The 26th Street Model Engineers have built their layout in the basement of charter member Keith Brownfield's home. The layout is freelanced, but scenes are modeled to depict the Pacific Northwest in the transition era. Subdivisions divide the railroad and each one has a unique theme that focuses on various industries. Scenery is mostly complete, and the club uses Railops to prototypically move freight cars.

The Silverwood Mining and Lumber Railroad is built in a dog bone shape filling an area approximately two hundred feet long by thirty feet wide. The railroad depicts the steam era of railroading between 1900 and 1952 and uses track power, on board battery with radio control as well as live steam. On the Silverwood you will see passenger trains running as well as trains serving both mining and lumbering operations.

The Durlin Branch is a free-lance mountain branch line of the narrow gauge D&RGW fourth division hauling general freight, coal, ore concentrates, livestock and passengers. The branch ties into the San Juan Extension at Chama NM, with Durango CO to the west and Alamosa CO to the east represented by staging. The Durlin branch climbs a steady 3.8% grade through Cresco and Toltec Tunnel up to Carrumba where the line splits. One line continues on to Fritz Park, then descends a 4% grade through Resin Creek to Durlin. The other branch serves a large coal mine (stolen from the D&RGW third division) at Flint. Steam locomotives rule with operations augmented by water tank, coal tower, ashpit, stock chute sounds and/or animation. Featured in Model Railroader May 2000, The Finescale Railroader 2003 Narrow Gauge Annual, and Model Railroad Hobbyist April 2011.

The Colville, Republic and Palouse Railroad (CRAP)

The CRAP is a walk-in HO scale proto-freelance linear railroad representing Eastern Washington during the wartime harvest season of 1944. The layout is contained within a 13' X 13' air-conditioned room constructed within a two car garage. It consists of five levels of track, on 2.3 decks. The vertical rise is from 32" in Pullman to 68" in Republic. Industrial areas of the city of Spokane occupy two decks, connected by a helix, along one side of the room. The track North out of Spokane resembles Great Northern's Kettle Falls branch, running through mountains and forests and servicing the mining, logging and cattle industries. The track South out of Garry (Lower Spokane) resembles Northern Pacific's Palouse and Lewiston branch. It rambles through nearly treeless rolling hills of wheat, and services the many trackside elevators and canneries along the line. Basically the CRAP gathers the natural resources from the "Inland Empire" and transports them to Spokane, where they are interchanged outside the layout room to one of the four transcontinental and two regional railroads that have a Spokane presence. Thirty cars per operating session are interchanged off the layout, and are replaced by thirty cars of processed food, manufactured goods and machinery from the other railroads. There is no overhead traffic on the CRAP - staging is in the form of six car cuts of interchange traffic. Motive power is small steam of early 20th century vintage and is nearly all equipped with sound. Train length is six cars, and all trains have a lot of switching to do. There are ten towns in addition to the two large areas of Spokane. Passenger service is by two motor cars. There are eleven trains per session, with the North and South Turns and the Woods and Mine trains frequently running twice. A session lasts something over four hours. Control is by NCE radio. The layout's maximum use of vertical space, 30'; deep decks and use of outside-of-the-room staging and industries make it one of the largest small layouts in existence. Aisle space is very limited. An operating crew of six pretty well fills it up! The environment is rustic.

Bill Allen runs both live steam and electric. The garden has miniature trees and plants and lots of scratch built items. The layout depicts the Truckee and Virginia City's gold and silver era. Seven hundred feet of layout with four looping and two back & forth tracks, and a 33' Koi pond with waterfall and river separate Virginia City from Truckee. The layout also has eight bridges, seven tunnels, 4% grades and a 40' mountain range. Bill has lots of scratch built structures and rolling stock. There is a second section elevated oval 21' X 31' designed for Live Steam with dual tracks and turnouts.

The Maple Rock Garden Railway is unique because the railway is part of a nationally recognized three acre private garden. The railway is intended to represent a believable, small narrow gauge railway serving people and industries typical of this part of California in the 1920s to 1940s time. The Maple Rock Railway serves several small towns and small industries. Locomotives, cars, buildings, industries, and structures are necessarily small and compact. Locomotives include both live steam and onboard battery powered locomotives, each radio controlled. Battery powered locomotives also have electronic sound systems. Freight cars are typical 8 wheel freight and log cars or short, 4 wheel, ore cars. Passenger business is chiefly handled by combines run as mixed trains. The railway also runs periodic excursion trains for special occasions. Formed partly from graded and built up earth and partly following natural contours of the site, the railway is modeled in FN3 Scale, and has about 900 feet of track, or about 3.5 scale miles. Track is Llagas Creek code 215 rail, ties, and switches laid on granite "dust" ballast. Originally built as two sections, the lower section is built in a area of about 60 x 40 feet, has 450 feet of track in a large loop. The upper section has 120 feet of track, also a loop, is located 12 to 15 feet higher than the lower section. Later, a connector section was built between the two sections with 320 feet of track that climbs the 12 feet difference in height on 4% grades. A single "out and back" train trip from the lower section to the upper section is a bit over 3 scale miles and climbs and descends about 300 scale feet (15 actual feet) of elevation. Train trips continuing with a loop run around the lower section add another 2 scale miles, or a total of over 5 scale miles for a trip. Foliage in and around the railway are "in scale", living Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Juniper, and Japanese Maples, and ground covers. Also "decorating" the railway are several large Bonsai trees as old as 50 years and moss rocks as large as seven tons. This is a railway not to be missed.

The Black Diamond Lines Model Railroad Club began in July 1981 as a group of model railroaders who gathered in the back of a local hobby shop. Later that year, they incorporated as a non-profit organization and in December began work on their first layout, located in the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds. In December of 1985, the fairgrounds decided not to renew the club's lease and they we were forced to move to a location obtained through the City of Antioch in May 1986, where the layout remains to this day.

The Black Diamond Lines is an HO scale layout layout that occupies approximately 1500 square feet of space. Track elevation ranges from 46 to 82 inches above floor level. All track is hand-laid on wooden ties, and all turnouts and crossings are hand made in place.

The Bay Area and Central Valley RR is a multi-level HO layout specifically geared w/ operations in mind. The lower level depicts both the WP and SP from the SF/Oakland Bay Area south through the busy industrial area of E. Oakland, down through Fremont, Niles Jct. and eventually Warm Springs. A 'nine times' rotation helix takes you up and east into Pleasanton, the Altamont Pass area and back down into both the WP and SP Stockton Yards. A branch off the WP, out of Stockton, runs south on the Tidewater Southern and takes you into S. Modesto with a number of the local industries represented. The trackwork is about 80% complete with N. Stockton and the STE (Stockton Terminal & Eastern) in the near future plans. The layout is still under construction and scenery is limited.

Greg's layout depicts a Mid-western railroad and is being modeled in the 1948 to 1955 steam to diesel transition period. The layout is designed to support up to 4 trains running simultaneously and signaling of the layout is underway. One of the scenic features is a 10 foot wide valley with steel bridges and wood trestle work spanning it with a maximum height of 150 scale feet.

A modern N scale layout representing a small piece of central California between Stockton and Fresno. This is a freelanced "L" shaped layout that has been built using Kato Unitrack and with completed scenery and structures representing modern America. There is a single mainline with operation opportunities and two staging areas with four tracks each. The layout is fully automated using Digitrax DCC hardware and Railroad & Co. software.

Retired art teacher Richard Batho has focused on the quality of his "atmospheric perspective" backdrops for this Northwestern Pacific layout. The main backdrop features Mount Shasta and the surrounding topography. This fully-sceniced pike represents a fictitious NWP branchline that ran to the base of Mount Shasta. Richard's continuous running dogbone layout uses steam and early diesels to operate. One main staging yard feeds the industries while passenger operation completes the theme and is still a large focus of revenue for the branch.

The Agassiz Basin is a proto freelanced bridge railroad in HO scale based upon Canadian National practices of the late 1950's at the very end of the steam era. It is set in summer 1959 when the last steam engines ran in Western Canada. I grew up watching the last of the steam locomotives as I walked to and from school and wanted to capture that memory in model form.

The layout room is 16x24 in my (rare for California) basement. It is a twice around the room design where the track passes through each scene twice. Once as a focal scene and a second time as background or mostly hidden trackage. The "twice around" design allows lots of running time between towns and a mainline of about 225' point to point. There are 2 staging yards. One represents North/South (Winnipeg/Thompson) off layout traffic and the other East/West (Swan River/Saskatoon). Operations is my main interest and the layout is intended to run according to the practices of the late 50's in Canada which is Time Table and Train Orders.

The layout is still very early in its construction. I used CAD to design both the layout and the benchwork. The benchwork is complete and is all made out of 3/4" birch plywood ripped to dimensional sizes. Both staging yards are on "sliders" that allow me to lower the yards 18" down for maintenance or repairs. Track laying has begun and trains are beginning to roll ;-). The layout is controlled using Digitrax DCC.

If you are looking for a beautifully scenicked, fully operating railroad, this is not your place to stop! But if you are interested in the design approach I used, the unusual staging yard design, or other aspects of construction or design, I'd enjoy sharing my experiences with you!

The layout is set in western United States depicting the steam to diesel transition era of 1948-1960. Mike's main interest is the streamlined passenger trains of the SP, UP, ATSF and WP. The layout is a freelanced design, with continuous running capability. There is a small yard at one end and a staging and passenger yard at the other end with engine servicing facilities on the peninsula near the passenger yard. The track height is 44 to 55 inches and scenery is 85% complete. Mike's layout is featured in the May 2011 issue of Model Railroader.

SP's Vasona Branch models the Santa Clara Valley in the early 1930's. The layout tries to reproduce actual scenes along the San Jose - Los Gatos - Santa Cruz branch based on photos and Sanborn fire insurance maps.

The layout is a two deck 10' by 14' HO layout in half of a two car garage. Track is complete. Most rough scenery and some finished scenery is in.

Operation focuses on switching the canneries, packing houses, and other industries in the valley; commute trains and freights heading to Santa Cruz also run to add additional traffic. A pair of two-man crews do heavy switching during the session.

Layout control is via EasyDCC wired throttles. Most locomotives are sound-equipped; all locomotives are the small steam engines seen on the actual branch. Much of the layout runs in "yard limits", but signals and informal dispatching control the track over the hill (as on the prototype); a 2:1 fast clock sets the pace of the session. Switching is done from switch lists.

The freelanced Timbercreek Railroad is a branch line off the Southern Pacific RR at Truckee, CA from the East end of the Truckee yard. The SP is only visible at Truckee, the rest of the SP is under the layout as the staging area. The rest of the layout is the Timber Creek Railroad which is the main emphasis, and takes up the whole inside of the building less the Truckee area. Also included is an On3 logging operation that starts at Truckee, CA and ends up in Timber Creek. The railroad includes the towns of Timber Creek, Moss Ridge, and Grizzly Flats. The entire "O-Scale" layout is built to Proto 48 standards. All locomotives and rolling stock have had the wheels changed to Proto Craft wheel sets and/or machined in house by Gordon.

The Southern Pacific Third and Townsend St. Depot located in San Francisco has been replicated by award-winning SP Prototype Modeler Mark Brown. Mark has replicated the depot, platform tracks, and the Fourth Street tower in his garage. The diorama is almost to scale and features custom double slip switches and crossovers to match SP prototype. All structures built so far are completely scratch built.

Scenery is complete and detailed. The railroad is a logging and tourist line with sawmills and a large hotel set in the Roaring Twenties. I also have an On30 limestone layout with kilns, a stave mill, and cooperage, above my workbench. There is also a collection of pioneer On3 models.

Bill's Sacramento Belt Line portrays Sacramento Northern Railway's industrial belt line within the city of Sacramento, California, during the period of 1953-1965, set in the high summer peak harvest/canning season. Operation focuses on industrial switching and interchange between multiple Class I railroads (Southern Pacific and Western Pacific), using a modified "wheel report" operation scheme. Scenery is urban/suburban, running between heavy industrial areas and tree-lined residential neighborhoods. Industries are primarily agricultural processing (canning, almonds, dairy, lumber milling, grain milling) and interchange between railroads, warehouses, trucks and riverboats/barges. Motive power consists of small diesel-electric switching locomotives operating on city streets and tight curves, formerly electric interurban right-of-way. The railroad is freight-only, aside from occasional chartered fan trips. Scale is HO, standard gauge, set up as a point-to-point shelf layout that will eventually circle the room entirely.

Jack's layout replicates the prototype Yosemite Valley Railroad circa August 1939 via a multi-deck design. The scenery, scenes, vegetation, and details on the layout all match the prototype. All seven of the YV's prototype locomotive roster circa 1939 are modeled. The rolling stock is a combination of scratchbuilt, resin and styrene kit models and the models reflect the types and ownership of freight cars which might have been on the railroad in the time period being modeled. All 100+ buildings on the layout are scratchbuilt from plans based on photos and available information.

Jack's Yosemite Valley Railroad has been featured in numerous articles in Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman, Model Railroad Hobbiset and Great Model Railroads, most recently in the January 2010 edition of Railroad Model Craftsman.

Double deck proto-lanced railroad depicting West Coast steam in the 1950's. Scenes are taken from the Sierra, Southern Pacific, Western Pacific, Hetch-Hetchy and Yosemite Valley railroads. OPs based trackplan with inventive staging and helix design. Equipment features many super detailed and weathered rolling stock. Hardshell is 80% complete, overal scenery completion is 10%, Duck under at 60".

The layout represents a portion of the original transcontinental railroad and old Southern Pacific Railroad running between Oakland, CA and Sparks, NV . The timeframe varies from the 1950's to present, allowing both steam and diesel locomotives to be operated through time appropriate scenery on the layout. Notice that the mainline is double tracked allowing operators to swiftly run from destination to destination without stops at sidings to wait for trains to meet and pass. The track is constructed on three levels with two large helixes on opposite corners providing a connection. The "mushroom style" layout is narrow with long tabletops that are stacked like bunk beds. This design provides maximum linear track space without having unrealistic twists back and forth, an undesirable but typical characteristic of older "spaghetti bowl" designs. Code 100 track is used on the 1st level and helixes only, and Code 83 track is used on the rest of the layout. Nominal minimum track radius is 48 inches. Maximum 2% grade is found on the helixes. The club consists of 50 members, is growing and welcomes new members. The UP mainline passes adjacent to the club's second floor location.

Models the Southern Pacific Coast Division, Watsonville to San Jose. Bench work is open frame construction with 1/2" plywood sub-roadbed, Atlas Code 83 track on cork roadbed. Tortoise switch machines operate DCC friendly turnouts. Fascia mounted panels, with signaling, provide walk around train and route management using C/MRI hardware and custom software. Digitrax radio throttles are used for locomotive control only. An electrically interlocked swing gate provides access to the center of the layout. Dave Biondi painted the backdrop, which depicts the west foothills along the SP mainline from Coyote to Morgan Hill. Mainline is operational.

The Railroad is a Mushroom Design running from the foothills at Oroville up through the Feather River Canyon through the Keddie Wye, with a Highline extension up to Crescent Mills and Staging, and into Portola. Leaving the forested, rocky Canyon the Railroad continues east into the Desert, via Reno Junction with the Reno Branch, to Desert Staging and a reversing loop. The year being modeled is spring 1981.

An HO and HOn3 club layout located in the old Agnew depot, which was built for the South Pacific Coast Railroad. The club runs steam through diesel, and dispatching is done differently according to era. The 1,000 feet of track represents California connections to the Pacific Northwest, Southeast, and East. There is a small narrow gauge section. The layout has been featured in Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman.

The railroad depicts two fictional railroads that traversed the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Sierra Pacific Lines was a common carrier linking the eastern San Francisco Bay area and the Owens Valley. Only a small portion of the Sonora Division of the SPL is modeled including a large yard and two other towns. The Lost Creek Lumber Co had established a saw mill and extensive trackage in the woods before the SPL came to the town of Lost Creek. Operations in the early 40's had the SPL and the LCLCo sharing trackage rights from Lost Creek to the town of Murphys, where the logging company branch diverges to the woods. Four camps/landings are found on the LCLCo tracks in the woods. A feature is the switchback to one landing with 6% grades. Geared locomotives rule the branch line while many locomotives seen on some eastern roads (i.e. Colorado) ply the SPL main line.

The IMR&N replicates prototype UP/MILW/GN railroad operations between Spokane, WA and Plummer, ID. Prototype trains, locales and activities are included. Operation is by TT&TO using modified prototype paperwork. Scenery is completed and equipment is weathered for a prototypical appearance.

Dave has two layouts, an Fn3 Garden Railway in his back yard and an HO layout in a room in his garage.

HO - In a room created in a one car garage space. Era is 1929. Lower level is Sierra Railway and upper level is Virginia & Truckee. Levels connected with helixes. Includes appearances of West Side Lumber Co and Carson & Colorado (HOn3). Numerous scratch-built prototype structures along with kit and bashed scenes.

Fn3 - Relaxing garden setting features an 8' waterfall, scale models of the Bourland and Little Reynolds Creek Bridges (Trestles), scale plantings and numerous scratch built and craftsman kits of rolling stock used on the West Side in the 1920's - 1930's. Motive power is Bachmann geared locomotives re-worked to better replicate specific West Side equipment.

His layouts have been featured in Railroad Model Craftsman in May 2000 and Model Railroader in May 2004.

Dave has a basement dedicated to his train operation. His 165 feet of mainline is hand laid as are his turn-outs. The turntable is his own design and is powered and aligning. He has a yard at either end of his point to point operation. The larger yard has 34 turnouts. Steam is king on this layout placed in 1936.

Tom's Lionel trains are certainly not a "Lionel layout". This freelanced transition era layout is fully sceniced and ballasted with many scratch-built structures and is definitely not a toy train set-up. Tom's 24 X 36 foot layout features a liftable bridge for access into the central viewing area.

A beautiful re-creation in HO scale of the Western Pacific RR in the Spring of 1938. The area of the WP modeled is along the Feather River including the Keddie Wye and a small logging area. The fidelity to prototype of the scenery has been praised by old WP employees, who readily recognize the scenes. An interesting touch is the many sound modules included in the many detailed scenes. The layout has been featured in Railroad Model Craftsman June 1996, July 2000, March 2011, Railmodel Journal May 2000, Model Railroader Sept. 2001 and Model Railroad Hobbyist May-June 2010

The FGD&R was started in 1984 reached its current size in 1994. The railroad has approximately 300 feet of track in a folded loop configuration in an "L" shaped area 100' by 30'. Being an older garden railroad it has had many changes over the years including the reduction of the length of the mainline from 500' to its present length. One item of interest is a real life example of just how big a "Dwarf Alberta Spruce" can get in 25 years. The layout uses track power for all operation and operates a mix of US and European equipment. In fact, this layout has been described alternately as a European railroad with an "Old West" tourist area, or a western railroad with a town built by German immigrants. Visit and decide for yourself which variation you prefer.

The California Oregon and Western is a short line that was spun off by the Southern Pacific in 1984 to provide continuing service to customers remaining on the Modoc line after the SP was granted permission to abandon it. The layout is being constructed to represent the line from the SP/BN interchange at Klamath Falls then running to Alturas, CA. The layout was designed for Operations using 3rdPlanit and uses Digitrax Radio along with JMRI for control. In addition, the Operations module of JMRI is used as the car management / forwarding system. As a former railroader Dennis has created a layout that operates like the prototype it represents. The layout is scheduled for publication in the LDSIG Journal coming out in May or June. The JMRI portion was discussed in episode 129 of the Model Rail Cast Show.

A 17' x 19' fully sceniced O and On3 layout operated by the San Mateo O Gaugers. 30 car O scale freight trains are not uncommon. Lots of super-detailed work trains and circus trains appear. Featured in Railroad Model Craftsman, Model Railroader, NG&SL Gazette, O Scale News, O Scale Railroading, NMRA Bulletin, Coast Dispatcher, PCR Branchline, and Great Model Railroads. Bob started railroading in 1956, started this layout in 1976, has held many NMRA offices, including national President and chaired 2 National Conventions.

The East Bay Model Engineers Society / Golden State Model Railroad Museum is home to three large layouts in O/HO/N scales with broad curves and long trains in a warehouse-sized building. All three layouts can operate on either DC or DCC and the club has been featured in Model Railroader magazine. Each of the layouts makes use of the high ceilings in the building to provide majestic mountain scenes.

The O/On3 (no name) is a more free lanced layout and features long mountain bridges, a mine scene and trains which are over 40' long are common!

The East Bay Model Engineers Society / Golden State Model Railroad Museum is home to three large layouts in O/HO/N scales with broad curves and long trains in a warehouse-sized building. All three layouts can operate on either DC or DCC and the club has been featured in Model Railroader magazine. Each of the layouts makes use of the high ceilings in the building to provide majestic mountain scenes.

The N scale (no name) layout features the SP in Sacramento yard and icing docks, Tehachapi Loop, and magnificent snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains.

The East Bay Model Engineers Society / Golden State Model Railroad Museum is home to three large layouts in O/HO/N scales with broad curves and long trains in a warehouse-sized building. All three layouts can operate on either DC or DCC and the club has been featured in Model Railroader magazine. Each of the layouts makes use of the high ceilings in the building to provide majestic mountain scenes.

The HO/Hon3 Point Richmond & Truckee features prototype based familiar places including Oakland, Sacramento, Roseville, Elvas Wye, Martinez, Colfax, and Truckee. Tracks gain over 6 feet in elevation as they move from the San Francisco Bay to the Sierra Mountains. Prominent features include Oakland Mole, Oakland 16th St. station, Elvas Wye, and in the Sierras; Long Ravine Bridges, snow sheds and the Chinese Wall. Trains 20' in length and more are common sights.

A large garden RR that models a mainline railroading during the transition era. The railroad features four mainlines: a double track mainline of approximately 350 feet with wide radius curves and long straight runs; a third 300 foot mainline winds its way up a river canyon and through the mountains; and a fourth 200 foot line features numerous bridges. Unlike many garden railroads, we like to run long passenger and freight trains, pulled by track powered diesel and steam locomotives. The railroad is located in a beautiful setting. It features several tons of rocks, over 100 miniature trees (some trees being 15 years old), a river and pond, many unique structures and detailing, and an uncluttered feel. Backyard is wheelchair accessible, but the path around the layout is gravel.

The Oaho and Sierra runs from Roseville to Truckee over Donner Summit, but this layout also features a narrow gauge line, the Michigan Cal Lumber Co. This second line runs from Camino to Pino Grande. Scratchbuilt lumber mills, the enclosed Truckee roundhouse and the Roseville PFE ice plant are just a few of the highlights on Bill's layout.

The Ashland and Bridgeport Garden Railroad by Ray and Dianne Fernandes features a lush garden with a waterfall, tunnels, and bridges. The mainline runs about 300 feet through their backyard in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Many miniature pines and flowers are featured for scenery.

Raymond's HO layout is a Western Pacific theme that features industrial switching and interchange with the Southern Pacific on the "Westrac Lines." The layout is MRC DCC and focuses on the transition era with early diesel power and 50's freight equipment.

Main line is SP, branch line is Sierra RR up to sawmill, Logging RR to logging camp.
Layout includes:
Two towns, Citrus Grove with SP Station, Ice House and Facilities, Freight Dock, and more and Oak Flat with an SP and Sierra Station and more.
A Engine Yard with Round Table, Five Stall Round House and Machine Shop.
A Logging Mill, Blacksmith Shop and Logging Camp.
A Mine with Head Rig, Boiler House and Black Smith Building.

Note: wheelchair 2 inch riser Duckunder removeable.

HO Scale proto-freelanced extension of the Santa Fe in the early 1970's from the San Francisco Bay Area to Portland; modeled portion runs from the Central Valley town of Chico to McCloud just south of Mt. Shasta in a purpose-built 30' x 49'room. Double deck point to point, mainline 85% complete with approx. 550 feet of track in place, permanent track is all hand laid. 30% sceniced. Dispatcher; interlocking tower; large yard with two switch crews and yardmaster/hostler; small yard with a full time switcher; heavy duty freight with some passenger; local switching; branchline. Wireless NCE DCC; FRS radios; Track Warrants; car cards and waybills. 46"duck under to enter layout during session.

The RhB West models the Rhaetian Bahn (RhB) Bernina Express from the Chur area in Switzerland over the Alps to Italy. Four tunnels and four waterfalls are surrounded by both Alpine and Mediterranean flora. Plants include varieties of dwarf cypress, spruce and pine at the "Swiss" end of the layout, complemented by colorful perennials at the "Italian" end. Fifteen types of thyme are available for "sniffer"s to smell, along with several oregano and other herbs. DCC powered engines and switches allow several concurrent trains to run. About 1500 sq ft. The track is stainless steel with LGB ties, powered by a Massoth central station and wireless handhelds. All engines and most rolling stock are LGB. The engines have mostly Massoth decoders, some with remote-controlled couplers. The automation is done with decoders from Zimo and Digitrax. Several features remote control features include a gravel loading building loads gravel into hoppers, a hopper that delivers and dumps gravel around the track; a barrel car that dump the barrels; a "Hot Metal" car that dumps water. The walkway is uneven at one point getting into the garden.

Arden's large 40x40 layout is designed to pull long forty car Union Pacific trains behind Big-Boys, Challengers and Turbines between Laramie, WY and Sherman Hill. His large mountain scenery runs from 48 to 88 inches in height and is geographically correct for the line he models. This layout has a double tracked main, with 1% grades and center passing sidings. Arden's layout can run either DC or DCC.

Not too long ago, Les acquired a neighboring room for his railroad to expand and evolved a mature, nearly complete model of a Sierra inspired railroad into a very strong representation of much of the Sierra Railroad. The trackage grew from approx. 150 ft to approx. 350 ft of main line, and the railroads 4 or 5 regular operators gained a heightened sense that they are repeating history on the Sierra Railroad. Les' layout has areas of interest to almost all visitors.

The Union Pacific and Summit County is multi deck HO scale layout in a 30'x48' purpose-built building. Currently only the Summit County Railroad portion is operational and occupies roughly 30% of the space. The Summit County is a proto-freelance railroad based on the UP's Park City branch, hauling coal, ore and livestock. It connects to Union Pacific's double track transcontinental mainline at Echo. The yet-to-be-built portion models Ogden and the Weber and Echo Canyon portions of UP's trackage. The operating system is TT&TO with telephones for communication. The sound equipped, primarily steam engine roster is controlled with an NCE Radio DCC system. Freight is forwarded with a CC&WB system and all turnouts are Tortoise controlled. Scenery is underway and with a 75% completion goal by the convention.

History and Theme: The C&MP originally started out as the Coquille and Myrtle Point Railroad in 1984 in Eugene, Oregon. The C&MP relocated to California in 1989 and changed the name to the fictitious but catchy title it bears today. It is intended to represent the end of a shortline common carrier in California's Central Valley in autumn of 1972. The concept for the present track plan came from an On30 plan drawn in December 2008 by Lennart Elg. The railroad boasts connections with the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific. This competitive situation keeps the shippers happy and allows the Clay & Mud Point to show a modest annual profit. The online shippers include a rice growers co-op (Dill's Mills,) a micro-brewery (Clune's Pale Ale,) an oil recycler (Rotten Robbies,) a fruit and nut packing house (Hi & Dry,) a custom cabinet shop (Z&Z Cabinets,) and an occasional car for the team track.

Design and Construction: The C&MP was built from two 4X8 sheets of 15/32 plywood divided into the two primary modules along three walls of an 11X11 bedroom. Rail and turnouts are Peco code 83. Power is provided by an NCE DCC system. Structures are mostly styrene kits from Walthers. Rolling stock is primarily styrene kits equipped with Kadee couplers and riding on metal wheel sets. Due to the 22-inch minimum radius curves, cars in excess of 40 feet long generally do not operate on the C&MP. The C&MP owns several "hand-me-down" switchers from both SP and SN, but other locomotives may be used.

The typical operating session on the C&MP finds the crew assuming duty on the staging track and proceeding to Elgin. Train make-up and operating scheme are determined by the roll of a die. Upon arrival at Elgin, each car in the train is traded for a like car currently on spot at the industries. After the switching is completed, the engine and caboose must be properly positioned for the return trip to staging.

Don's aptly named Harper Valley is a freelanced, fully sceniced bi-level Sn3 layout. Don says he builds what likes. And we like what he builds, especially his fifty plus scratch built structures. The Harper Valley has been seen in Model Railroading in March 1988, Model Railroad Craftsman in April 1990 and June 2004, 3/16 Scale Model Railroading in June 1991, Great Model Railroads in 1999 and Narrow Gauge Gazette in April 2004.

This railroad has grown -- it now has a service yard as well as a logging camp for its lumber jacks. There are wonderful water features and a well-designed mill pond and more. A point-to-point elevated section has two bridges and a section of trestles. If you haven't got a lot of room, this is a magnificent example of what can be accomplished in a small space.

Layout covers from San Francisco to Salt Lake City with Reno and Tidewater branches. Fully signal with CTC. Computer generated waybill system. 1970 era. 4 large yards. 9 passing sidings. All diesel power. Includes prototypically correct scratch built models of the Oakland and Salt Lake depots (Salt Lake was featured in MR trackside photo section).

The San Leandro Historical Railway Society operates two model railroads and a railroad museum. The first is a large HO display that depicts the Southern Pacific route from the SF Bay Area over Donner Summit to Reno and Sparks, Nevada. The second is a new garden railroad that consists of both G and O gauge (3-rail) trains. The museum has an excellent collection of railroad china and other artifacts. Construction of the HO scale model railroad display began in 1991. This layout was designed by the famous model railroad track planner, John Armstrong, and was featured in the March 1988 issue of Model Railroader Magazine. Per the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) Kalmbach Memorial Library, the SLHRS has the largest HO scale helix in the United States both in height and in diameter. There is over 4,000 feet of track on 3 levels; dozens of switches, and miles of wiring that have been installed by society members. The SLHRS was one of the first large club layouts to convert to DCC. It takes about 45 minutes for a train to travel the entire length of the display at scale speed. Most locomotives and rolling stock are membership owned. The new G&O garden railroad has two gauges: G and O (3-rail). Construction was started in 2007. Loops of G gauge and O gauge track plus a children's area are in operation. The G&O is designed to introduce the public to the model railroading hobby. The SLHRS is housed in the old San Leandro Southern Pacific depot that was built in 1898. It was rescued from destruction by the SLHRS in 1988 and moved to its current location. Construction of the HO layout and the museum was started following three years of restoration work.

SBHRS operates two model train displays, HO and N-scale layouts in the historic Santa Clara Depot (Opened in 1864). Both layouts include extensive signalling. Like many model railroads, they are works in progress and are undergoing constant change. Both layouts have many handcrafted scenes, such as a winery, dam, two helixes, row homes and a yacht harbor (N-scale) and meat packing, lumber mill, oil storage tanks, plus a replica of the San Jose Southern Pacific Depot, ca 1950 (HO-scale).

Scenery is about 90% complete on both layouts. Handicapped access ramp on track side of depot.

The layout represents the 104 mile Hereford Subdivision of the Santa Fe from Clovis, NM to Amarillo, TX in 1983. The layout features one active junction as well as interchange with the Burlington Northern at Amarillo and was designed with prototype operations in mind. The primary commodities transported include; TOFC, automobiles, grain, and manufactured goods. Scenery is specifically patterned after the prototype where possible. An article on this layout appeared in the January 2011 Railroad Model Craftsman.

Bill has constructed a layout with a 300 foot long mainline, some branch lines and a few yards. The prototype is contemporary times of modern trains running on the Union Pacific over the Cascades in Oregon. This is a large layout with lengthy trains running well on steep grades and relatively tight curves.

A 16' x 12' "dog-bone" layout is O-gauge high rail, set in no particular locale, during the age of steam. It will be an expanded re-creation of the more detailed toy train layouts of the 1940s. Motive power is entirely Gilbert American Flyer from the 1939-1942 period.

It is in 3/16" scale, using castings nearly identical to the two-rail Flyer "S" gauge designs made after the war. At least one example of every locomotive type made by Gilbert is displayed, and most run. At this time, Lionel did not manufacture either a 4-8-4, or an 0-8-0. Passenger equipment is also Flyer from that period, and is diecast. These foot-long 12-wheel cars were available in just two colors, Tuscan (much less common) and dark green. I choose not to run any Flyer tinplate. Freight equipment is Marx 3/16" scale tinplate from the 1940s and 1950s, chosen over similar Flyer items, due to possessing far superior graphics. Flyer did make some very nice diecast freights, but weight becomes a serious issue for any consist over 4-5 cars. The change to Marx required that tender trucks be replaced on the freight haulers, due to coupler incompatibility. The layout is operated as it would have been back in the days - no fancy electronics, smoke or sound systems. What little automation exists, such as anti-derailing at the crossovers, is accomplished with insulated rails and hard wiring.

This fully sceniced "Rocklin Subdivision" layout features a double deck design with reverse loop staging yards at both ends. Soundtraxx Tsunami sound decoders fill the room with realistic prime movers and SP light packages. The layout was designed both for operations and long passenger trains. The impressive passenger terminal is home to many western name trains. Focuses on the transition era. Dave's layout was featured in NMRA Magazine December 2010.

Red Rock Green River is a freelance layout loosely based on the D&RGW maintenance yard in Chama NM, RGS and the Silverton branch canyons of the San Juan mountains. Bill's layout consists of an over and under lazy eight with walk into the center and has multiple animations with ambient sound and lighting. This layout was featured in the 2009 On30 Annual.

Located in a freestanding 34X80 foot building, Bob's free-lanced transition era layout contains a mountain scene with spectacular bridges, a city scene and a port complete with cargo ship. Bob's 2,694 feet (over 80,000 ties) of hand-laid track includes a seven track passenger station, industrial switching district and a large classification yard. Equipment inventory in Bob's O scale empire includes 117 locomotives, 43 cabeese and over 1,000 freight cars.

Ron's 20X35 train room is free-standing amid the vineyards of the Russian River Valley, and contains a replica of portions of the Feather River route of the Western Pacific Railroad in 1952. With the staging yards, operations extend from Sacramento and Marysville to Winnemucca (east) and Bieber (north). The Quincy Railroad is also included. Eight years into a 20-year project, the layout is about 60% sceniced, and contains full-wall backdrops of the Sierras under an open-beamed ceiling. It takes 12-15 members of the Sonoma County Hi-Ballers to operate the layout over a 12-hour fast-clock shift of seventeen trains.

Wohler Bridge is a very nice photogenic single lane Truss Bridge accross the Russian River enroute to Ron's house that you may want to enjoy as well, but be careful because the roads are narrow and winding.

The State Belt ran for 100 years along piers and into warehouses of the San Francisco waterfront. Bill has taken important elements like a car float, interchange at King St. (where the Giants play today), street running, and switching areas under Telegraph Hill and built them into a 12' x 12' layout using interesting modular techniques. Operations follow the prototype State Belt with 2 crews each working their own division. The railroad is totally functional, and signature buildings like the Ferry Building and Merchants Ice and Cold Storage are being worked on. Control is Lenz DCC with wireless throttles. The State Belt was written up in the April 2007 Railroad Model Craftsman.

Ron has a unique layout housed in a replica depot in his back yard. Over the past 20 years, Ron has built his Central Valley Railroad with the help of a round robin group. The railroad runs over 400' of mainline from Fresno staging to Redding staging. There is an industrial switching railroad in the town of Delta and a shortline railroad at Westwood that serves a lumber and paper mill. Ron enjoys prototype operations and included a lot of industry on this freelanced layout based in the mid '70s. His railroadiana collection that adorns the walls of the depot also makes this a welcoming home layout. Ron is currently converting to DCC from walk around DC.

The railroad is built on a raised area surrounded by wooden retaining walls and is fully accessabile for wheelchairs. The layout was started in 2008 and is complete.

The landscaping is maturing nicely. There is a lake fed by a waterfall with an exiting waterfull that empties into a stream which passes under a trestle and a bridge. There are multiple bridges over a dry stream and an 18' long curved trestle.

Two tracks pass through a 6' x 12' storage shed which has a six track yard and multiple shelves for train storage. The power supplies and receivers for train control are also located in the shed.

There are three town areas (Western Town, Castle Town and Lucasville) which are all served by the mainline railroad as well as a trolley line.

HO/HOn3 layout depicting a California narrow gauge railroad interchanging with the Southern Pacific in the 1940's thru 50's. It is a series of scenes, each with its own theme, set apart effectively by scenic dividers. It features very fine rock work and fantastic scenery. There are freelanced depictions of Los Angeles, Westside Lumber, and a gold mine/mill complex. Featured in Railroad Model Craftsman and in Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette.

In the 1860s and 1870s, the venerable Virginia and Truckee Railroad of western Nevada was built to serve the mines and mills of the Comstock Lode, the largest silver deposit discovered in the United States. By the 1930's, the glory days of mining around the once cosmopolitan Viginia City were fading fast and the former V&T mainline to Virgina City was now a lightly used branchline.

This small "California" garage layout is contained in a special room and is 100% sceniced. The layout features dozens of scratchbuilt and kit-bashed buildings and mines depicting Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nevada. Most of the scenic ground material was also collected from the Virginia City area. The layout was built by myself and Mark Cook specifically for the NMRA National Convention in 2000.

Ron's layout completely occupies a freestanding single car garage with a duck-under (that Ron's says is more of a stoop-under because the layout height is an above average 48 inches. In reconstructing his youth, Ron set his Northwestern Pacific line between Willits and Ukiah in October 1954 with a primary emphasis on the town of Ridge. His line interchanges with the California Western and the mythical Royal Crown Lumber, a logging road.

My goal is a museum quality diorama of rail-marine activity. All infrastructure built. Ship basin with scratch built pier shed and brick warehouse is completed. Grain elevator and tank farm are yet to come. Very realistic scenery. Lots of highly detailed boats. Layout about 35% complete.

This large S scale layout represents the NYC in the Catskill Mountains in 1948. Steam is resisting diesel pressure to retire early, but is losing the battle. Hauling long freights and fast passenger trains over the mountainous terrain is a routine daily task on this layout. Scenery is 95% complete with a detailed backdrop, huge mountains, tall waterfall, long bridges and an unusual lightning/thunderstorm animation. Industrial areas include a coal mine, logging camp, sawmill, oil refinery and a city area. Not only has this layout been featured in Great Model Railroads in 2005, Model Railroader in November 2008, Model Railroad Hobbyist e-zine in October of 2009 and nmra magazine in September 2010, the layout was also featured on PBS TV's program TRACKS AHEAD.

The F&DL RR is a waist-high dog bone with about 150 feet of mainline winding its way through 2 tunnels, under a non-recirculating waterfall, and up a 3% "post and ladder" trestle, which carries it above the village. Two trains run concurrently on the mainline, controlled by hardwired sensors. Track power with a mix of clean LGB brass, dirty LGB brass, and Aristo Stainless. There are a variety of miniature plants along the route, which eventually give way to the 1:1 scale garden at the village loop; and some unusual kit-bashed "stuff". (See Oct 08 Garden Railways.)

The railroad is about 8 years old and was built in a naturally rugged, rocky, area using numerous fills and bridges to follow the natural land contours - much like the real thing. It depicts a standard gauge mountain division line with rustic narrow gauge characteristics. Short, old time combines as well as long 15 to 20 car freights look right at home. The motive power ranges from kit bashed steam relics to late steam and early diesels of the 1950s and '60s as well as a completely out of place GG1. The 700 feet of mainline is Llargas Creek code 250 rail, bent for broad curves. The ruling grade is 2%. There is also a 90-foot short line with sharp curves and a 6% grade that services a lumber camp. Trains are track powered by Crest's RC Train Engineer system and several trains can be run concurrently. There is also a large live steam track connected to the mainline in a wye configuration. Interesting features include a 5-track car barn, cascading water flumes for a no muss, no fuss water feature and a working turntable. The over 75 structures, bridges and trestles are mostly scratch built and include animated features for the coaling tower, lumber mill and steam donkeys. Most of the structures light up for night time operations. Some of the rolling stock is also scratch built including a long, logging consist with handmade disconnects.

John is an Amtrak engineer who has undertaken the restoration of a Southern Pacific steam locomotive to operating condition. At this stop we will get to meet John and see the work he is doing to put SP #2706, a C-8 consolidation (2-8-0) back into operation. John has recently completed erecting a new shed to hold the locomotive during this process. In addition to the tender from #2706 John also has two other SP tenders on the property.

Based on a route in Alaska that was proposed and surveyed, but never built. The route runs north from port facilities on the Pacific Ocean to the Yukon River. The principle traffic consists of copper, zinc, coal, and forest products. Entry to the layout requires negotiating 3 steps and a 50" high by 20" wide nod-under, so not wheelchair accessible. All aisles 36" or more once inside layout room. Track is 95% complete, scenery 25%

Layout represents what a logging line might have looked like in the Twain Harte area. Based loosely on the West Side Lumber and Pickering Lumber Companies. But also some inspiration from Mich Cal, Empire State Logging, and other logging companies in the Sierra's near Sonora, CA.

Scenery is complete. Featured in Nov/Dec 2010 Gazette. Also check out Frank's blog about the railroad.

Earl and Jody's Thunder Valley Narrow Gauge Railway is an attempt to re-create a small railway built to serve the people and several industries of 1920s to 1930s "Gold Country", California. Being a small railway, locomotives, cars, buildings, industries, and structures are necessarily small and compact. Freight cars are four and eight wheel ore cars, quarry cars, and general freight cars. Passenger business is handled by combines run as mixed trains and a railbus. The railway also runs periodic excursion trains for special occasions. There is also a small excursion railway running through a botanical garden.

Built in FN3 Scale, with about 350 feet of track, the railway uses both live steam and onboard battery powered locomotives, radio controlled. The battery powered locomotives and a railbus also have electronic sound. Track is Llagas Creek code 215 rail, ties, and switches laid on granite "dust" ballast.

As a Garden Railway, most of the railway is outside. There is a town, a saw mill, locomotive facilities, some "whistle stops", and a small stream running to a dam with two gold mines and a quarry on a switchback. Grades on the railway are up to 8%. Trees are "in scale", living Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Cypress, and Rosemary, as well as verbena, and several ground covers. Earl has enjoyed model railroading for more than sixty five years, always modeling small, believable railways that "might have been". So like real railways, the TVNG has a past. It evolved from his Thunder Valley Tram begun about 50 years ago. The Tram (although On20 Scale at that time) began as a small back woods railway and very narrow gauge (20 inch), serving mines and a small community. As business got better and loads got heavier, tracks were widened to ON3 and eventually evolved into the Fn3 Thunder Valley Narrow Gauge Railway of today.

The American River Navigation and Railway is a home railroad that is 1" scale, or 1/12 size. It is a rideable railroad that performs work for Matt moving firewood, landscape materials, and of course his two boys. The 4 3/4" gauge track winds from the front yard to the back with many sidings. A branch-line goes over to the neighbor's yard (a relative) and skirts the pool to a fruit-packing shed where fresh oranges are loaded in the winter. The layout is laid out roughly like a self-type switching layout, except folded over on itself twice. The railroad uses battery-powered GP9's, freelance 4-wheeled switchers, and steam locomotives to switch the 430' long railroad. You are also welcome to visit the railroad's machine shop where repairs are done and new locomotives built. An article on the layout was published in the Summer 2006 issue of The Home Railway Journal.

The Colma Pacific RR was designed and built as a freelanced railfaning layout so I could watch my trainsrun while working at my desk. Measuring 24ft long and 8ft at the widest, the double track folded dogbone loop allows continuous running of two trains, while also allowing a single train to operate on the branch line which serves the a lumber camp and the mine. Era is variable, from 1930s in one area, to 1980s in another. The layout is 99% complete. Enter through the wide gate to the left of the garage. The layout is in the building behind the house.

Angus MacDonald's HO scale Petaluma Valley RR, is a freelance RR in its own 20' x 40' handicap accessible building. Trains run around the outside walls on a triple folded loop ending at the "Y" entrance to the inner peninsula (the 18' x 5' yard). Completely sceniced, with more super detailing still being added, Angus' scratch built automatic bascule bridge is only one of the many scenes that shouldn't be missed. Check the interior of the winery warehouse, the farm and the stock yards!

This double decked, mushroom style, layout is a model of SP's storied Shasta Division from Redding, CA to Klamath Falls, OR located in a purpose-built 1,200 sq ft loft in the Oakland Hills overlooking San Francisco Bay. The Shasta Division is the last large layout designed by the late and legendary John Armstrong. Operations follow the prototype using a modified 1952 prototype timetable & train orders and CTC. The layout is faithful to the prototype. Car forwarding is by car card and waybills. Trackside maps document the switching areas, and train briefs are provided.

The original John Armstrong design was modified in significant respects, largely to achieve operational goals. For example, sidings and spurs were added or modified to add to operational interest. Some track work was eliminated to create more interesting, and lengthy, runs between modeled towns. Most significantly, the capacity of the designed hidden staging yards at Redding and Klamath Falls were increased from 4 to 7 tracks. Additional staging tracks were added at Weed and lengthened from 8' to nearly 20'. And, additional tracks were installed at the visible lower Dunsmuir yard.

Track is ME rail on CVP tie strips with hand laid turnouts. All mainline track, nearly 400 feet, is installed. Train control is via wireless NCE DCC. The layout is fully signaled from Redding to Black Butte(the CTC section). Computer interface is accomplished using C/MRI hardware and JMRI software. The tone of the layout is casual but purposeful.

The Shasta Division is 40% sceniced with painted backdrops from Redding to Dorris. Many key structures are in place or mocked up, giving the modeled scenes a sense of place For example, the Dunsmuir engine facility and City structures are nearly complete and in place.

The layout accommodates 16 operators including a yard crew of 3, two dispatchers (one CTC and one TT & TO, two TO Operators, and road crews.)

The SP Shasta Division is featured in the April 2005 Model Railroader and Great Model Railroads 2011.

The layout features logging operations around 1900, give or take 10 years, somewhere in northern California. Just about everything on the layout is scratch built, including the big trees. Hand-laid, code 83 rail and stub switches throughout. All equipment operates with link and pin couplers, a variety of Climax and Shay geared locomotives and an 8 ton Porter switching the mill yard. Note: The layout itself pretty much takes over the room - built for me alone operating trains. Which is to say, access is very tight with aisle space that really only allows two folks in at a time and even then you won't be able to pass each other without ducking under!

Howard McKinney's freelance On3 Denver Rio Grande &Western Railroad is a point-to-point railroad running between Victoria, Co. and Notell, Co. The time period being modeled is the late 1930's through the early 1940's. This part of Colorado has no mining, but has lush pine forests which provide timber for the mining industry in the state. Engine turning and servicing facilities exist at both Victoria and Notell. Dual standard and narrow gage trackage at Victoria connects this railroad division with common carrier railroads. Both C&S and RGS equipment can be seen operating on the railroad as both have been given trackage rights on this DRG&W division. Lumber is being harvested from the lush forests of this area. The Sierra Western Co. that also has trackage rights on the railroad is doing the principle logging operation. Logging trains powered by geared locomotives transport logs from the logging camp near Notell to the saw mill at Kerberville which is way to Victoria. Howard's On3 railroad is in a 7 by 19 foot room with 5 by 6 foot dog leg extension. All of the presently planned hand laid narrow and dual gage trackage is complete and operational. Scenery is approximately 95% complete. Many major structures including the coaling tower and sand house at Notell are in place. On his layout is all trains are DCC controlled using the NCE system and essentially all locomotives are Soundtraxx sound equipped. Tsunami Soundtraxx decoders are in most of the locomotives Access to the main room is via a duck under and an additional view of the Notell yard, engine facilities and town is available on a platform through an access window external to his railroad room. Approximately 5 visitors can be accommodated at a time.

A freelanced layout with an emphasis on tongue and cheek humor based on 28 plus years of prototype railroad experience. The time frame is 1960's to 1970's. The layout is on two levels and includes industrial areas, logging and desert scenery. There is a continuous loop with islands for industries. Mike uses a computer generated switch list for operating sessions.

Rich Melconian's HO layout models the contemporary Santa Fe and also has some steam and Chief passenger trains. The single track mainline and sidings are laid with code 83 rail and #8 switches. The sidings can accommodate trains consisting of twenty five 50 foot freight cars. The two yards have code 70 rail and #6 switches. There are numerous industries with sidings using code 70 and 55 rail. The layout landscape reflects the foothills of California with the mainline elevating to a mountain crossing and descending to a valley area. The scenery is about 70% complete.

Layout is a depiction of the NWP running through Sonoma and Mendocino counties about 1958. It is double decked, connected by helix, with staging yards on a third level underneath. It is designed to be operated in a prototypical fashion, with trains and scheduling based on a prototype timetable. Most motive power are SD7s as per the real NWP of the time. Scenery is about half finished, with painted backdrops and blue foam covered with drywall "mud" and Sculptamold. Power is through a Lenz DCC system. A number of the locomotives are sound equipped.

An HO scale Shortline steam railroad set in 1927, Tom's Wolf Creek Railway of California is located in the foothills of California. He has many scratch built structures, wooden truss rod cars and a few custom built brass locomotives following Sierra Railway prototypes. Tom has a strong interest in operations using JMRI's (DecoderPro) switch list program. His point to point design, interchanges with his son's Buffalo Creek & Grizzley Ridge Railway, another small point to point layout. Some dual gauge trackage. Above the Wolf Creek HO layout is the start of an HOn3 layout, the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad (Nevada City, track only no scenery). All in all this is an HO scale empire, short trains battling steep grades, floods, fights, Indian raids and sometimes not being able to leave the station at all.

The Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society can trace its beginnings to 1948, when the original group began meeting in each other's homes. Their display of a 4x8 foot portable layout at special events such as Walnut Creek's annual Walnut Festival led to their first permanent railroad in a freight shed moved onto a leased site near the Walnut Creek Southern Pacific depot in 1950. This location served to house an impressive 20 x 40 foot layout until 1970 when flood control work along the creek, from which the city derives its name, required relocating the SP track and, of course, the WCMRS clubhouse. At that time the WCMRS solved their clubhouse problem by reaching an agreement with the City of Walnut Creek for the present site with a structure that was the first in California (and one of very few in the world) to be designed and built specifically to house a model railroad. The actual construction work was done in two years by members of the Society and upon completion in 1974 the building was donated to the city of Walnut Creek and the building of the Diablo Valley Lines Railroad commenced.

The current Diablo Valley Lines has over 4,300 feet of hand laid track on 175,000 individual ties with more than 340 turnouts. The entire road is HO scale and has standard gauge, narrow gauge, freight and and interurban trolley lines. Under normal operating conditions it requires about 45 minutes for one train to complete a single circuit of the mainline.

Chicago and Northwestern & North Shore Line: also includes other Chicago interurban and CSL street cars. 16'x13' in a 2 car garage. Loaded with prize winning models 1940 to 1960 era on display. Layout height: 48"

The presently under construction freelance narrow gauge layouts are based on the logging and mining areas of the northwestern United States.

The HOn3 layout is a point-to-point design with three different starting locations. There are two logging sites and a mining district with six mines. Passing various rural stops the trains travel down hill to a lumber mill and town at a "Dog Hole" bay on the Pacific Ocean. One of the logging sites utilizes dual gauge track to allow the running of standard gauge geared locomotives. Both the HOn3 and Std gauge engines are serviced at the main yard and shops using a dual gauge turntable. Logs hauled on standard gauge equipment are not interchanged for shipment to the mill but "dumped" down a bluff similar to the prototypical operations at Caspar Lumber Co, in Mendocino, CA. The mining district is modeled to represent activity during one of Nevada's boom cycles. Grades to the mining and timber areas are steep, well over 10% on many sections. Trains are controlled by three wireless throttles using nine blocks and DC power.

Housed in a separate room, Larry's second layout represents a lush mountainous lumber and mining community. Beginning and ending in a yard, trains run on a half dog bone track plan through scenic timberlands of the coastal regions of Oregon and Washington. Trains are powered using Digitrax.

The presently under construction freelance narrow gauge layouts are based on the logging and mining areas of the northwestern United States.

Larry's On3 layout represents a lush mountainous lumber and mining community. Beginning and ending in a yard, trains run on a half dog bone track plan through scenic timberlands of the coastal regions of Oregon and Washington. Trains are powered using Digitrax.

There is a separate HOn3 layout in another room which is a point-to-point design with three different starting locations. There are two logging sites and a mining district with six mines. Passing various rural stops the trains travel down hill to a lumber mill and town at a "Dog Hole" bay on the Pacific Ocean. One of the logging sites utilizes dual gauge track to allow the running of standard gauge geared locomotives. Both the HOn3 and Std gauge engines are serviced at the main yard and shops using a dual gauge turntable. Logs hauled on standard gauge equipment are not interchanged for shipment to the mill but "dumped" down a bluff similar to the prototypical operations at Caspar Lumber Co, in Mendocino, CA. The mining district is modeled to represent activity during one of Nevada's boom cycles. Grades to the mining and timber areas are steep, well over 10% on many sections. Trains are controlled by three wireless throttles using nine blocks and DC power.

This live steam layout is situated in a lushly landscaped 35 year old semi-Japanese garden. There are about 200 varieties of plants. The 425' of track go over 14 detailed bridges and through 5' tall mountains. The two waterfalls and Koi pond were designed and built by Jack Verducci. Photos of the layout have appeared frequently in Garden Railways.

With the support of the Nevada County Fair Board a group of Nevada County Narrow Gauge enthusiasts formed the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Historical Model Railroad in 1983 and renovated an unused building at the County Fairgrounds. This endeavor was assisted by material and monetary contributions from local businesses and in 1985 the railroad was opened to the public. Today the railroad features an onboard wireless mini-camera to provide visitors a passenger eye view of riding the narrow gauge train thru the woodlands of the Nevada County on one of three TV screens placed around the layout.

Rick is building his Crystal Pass & Pacific in a room over a three car garage as a freelanced narrow gauge railroad that follows the Colorado prototypes of the Rio Grande Southern and Denver & Rio Grande. Set in the time period of the late 1920's to early thirties only steam locomotives ply the rails of this re-creation of southwestern Colorado. Short trains, high mountains, mines, trestles and tunnels are the rule. Since the recent acquisition of the Crystal Pass & Pacific by the D & RGW you'll see a mix of both line's equipment on the railroad.

Since the scenery is in it's early stages here's a good opportunity to inspect some of the basics of layout construction including L girder framework, modified spline roadbed (Rick calls it "speed spline"), Geodesic scenery, turnout installation, etc.

The layout is set in the East Bay Area in 1999. The railroad represents the former Western Pacific San Jose and 1st Subdivisions, now the UP Niles, Oakland and Milpitas Subdivisions. The railroad is a branchline which supports an Auto plant (NUMMI) and a number of smaller industries.

Dispatching is by TCS (using CATS) which replicates a Digicon console. All signals are repeated on color lite signals above the layout. A unique feature of the layout is that there is no yardmaster, only a clerk. This is because the prototype Milpitas Yard has no permanent switcher. The clerk is responsible for managing the yard and the neighboring NUMMI complex, writing switch lists to instruct the crews where to place cars. All crews do their own work when passing through the yard. We expect the layout to be 70% sceniced by AS X2011W.

Our N-Trak club is the oldest in the San Francisco Bay Area. We follow the NTRAK Modular Railroading Standards, and model any era or road. All are welcome in the club and on the layouts. Our club has both traveling modules and a permanent layout. The Club's Permanent Layout is in the old SP Depot in Crockett, CA. The club's portion of the depot is the left side entering through the large freight doors. The right side, which was the historical passenger section, is a museum dedicated to the area's part in WWII. The C & H Sugar factory can be seen in the background. The Carquinez bridge is just west of the depot. The club room features a large window that can be used for watching the main line rail traffic that passes along the waterfront between the depot and the sugar plant. It can also be used for watching some of the sugar loading operations at the plant. Many trains, from UP freight and container trains, to AMTRAK California passenger trains, go by at regular intervals. DCC is fully functional at the club . We have 3 complete lines running. Our scenery is about 60% complete.

Chuck's representation of the New York Central in Eastern New York and Western Massachusetts in June in the early 1950's. Passenger and freight and steam and diesel all run in this transition era. Scenery is a balance of 80% heavily detailed and mostly kit-bashed Urban Pittsfied with the remainder of the layout about 20% detailed. In the midst of scenery building, Chuck is converting from Analog to NCE DCC for control.

Although New York Central may seem out of place for a California layout, it represents the owner's childhood memories and his early modeling as a member of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Model Railroad Society in Albany, NY.

C&M purchased the old GR&I line from the PRR and has turned it into a somewhat profitable railroad. Runs from Grand Rapids to Mackinaw City, with staging in Fort Wayne. Interchanges with the Soo Line via the RR Ferry at Mackinaw City.

Dispatcher controlled 300' single track mainline with passing sidings. Several towns on the line offer lots of local switching. Mainline through freight and passenger trains keep the local crews on their toes.

Operates using wireless EasyDCC. Car forwarding is CC&WB. Verbal communication with DS via FRS radios. Fast clock & timetable for passenger trains. Basic scenery about 70% complete, but many more details needed. Full crew around 10 operators.

Western Maryland and B&O railroads run side by side in western Maryland and northern West Virginia. Both railroads have major junctions in Cumberland and interchange traffic at several points. The B&O has Color Position Light signals controlled by five towers with touch-screen CTC panels.

The Lone Pine and Tonopah is an imaginary railroad operating during WWII. Motive power of steam and early diesels run on a single track mainline with reverse loops at both ends and there is a logging branch line.

Kermit is the master of animation and lighting effects which have been featured in the October 1999 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, and March 2011 Model Railroad Hobbyist. Some of his animation and lighting features include ballroom dancers, a fireworks display scrap metal loading and logs dumping into a millpond.

Kermit also has a Museum of Technology and a Garden Railway for visitors to enjoy while waiting their turn in line for the HO layout.

The SP and State Belt railroads run along San Francisco's waterfront around the walls of the room. The central peninsula has the NWP with Petaluma, Tiburon and Healdsburg on one side and the Eel River canyon on the other. In San Francisco, Market St has a cable car and the Ferry Building is busy receiving passengers from the PCC's. The State Belt runs along the Embarcadero below Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower. The SP at 3rd and Townsend receives the Daylight and Lark plus many commuters. The WP and AT&SF have limited trackage as well. Scenery is about 90% complete on the mid 50's to early 60's layout.

The San Juan Railroad is built in O scale and features four different gauges, O Standard gauge, On2, On3 and On30 narrow gauges. The layout is set in Colorado and is dated in the 1920's with mining as the primary theme. The main yard features both the standard gauge and the start of a 3' line leading to the mountain division and a mining area where there is a 2' mining line. At both ends there are several dual gauge turnouts. There is an area modeled after Georgetown loop with a similar high bridge and a Forks Creek area, named "Spoon Brick". Locomotives are all steam pulling wood cars. Scenery is well along and the backdrop painting is about half done.

Ray's specialty is hand-crafting exquisite model buildings in HO scale (1/87 actual size). He begins by milling his own miniature lumber and then constructs each building "board by board." Dozens of his model buildings will be on display, including scale models of the Mariposa courthouse and the former Yosemite Valley Railroad depot in El Portal. In addition to showcasing his buildings, his layout also features a wide variety of rolling stock (including a Hershey train), a video camera onboard one of his trains, and multiple track routes. Access is by a full flight of steep stairs.

Jim's Santa Cruz Northern is a point to point, double deck, walk around style layout that shares a two car garage with a compact car. The SCN is single track with about 240 feet of mainline, of which 45 feet is in a three level helix. The maximum grade is 2.25%; minimum mainline radius is 26.5". The SCN is a jointly owned Western Pacific/Santa Fe subsidiary, running from a connection with the WP in San Jose California south to Santa Cruz on the Pacific Coast. As such it shares many of the characteristics of similar lines in the area such as the Central California Traction Company or the Northwestern Pacific. Five major sidings have been extended to average 15 feet in length. All of the visible mainline and most of the switches are hand laid. Set in the early 1970's, motive power is either second hand or leased, quite often from the parent roads. Traffic has traditionally centered around industrial products in San Jose, agricultural products from the Santa Clara Valley and wood products and cement from the Santa Cruz Mountains. The layout has appeared in numerous model railroad magazines most recently in the March 2010 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.

The Napa Valley Northern is a north-south bridge route from Stockton, CA to Portland, OR competing with the SP Cascade Route and the WP-GN/BN Inside Gateway route. The layout itself is the trackage from the Port of Napa, CA north through the Napa Valley then through the Mayacmas Mountains past Clear Lake to Ukiah, CA. Many of the past and present industries of the Napa Valley region are included in the local freight collection/distribution system. Connecting with the AT&SF/BNSF, SP and WP/UP through Stockton plus the BN/BNSF, GN, NP, MILW, and UP at Portland, the NVN hosts various eras of run-through trains from 1940-era steam freight and passenger through 1970-era pool power freights to 2000-era Amtrak and double-stack inter-modal trains. The club was featured in Scale Rails in early 2004.

Scott's freelanced "Never Done and Always Changing" railroad moves freight, passengers and various commodities from the mountains to the sea. His layout includes fully detailed mountain scenery, small towns, and a port city, with emphasis on scenery and structures. Lots of details and mini-scenes are worked in around the layout. Simple loop track plan using code 100 PECO On30 track. Scott was featured in the Nov-Dec 2010 Narrow Gauge Gazette and the 2011 On30 Annual.

Don's 16'x22' "center of room layout" is under construction. The layout will blend traditional American Flyer with hi-rail modeling and scenery.

Prior to starting the layout after recently moving, Don constructed over 600 feet of shelving on the walls of his 25 X 40 foot train room to display his extensive (twenty five years worth) collection of American Flyer "S" Gauge trains. He also has a token representation of AF HO, O and Standard gauge trains and accessories and other catalogued and non-catalogued displayed, as well as Gilbert paper, and selections from Colber and Plasticville.

Besides the train collection, Don has a 1/64 scale toy vehicle and Ertl farm implement collection and his wife, Sue's, collection of A.C. Gilbert electrical appliances on display. Most of these items are rarely seen on display.

The Roseville Roundhouse Model Railroad Club was founded in 1977 by a small group of modelers in the home town of Southern Pacific's Jennings Yard. Over time, the group moved to several locations before coming back to the Placer County Fairgrounds where they started. The HO layout is approximately 30x17 and is built in the shape of a "Z" for the membership to operate trains. The N scale layout is fully sceniced and is both DC and DCC by operating one mainline per control system. The club's Western Sierra Lines Railroad is freelanced on both layouts.

The Sierra Central Narrow Gauge is a loop to loop railroad with several branches connecting lumber camps, mines, and oil fields to the mainline. The railroad's location is freelanced, but scenes are themed around prototypes such as the East Broad Top Orbisonia Shops, Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge Owenyo Transfer Trestle, and Westside Lumber Camp 7. With most scenes finished and detailed, the layout is in full operation. The main aisle of the layout is handicapped accessible. This is one of the largest HOn3 layouts in California.

Since 1948, the Sacramento Model Railroad Historical Society has been the premier model railroad club in the Sacramento region. A new layout was started in 2002 to represent the Southern Pacific from Oakland Pier to Sacramento, and the Western Pacific from Sacramento to Keddie, CA. The society also has one of the largest HOn3 layouts in California featuring prototype scenes of the East Broad top, Colorado and Southern, and the SP narrow gauge. The standard gauge is Digitrax DCC interfaced with CMRI and Panel Pro. The club operates a prototype tri-color CTC signaling system featuring an original Western Pacific US&S Sacramento dispatching panel.

The 1955 SP Dunsmuir Shasta Division layout has four levels and is viewed from the main floor or elevated walkways. It is a loop to loop to loop design and features three main line freights and three passenger trains: the Klamath Mail Train, the Cascade and the Shasta Daylight. Presently there are about 300 feet of track. When completed there will be over 10 scale miles (600 feet) of main line. Level One staging is at Gerber, under the peninsula, about 40 inches off the floor. Level One also includes the Gerber, Red Bluff and Redding stations. Level Two has Dunsmuir, at 55 inches above the floor. It is the main viewing point as you enter the room. It is built to mostly exact scale, using the SP drawings for trackage and buildings. The Dunsmuir South yard is at 44 inches and holds about 360 cars. From Dunsmuir, through the Sacramento River Canyon, you travel over 250 feet as you pass through Small, Cantara Loop, Mott, Azalea, and arrive at Mount Shasta. Mount Shasta has an interchange with McCloud River Lumber Co. - then continuing on to the third level, you reach the Black Butte Wye. From here it splits to either the Siskiyou Line, which takes you to the lumber town of Weed, or head straight through to Grass Lake and the Klamath Falls Staging yard. Once you reach Grass Lake, you have traveled almost 10 scale miles.

Around the turn of the century some prosperous ranchers and farmers in Nicasio, CA (Marin County) decided that they needed a better way to get their products to market. A railroad was discussed, incorporated, and funded. The plan was to build from Nicasio to Bayside, a small but bustling port on San Francisco Bay. The Nicasio Southern Railroad laid rails, started running trains, hired the wrong president, and he very quickly stole all the capital and absconded.

A group of San Francisco financial types saw an opportunity to take a functional railroad, and a territory rich with farms, ranches, fisheries, and lumber, and create a viable railway with connections to the national rail network as well as the Bay. The Nicasio Northern Railway was born, and at this time in history (mid-1920's) is a viable concern. Barely.

The Nicasio Northern starts at Bayside, which has the main passenger and freight yards and the engine servicing facility. Bayside is on a peninsula jutting into the Bay. The wharf and several industries serve the railway and southern Marin.

From Bayside we go north past Backdoor Junction, the connection to short eastern branch to Dither. Past Backdoor, the road continues north through the hills (literally) until we hit Skalville. Skalville is the junction to the NN Railway's eastern division, the town of Yawn, and the connection to the rest of the US rail network. From Skalville the line heads north to the thriving metropolis of Nicasio, with its ranching and farms. Leaving Nicasio, we continue northward to Highland, which is another railway town. The tracks continue to Hither. The Nicasio Northern railway weaves through the hills on muddy and slippery roadbed. Need I mention that this is earthquake country? Even if the right of way was once perfectly laid out with straight tangents and smooth grades and curves, it didn't stay that way. The little steam engines rock and roll as they lead their trains across the pike. Track is complete and operational. The layout has a peninsula in the center of the 12 x 21 foot space, and the rest of the track runs around perimeter of the room. Bayside yards and the engine terminal are on the peninsula.

There is a short, but steep, walk from the corner to Jon's house in addition to two flights of stairs to access his train room.

Terry's freelanced HOn3 layout is based on D&RGW and RGS equipment and locations. Features include sound equipped locomotives and nearly complete scenery. The modeled yard is based on Chama, Colorado and the layout includes a mirror image of Ophir, CO.

Main line extends from Alleghany, Virginia to Prince, West Virginia with staging representing Clifton Forge, VA and Handley, WVA. There is a branch line off the main at Prince leading to the town of Raleigh, WVA with three coal mines to work and some industries in the town of Raleigh. Mainline industries include a large power plant, limestone quarry, produce distibuter, lumber mill, lumber yard, and coal dealer. Most online towns have a freight station to work. 5 passenger trains operate during a session as well. Operating sessions, when I have them, last 5 hours with a meal break in the middle.

Diesel to steam transition, heavy on steam. Emphasis on extreme detailing and smooth running. About 50% sceniced with generic Ca theme. Double track mainline, 6 track passenger station, 13 track yard, and 14 stall roundhouse with 18 garden track. Tsunami sound.

The Vallejo Valley RR features Western California 1880-1930 with mining & lumber industries along with cattle and sheep, orchards and vineyards - a small agricultural town servicing local California industry. Many scratch built, kit and kit bashed structures including all of those made by Railroad Avenue are on Frank's railroad.

I model Southern Pacific prototype, 1950's era, coast line and Santa Cruz branch line. My layout size if 14'-6" long X 3' at one end and 4'-6" on the other end. How complete is the layout scenery?? Is any layout ever truly complete? Not if the interest is there to transform it into something better! But in all seriousness, layout is in the 90% range for completion. I use 2 DC (MRC) power packs and an Irish temper for running my trains! My rolling stock consists of 1944 FRA freight cars, SP Daylights, Larks, Suntan Special and stainless steel and red letterboards. The power pool consists of Alco PA's (including a super-detailed PA2 conversion) and EMD E9's in Daylight paint scheme, F3 and F7 in black widow, GS4 4449, a pair of SD7s also in black widow scheme. A must-see for any SP fan!

O Meter Gauge [Narrow Gauge] with a 288 foot main line and a small yard and branch line. The Main Line winds and loops through backyard. Track built with Code 148 and Code 160 rail. Trains are Swiss Narrow Gauge & Freelace Narrow Gauge Mining.

Ernie's Western Pacific HO layout represents that railroad's operation from Bieber, California to Salt Lake City. It occupies a three car garage and is designed for operations.

Steve's narrow gauge Whiskeytown and Shasta is located in the area West of Redding, California along Clear Creek from Old Shasta through Whiskeytown to French Gulch. It services the mines of the Tree Frog Mining Company and the livestock from the OC Cattle Company. The line connects with the standard gauge Anderson & Bella Vista with a further connection with the SP to the outside world. Quartz is mined and shipped to the copper smelter at Kennett. On the West end is the connection with the Trinity Southern which provides mine timbers and lumber. Trains are short with 4 or 5 cars and a caboose and small engines 4-6-0 and 2-8-0.