My love for Modelling the Santa Fe
Railroad began when I was 7 years old, and was given my first HO scale
model railroad for Christmas from my parents. In fact I still have that
first Tyco switcher and 3 cars in perfect working order today. Dad had
made up an 8 x 4 foot layout for me with hand made station and
overbridge, and oval of brass code 100 rail, along with a river and hand
made overbridge and tunnel.
From that 1st introduction to model railroading, I caught the bug. Next
birthday a Santa Fe GP20 arrived, and later some Amtrak Passenger cars
that set the scene for me selecting the early 1970´s as my era. The
layout grew to two ovals and a siding. Buildings sprung up along the
road way, and more and more freight cars were purchased with my pocket
money savings.
By the mid 80s the layout still 4 x 8" was now a busy little town, and I
worked with dad to extend the layout by a foot on each side to form 6 x
8 feet. Along the outside of the main line I had loco facilities and a
tram way that horse shoed around the main line and down the new busy
main street. This layout lasted until the late 80´s when finally the
chipboard in the baseboard gave way, and layout #2 was under
construction.
The new layout had a solid pine frame
and 12mm ply baseboard, again 4 x 8", but this time a lot of planning
went into the track design, which accommodated longer trains, an entire
mountain side and small township with several busy railroad industries.
Still all dc powered, there were carefully designed track blocks,
signalling and electrified turnouts throughout. The problem I had
however was my ever expanding multitude of trains was outgrowing the
layout. I maintained this layout until 2003 when I sold it to my good
friend Alan.
Layout #3, began construction in
2004. It filled the perimeter of a 3 x 4 metre bedroom. The layout
consisted of a large yard based on the old Barstow yard, and the
township loosely based on Victorville. The main large bridge is of
timber and brass and has been modelled on Canyon Diabolo Bridge on the
ATSF in Arizona. The bridge is hinged and was used as a doorway into the
layout room.
The yard can handle 10 trains, along with loco facilities, on 4 spurs
and one spur used for car maintenance. Victorville has a mainline
station, and branch off to a small yard leading off to three industries.
The township is modelled on the 1950´s with Route 66 running through the
township. Matt has now taken ownership of this layout, with plans for
upgrade and expansion.
Recently I have sold off all my
1970´s era equipment, and have changed era to 1952-1954. The idea was to
be able to model the late steam early diesel transition, along with the
streamlined and heavyweight passenger trains that have a character of
their own second to none.
Layout #4 is currently being designed ready for
construction in the second 1/2 of 2009. The layout will be 30feet x
14feet. This layout will be my interpretation of the Santa Fe 1st
District Arizona Subdivision. Inclusive of Needles, Topock Bridge,
Kingman, Hackberry and Nelson, Kingman Canyon and Crozier Canyon. The
layout will be early 1950s era, using NCE DCC, Peco & GT Code 83 track.
I am endeavouring to reproduce scenes based on photos of the area from
the 1950s era, to achieve as realistic a layout as possible. Track plans
have been sought also to copy as closely as possible to the prototype.
During this time I have been a member of the NMRA and the Sydney Module
SIG, which was based in Kellyville in Sydney´s north west. The modular
concept led to be building a set of modules myself, and learning a great
deal from members of the group. Since early 2006, the SIG had to move
out of Kellyville, and interest waned. Three former members of the SIG,
Jason, Matt and I decided that we should take the modular concept and
grow it, and hence the Mid West Model Railroaders has been formed.
With our interests being ATSF, CNW, GN & UP early 1950´s, we needed a
layout big enough to accommodate, and hence the birth of the exhibition
layout design on these pages.
