American Outline N Scale Model Railroads

The Objective:-

1- To build a track where more than one train could move at a time  in a continuous run .2- To show correct length trains in the context of the scenery of the Continental Divide.

3- To have a small amount of switching .

4- To have the majority of trains on the layout at one one time.

 Brief History:-

It all started in 2002 when I was home in UK after a fantastic holiday in the USA I was keen to create a model of one of the trains I had traveled on, namely the "Southwest Chief".  Unhappy at the results I Decided to re-build a Lager  terminus and coach yards. With this no more than in planning stage I decided to    build the second storage area and running station.  All this so far was built in my attic study,too tight curves and no room to watch trains run soon caused the demise of this layout.

A move was made to a bedroom, some 12 Foot Square where I built a double deck layout with a large Station and coach Yard on the lower level and  four different scenic sections on the top.  One whole wall was an intermediate station and a tourist line.  A second area was high desert, a third a tourist wild west town and lastly a massive canyon wall with nearly 4ft high scenery. Whilst there were lots of places to build scenery there was not a lot of running space coupled to constant problems with run aways on the grades between decks I decided last year to radically re-design the layout.

It was restricted to the upper deck only,  and this was to hold simply the canyon wall, the station, the coach yard and  a small town area.

The Layout is essentially a folded figure of 8 with the ability to run each loop seperately or together.  One line {the Red one} cuts down Boyle Canyon to divert from the station and appear at the right hand end of the station throat while the Blue loop incorporates a climb up Brenner Pass and  a line trough the station. Since moving to DCC the Interurban line from Las Rocas to Danville has been made the Program  Track, when not used as this it can be switched to plain DC and a rail-car service shuttled back and forth automatically.

The objective  of running high speed long trains at speed and to be able to watch them over long stretches of track has been met.  The Station area , coach yards and Dannville will enable switching.

The Coach Yards are omitted for clarity but there are 4 roads each able to take a full passenger consist. and an icing unit for refer box cars.  When one includes the station tracks up to  12 trains can theoretically be on the layout at any one time. Though our skill at operation will need to increase dramatically before we can balance such a heavy load!

A Ghost town and abandoned Mine fill the area between the blue main line  and the coach yards.

Angel Bridge is not as wide as this rough plan suggests and is the duck under section to enter the room.

Looking from Las Rocas towards Essex Ghost Town to the right

Looking the opposite way towards Las Rocas the main lines are to the Left

Stoneguard Hotel in the distance

 Looking along the main lines with the switch to Danville on the right track and Joshua Creek in the distance.

Danville Looking towards Joshua Creek in the distance

The large modern structure in Danville is the Steam Restorers workshops where various aged bits of Steam locomotives are maintained and repaired.  There is always a grouping of interesting  relics there.

The smaller building  to the right is a meat packing house and in the dark area is the Presidential train of "Ike" campaigning for his  second term in office.

 Joshua Creek is a tourist trap, in truth part of the old Essex Mining town but given a more "pretty name" and made into a tourist trap it is "placed but so far unfinished...

you'll see it soon ... ish!

An area not often seen as the Essex Ghost town and the Gravel works shield it from view

If you look carefully you'll see that there is a mirror to the rear.  The Superliner Consist is one ONE track. the second track with Superliners on it is the reflection in the mirror.

"Worman Junction" We are looking towards Essex Ghost town the jam on the Danville road is because the grade crossing  behind us is closed for an on coming train.

Like all locations on my railroad Worman Junction is named for someone I met in The States.  Margaret Worman  was a 90 year old lady who lived in San Diego. After a terribly hard life including being literally sold as a child bride  she had many wonderful stories of life in San Diego in the pre-War days.

Essex  Is named after the Street my friend John Boyle lived in when I first visited him in San Diego {And of course John has given his name to Boyle County and Boyle Canyon.}

The wall is 12foot wide ad this is more or less the whole wall.

On the Old ET&RR  No longer on the model we see the original "Gibbings Canyon Flyer" crossing a trestle in Robinson Canyon . Robinson being the street name of the other home of John's I stayed at in San Diego.

 Another vanished scene... Again the "Flyer" this time at "Lin's bend" Named for a very special Lady who is a dear friend of John's.

 An Early attempt at the Canyon Wall made of old style "bubble" Styrene blocks.

Hillcrest was the area of San Diego I stayed in .

The Second attempt at the Canyon side  with time with a  ES&LRR "CJ" Class Malet at the head of a passenger train.

The Whole Canyon Wall {Second  attempt} with a modern Super-liner train on what was then the main line and a  tourist train on the then branch line.

The present Canyon {March 2009}

Again the Canyon asit is today with the wonderfull fully detailed andsound equiped Mountain Daylight 

 And to close this series of general overviews, the inside of the Concourse of Las Rocas Union Station.