in the Albany, New York area. As a boy he had an American Flyer train and built his first scratchbuilt models in 1/64 (S Scale. As an adult, he again became interested in trains and modeling in the mid-1970’s. After several HO scale layouts always removed in house moves. In 1985 he and his wife settled in a house with a garage in San Ramon, California. He became interested in the Sierra Railway and the V&T Railway and created a double deck HO layout in a room filling half a 2-car garage. He eventually added DCC in 1993 and had finished the layout in 2006. The layout was published in Model Railroader Magazine. In 2020 TSG Multimedia filmed a Layout Tour of the Sierra Carson & Truckee. From 1992 until 2019 Dave served as a volunteer docent at Railtown 1897 in Jamestown, California. Learn more about Dave’s fun & interesting railroad experiences in this 55min Zoom interview / Train Crew Hangout with Dave Connery, recorded in 2020 also on the TSG Multimedia YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, he had become interested in Garden Railways and he and his wife, Emma began building a 1:20.3 scale railroad in their back yard – featuring a scale model of the Bourland Trestle and other models based on the West Side Lumber Company and featuring both on board battery and live steam locomotives.

In early 2020, as a pandemic project and because advancing age was making the gardening projects more difficult, Dave dissembled the garden railway. Following that he also dismantled the HO layout and the room in the garage that had been built to hold it.

With no modeling projects to occupy him, Dave decided to build an N-scale model of the SP’s Danville depot on the San Ramon Branch Line. Then, friend Pete Birdsong suggested a joint project to model the entire town of Danville which soon grew to a plan for selectively modeling areas of the entire Branch. Friend, Wayne Floyd agreed to build 6 basic modules and the San Ramon Model Railroad Group project was underway.

Wayne Floyd

Wayne was very critical member of San Ramon Valley Branch Group project early-on, as the Group collectively decided to model: San Ramon, Ramona Park, Osage, Danville, Walnut Creek, and Concord. With Wayne’s woodworking skills, tools, and countless hours – he helped build 8 of the 18″x48″ sectional layout table tops and leg sets needed to begin modeling the above towns and sites.

Wayne is also a skilled model railroader, and has built a proto-freelance HO Scale layout in a purpose-built garage addition aka “The Train Room” at his home in Alameda, CA. The layout includes: Southern Pacific California-inspired mainline, depots and a roundhouse; a short line inspired by the Sierra Railway; and a logging line inspired by the Pickering Lumber Co with a sawmill scene. The contest award-winning sawmill was scratch built by Wayne’s good friend Ray Davis, who is also a good friend of the SRBL Group.

TSG Multimedia filmed Wayne’s Southern Pacific HO Scale layout in 2022, and Wayne narrated the layout tour – click here to view.

Lisa Gorrell

Lisa started her love of trains watching the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific trains pass by in Pittsburg, CA. When her brothers got the Lionel set instead of her, she was determined to have her own someday. She finally got her chance when she joined the Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society in the early 1970s where she runs trains during their open houses or works to troubleshoot stopped and derailed trains. She also serves as their secretary.

She has served as an officer with the Coast Division and the Pacific Coast Region (PCR) of the National Model Railroad Society (NMRA). She was on several committees hosting regional and national conventions of the NMRA. Her interests in modeling are in HO traction, and she hopes to create a small HO scale layout depicting the Sacramento Northern Railway in Walnut Creek. She found operating the N-Scale San Ramon Branch Line Group Layout fun whenever it was on display. 

As a career, she was a train operator for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District for 15 years and an Employee Development Specialist, where she trained new train operators, for 17 years. Since her retirement in 2010, she has become more active with the Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society, genealogy, and hiking in the Bay Area hills. In her free time, she and her husband travel the U.S. often on Amtrak trains, visiting sights and family.

Paul Ingraham

Paul was introduced to railway modeling by his father with Lionel trains. While an exchange student in England and the Netherlands in the 1960s, Paul discovered the then-new N scale models that he still models today.

He was introduced to the modular concept by building an NTRAK module with Jim Fitzgerald and Tom Knapp for the first NTRAK layout at the 1974 NMRA National Convention in San Diego. Subsequently, he continued developing the modular concept, and held the position of first Modular Standards Chairman on the NMRA national engineering committee in the 1970s. He has also held positions as modular coordinator for the NMRA Pacific Coast Region and modular layout coordinator for the 1977 PCR convention in San Jose and the 1981 NMRA National convention in San Mateo.

He developed the Interail modular standards that pioneered ideas that are now part of the Freemo, OneTrak and other modular standards as well as the European NEM modular recommendations. In 1982, Paul authored and published the Modular Modeling Manual with modular standards for all scales.

Paul was also a model railway equipment manufacturer for 20 years, and designed and produced the first N scale double stack container cars and related models in the 1970s to 1990s.

Paul is a member of the Peninsula NTRAK club in the San Francisco Bay Area and coordinator for AsiaNRail, an N scale modular group modeling Asian prototype railways. 

Paul continues to explore and develop all aspects of the modular layout design concept and modular operations systems. He applies these concepts on his own Pacific International N scale home layout and other modular layout projects such as the San Ramon Branch Line Group project.

Steve Lane

Steve became interested in trains early-on, and when old enough, received his first electric train set in the late 1970’s from his parents. Steve’s father supported his son’s interest (and his own), in building a 4’x8’ train table with an HO-scale layout in a spare room. A few years later, Steve discovered N-scale, and created a small layout on the former HO layout table.

Drums, music, college, cycling, and a career in architectural design put model railroading and N-scale trains in the attic for nearly 30 years. Steve dusted-off his trains and rediscovered the hobby in 2010. Attracted to N-Trak and modular model railroading, Steve began researching, drafting, and modeling the Danville (CA) depot area – one of the destinations on his regular bicycle route, the Iron Horse Regional Trail, the former right-of-way of the San Ramon Branch Line of the Southern Pacific. His research work would have been nearly impossible without the aid of Irma M Dotson’s book, because very little has been published about the SP San Ramon Branch Line.

National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) Pacific Coast Region (PCR) membership connected Steve with fellow members, Brian Booth, and Dave Connery, who spearheaded the San Ramon Branch Line N-scale Modelers Group in 2020. Since joining this group in 2021, Steve has contributed his architectural and graphic skills, research work, layout design, and developing modeling skills to the group. Since 2025 to present, Steve serves as the webmaster of this website to share the work the San Ramon Branch Model Railroad Group with the world, and hopefully inspire future modelers of the San Ramon Branch Line.

Doug Smith

Doug Smith (July 7, 1951 – February 28, 2026). Doug was an avid model railroader, a long term NMRA and PCR member, as well as a volunteer for many years. He was a past Superintendent of the NMRA Coast Division and was the 2026 Superintendent of the NMRA Redwood Empire Division.

Doug was semi-active with the San Ramon Branch Line Modelers Group. His enormous contribution was priming and hand-painting scenery on 15 Masonite backdrops for the Group’s inaugural layout showing at the Apil 2022 ‘Return to the Redwoods’ PCR Convention. Doug was also a good, honest critic of our project progress and of our public speaking presentation rehearsals.

Doug is dearly missed by his family, friends, and all of the model railroaders he touched in his lifetime. His impact on the PCR is missed. We thank him for being such a great friend, and for all his contributions to his local and greater communities throughout his years.