The layout is constructed in an L-shaped garage/office structure, with the outside legs 36 feet in length, and the inside legs 20 feet in length.The model of the West Side Lumber Company begins at the mill site in Tuolumne. All prototype narrow gauge track and structures are included in this portion of the layout, albeit in a greatly compressed form. From the mill site the railroad makes a 36-foot run to River Bridge. The scenery in this section is complete and consists of a series of cuts and fills to represent the Tuolumne River Gorge and includes models of the distinctive California Black Oak and Manzanita. A model of the 326-foot bridge across the North Fork of the Tuolumne River is also complete.The Deadwood section of the layout was recently rebuilt to provide a more prototypical layout that includes two sidings and a wye. From Deadwood, the railroad continues to Camp 24 which consists of a single siding and a balloon track. The track continues into the woods at the Crumbine wye. From Crumbine the main line passes through Reynolds Creek Camp, crosses a deep fill and arrives at Fleming. The main line then descends a 3% grade to Camp 45. The scenery for the section of the layout between Crumbine and Camp 45 is complete and consists of an old-growth forest of Ponderosa Pine, Sugar Pine, and Incense Cedar. The primary feature at Camp 45 is the loading scene to represent the reload from truck to rail using a steam hoist. All scenery and models are complete for the Camp 45 scene. Locomotives and Rolling Stock: The 1950 West Side Lumber Company locomotive roster is represented by PSC engines equipped with Tsunami sound decoders. The equipment roster consists of 40 skeleton log cars and 7 caboose models. Non-revenue cars include diesel, bunker oil and gasoline tank cars; as well as camp supply reefers, wood block cars, assorted flat cars and moving cars.

The RGS Second District depicts the southern half of the RGS between West Durango and Dolores, Colorado in the 1920’s. Why this area and era? The freight traffic was diverse; cattle, crops, lumber, coal and ore. Branch lines included logging, coal and gold mines. The scenery, high passes, and spectacular mountains sealed the deal.The layout is in a finished room 42 feet long and 12 to 16 feet wide with all hard-shell and track complete. Dolores, Mancos, and Hesperus are the major towns along the 191-foot handlaid code 55 mainline track with branches to Haycamp Mesa and May Day. All spurs and branches are code 40 rail. The town of Hesperus is complete and 75 feet of the layout’s 105-foot photo backdrop is in place.The railroad is controlled using an NCE wireless DCC system and all locomotives are Soundtraxx Tsunami equipped. Operations are an important and fun part of the RGS Second District and visitors are encouraged to run trains.

Modeled after the Gilpin Gold Tram, the layout fills a 15’ x 22’ room and overflow into other spaces in3/8n20. (1:32 scale with a 20 inch track gauge). This fully-scenic pike has appeared in the Gazette. Locomotives are sound-equipped and powered by Digitrax. Layout room is wheelchair accessible although tracks are 41” to 60” up from the floor in a third of a three-car garage.

The PBR&N occupies nearly all of my 22’ x 46’ basement, and features a 250’ point-to-point mainline, several yards, and finished scenery. The setting is coastal northern California in 1895, with the railroad serving as the primary transportation system for the region.The layout has been featured in the Gazette many times over the past 10-12 years, as well as in RMC, Sn3 Modeler, and other publications. Control is by NCE wireless DCC, and all locos are equipped with Tsunami sound decodes. Visitors are invited to operate the trains as much as they wish. Photography is also permitted.

Glenn Farley is building one of our newest layouts in On3. He’s featuring the Rio Grande in 1938 as it ran from Gunnison, Colorado to Cimarron through the Black Canyon. Glenn has worked closely with Dale Kreutzer on photo backdrops of the real places where his railroad is set. Yes, this is a scale model of all 11 stalls of the Gunnison roundhouse. Glenn’s layout features the structures and locomotives that were found in Gunnison that year.

This layout models the middle third of the Rio Grande Southern, with the town of Dolores and the keystone. The town is complete with all scenery and backdrop, as is Stoner. Recent additons include the siding at Muldoon, the yard at Rico and the Gallagher trestles. The locomotives are DCC equipped.

Our layouts are outside as well as inside. John Morrison has created a huge narrow gauge garden railway. He has scratch-built many of his locomotives following British colonies prototypes.

This is a freelanced logging and mining branch line set in western Washington in the 1930s. It is an imaginary branch of the DRGW, which interchanges with the DRGW system at China Creek. It is 3-foot narrow gauge with operation focusing on switching at mills and mines.The track plan is a point-to-point around the perimeter of the room, which is 19’ by 16’. Minimum mainline radius is 28 inches. Control is walk-around with Lenz DCC and Tsunami sound. Maximum grades are 4.25%. Track work includes two wyes and a turntable. Scenery is well along with all ground cover completed. Several major structures a large sawmill are completed, or nearly so. Operation includes a PBL Heisler, new PBL Shays #5 and #6, C-18 #319 and C-17 # 302, all with Tsunamis.

Set in the late 1930s/early 1940s timeframe, the layout depicts the RGS route from Ridgway to Rico, Colorado, serving Placerville, Ophir and Lizard Head. The layout is complete. It has a continuous running connection and features an impressive model of the Pro Patria Mill in Rico. Operational control is provided by Lenz DCC, and motive power consists of a large stable of PBL and modified PFM locomotives.

This is a rare opportunity to visit Sam Furukawa’s Sn3 layout, the Sam Juan Central. It is based on scenes of the Rio Grande Southern in its final years and features many detailed locomotives and plenty of rolling stock. It’s controlled by three P-B-L sound systems, and features cameras mounted around the layout with run-bys shown on several monitors throughout the house.

Barry and Janice Dupler’s 17- x 25-foot HO/HOn3 layout features an independent logging line and narrow gauge service to numerous mines and mills in the surrounding mountains.

The layout features mining, sawmill operations, small cities, waterfront piers, a yard witth a turntable, passenger service and various industries. The layout is set in the late 1930s steam era. JJ’s stunningly detailed background, overhead lighting, Shinohara code 70 track over a Vinylbed base and a Lenz Digital Plus DCC and sound decoders are all installed. About 90% of the scenery is completed.

Paul Scoles photographed JJ’s layout and wrote a story published in the Jan/Feb 2003 issue of the Gazette and the September 2011 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. For more details, visit www.jtwice.com and to click on the icon for the Puget Sound Iron Goat Railway in the upper right hand corner of his home page.

The Hangman Creek Lumber Company is an On3 sectional layout which will be displayed at the Meydenbauer Convention Center. The layout is set in the 1950s in the deep backwoods of Eastern Washington near the Idaho/Canadian border in the Pacific Northwest. The logging layout moves timber to a sawmill, where finished lumber is produced and then transported to a wharf at Lake Pend Orielle. The layout itself is 25′ x 9′, built in eight sections constructed from tubular aluminum with wood gusseting. The layout is built for continuous running with two loops, a high line and a low line, that interchange. Minimum radius is 28″ and the maximum grade is 8%. The layout has 190 feet of track and is operated with a Digitrax DCC system. Foreground trees on the layout are scratchbuilt with resin trunks (to reproduce bark detail in a realistic manner) and caspia branches. The larger trees are 150-180 ft in O scale. Additional ”filler” trees use carved balsa and caspia construction. The layout is being built in the Spokane area by four talented modelers (The Sunset Junction Modelers): Jess Dozier, Stan Oxendahl, Jim Smith, and Tom Jennings. The layout follows various prototypes, drawing inspiration from the book, “Logging Railroads of Skagit County”.