1955 photo by Donald Duke, courtesy Tom Gildersleeve

Southern Pacific

Historical & Technical Society

2012 Annual Conference
Ventura, California
October 11-14th



View photos from past conventions!

Convention Hotel 2012: Ventura Beach Marriot

The society has reserved a block of rooms at special rates from October 10th through the 13th. Call the hotel at 805-643-6000 and request the SPH&TS rate or use the links below for one of your four options. These special rates are available until September 19th or until the rooms are sold out. Early booking guarantees your room and helps the society qualify for display and meeting rooms.

If you are reserving by phone use the code sphsphe for rooms which include breakfast, or sphsph for rooms without breakfast. Or use the convenient links below:


As we approach the SPH&TS Ventura Convention details are beginning to shape up. There is a tempting selection of tentative layout tours:

  • Santa Susana Depot and model railroad HO Santa Susana and Pacific
  • Jon Cure's HO SP Inyo Subdivision
  • Al Dauman's HO Burney, Redding & Western
  • Gold Coast Modular Club HO layout at the Murphy Auto Museum
  • Gary Siegel's outdoor 1:32 SP Santa Cruz Division
  • Gary Siegel's HO L&N Eastern Kentucky Division
  • Bruce Morden's HO SP Santa Barbara Subdivision
  • South Coast Railroad Museum at Goleta Depot and HO and G model railroad exhibits

And a sure-to-be popular Train Ride and BBQ.

This Extra Fare event will include a 3-hour train ride over some rare mileage of pre-1904 SP Coast Mainline relegated to a branch after the construction of the Santa Susana Tunnels. We will board our train at Montalvo and travel through citrus groves as well as the towns of Saticoy, Santa Paula and Fillmore to Piru. We will return by train to a Picnic ground just west of Fillmore for BBQ Tri-Tip or Chicken, before busing back to the hotel."

More info as it becomes available. Keep checking.

Upcoming Conventions

2013 — Fresno, California, October 3-5th