My layout is modeled after Southern California, during the early 1960s. Its built as a round the room shelf type layout, 14 to 18 inches wide allowing for close up photography. Enjoy the photo tour and be sure to check out more web-article links for model building projects at the top and the bottom of this page.
NEW! Here's a Trona Railway, HO layout in PDF format (888.5KB), I had designed for the 2006 layout contest for Model Railroader Magazine. It didn't win, but this shelf layout can be expanded to whatever room size you may have.
My wife Cheryl and I have produced Christmas train stories for our 9 year old nephew, we hope your Children will enjoy it too. The Town Christmas Tree
The SP trackage ran along the Los Angeles River for many miles and also crossing it in several places. This fascia model was made from a corrugated cardboard box and Latex indoor paint.
The North Hollywood depot is now used for Railway Express and Pacific Motor Trucking freight shipments long after the Pacific Electric stopped running passengers in 1952. In later years SP repainted their structures to gray. This fine model kit is now produced by Showcase Miniatures on a limited production run.
The Westbound "Coast Mail" train is about to depart the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal.
The "Coast Mail" seen here passing Burbank Junction Tower.
The layout module in only fourteen inches wide at this point. On the prototype, a concrete dranage channel does runs along the tracks in the same place, however on the model, one channel side wall is used to make the facia.
The Chatsworth Hauler eastbound off the Coast Line at Burbank.
New power 5840 and 2913 waiting at the Burbank Depot.
There goes the local up the Valley Line to finish the day job at Sun Valley.
Switching work at the San Fernando Sunkist Packing House.
Richard Hughes is a retired railroad conductor and owns this HO model of an SP, AC9. He was worked for the SP back in the early 1950s and ran these monster locomotives on the Modoc Line in Northern California. He says "these locomotives were very easy to operate!"
Working the gravel loader facility is this Mack switcher by Scale Structures Ltd.
