benjy14

Hi there, I was wondering if anybody can help me... I have a large number of Marklin Union Pacific box cars (for example, item 45647). Unfortunately, I have lost one of the tiny black screws that attachs the bogie to the underside of the box car: Does anybody know if there are any suppliers in the UK who might stock replacements? Thanks! Ben

Hi Keith, Andrew Burnham's reply was pretty comprehensive and I'm sure it covered all of CM's history. It is a great shame that nothing has come to light about the layout but I think it unlikely now that I will find any information. I may subscribe to the Model Railroader online archive in due course to see if that turns anything up. The BLR is a lovely little railway and was the first to re-open in Wales. I can vouch for the huge amount of work that has been put in both them and the FR to get everyhing safe for staff and visitors alike. It is going to be far from a normal year but it is great to see trains running again and to be out on the footplate. Cheers, Ben

Work on Dale Junction has slowed a little recently as the two railways on which I volunteer have both reopened and I have had my first footplate turns since February. Above: First up was a day at the Bala Lake Railway driving George B; it is a delightful little engine and its restoration was done to an extremely high standard. I was lucky enough to drive it on its launch into revenue traffic on a photographic charter a couple of years ago. Above: A few days later, I was on the footplate of this cracking engine, firing the first trip and driving the second. All the trains were full to (the safe!) capacity and it was a splendid day out. The work I have done on the layout recently has mainly been focussed on operation because whilst I still have some outstanding jobs on the track, I was really keen to be able to watch the layout operating to its potential. I am still learning my way around iTrain but this evening, for the first time, I had three trains running around the layout totally automatically; it was quite a sight to behold! As part of configuring the routes in iTrain to make this possible, I have decided to keep the shortest track in the storage yard clear and allow it to act as a bypass track. By doing this, it struck me that with the three trains running, 50% of the storage yard was empty for a considerable time (well over 15 minutes) untill they finished their route and returned to the yard. This therefore confirmed something that I had realised a while ago during constructing and that is that I can have more trains on the layout that the storage yard can actually hold, which opens up some interesting possibilities. As part of the work of working on the routes, I found one of the really impressive features of iTrain and that is the ability for the software to choose a siding in the storage yard based on train and siding length. This means that when a route stipulates a train to be held in the storage yard, it will run the train into the shortest siding that will accomodate it, making the most efficient use of the available space. This is called "optimal length" selection. I have therefore been thinking about how to take advantage of this feature and the capacity of the layout... The first thing I will do is to extend the length of two of the trains. The first is streamliner train #102, which is currently a coach short as it would not fit into track 6 [in the storage yard]. This means that train #103 will move to track 4 and #102 to track 5; these will run much less frequently than the freight services and these tracks will be permanently allocated to these trains. This will free up track 6, in which I will probably put a local mixed train. These relatively short trains did work out of Cheyenne but headed south to Denver rather working over Sherman Hill, so it will be a bit of modeller's licence that allows it to run. I have a lovely Mountain 4-8-2 that will be perfect to haul this train, together with a couple Bachmann Heavywight coaches to put in the consist. This decision means that tracks 4 to 6 [in the storage yard] will have permanently allocated trains but conversely, tracks 1 to 3 will become "dynamic" without a fixed train. Taking advantage of the "optimal length" selection feature, I will define the routes such that a train will leave storage and complete both a west- and eastbound run (or vice-versa) before retuning to storage, where the software will decide the best siding in which to store it until the start of its next run. And that means that the second train I can extend is the freight comprised of 50' box cars that is currently hauled by a GP7 and GP9 lash-up (this train represents the modernisation of the UP in the late 1960s); I will add a third road engine (another GP7) and a number of additional box cars. This is something I've wanted to do for a while as, simply put, it looks too short and will work because it will no longer be constrained by the length of track 4 to which it is currently allocated. All of this means that at any given time, at least one train must on the layout somewhere but that is fine; I have over 6 scale miles of track Looking further ahead, I think that I will have the scope to add another complete train to the layout. I have some additional locomotives available, although not much in the way of spare stock. Alternatively, what I may look at instead is developing operations by having locomotive swaps using the holding sidings at end A of the yard. The general idea is that a train will come around the return loop and stop directly infront of the control area, where it will be uncoupled and swapped with a waiting locomotive. All food for thought! The next thing on my TODO list is to get the point motors installed on the crossovers at the top of helix A. The automatic operation has confirmed my suspicions about the bottom half of helix A being a bottle neck, so to help smooth that out, I need to get the points operational. Finally, I have, totally by accident, made an improvement to the storage yard. I have wanted to find a small cube video camera to take footage "from the footplate/cab" of a locomotive traversing the layout. I found what I thought was a perfect cube camera on certain online site but when it arrived, it turned out not to be at suitable as it was totally geared to CCTV. However I have, for quite a while, wanted to add CCTV coverage to end B of the yard to monitor the siding that holds the breakdown train. I have therefore put the camera to good use below: Not very high quality, despite being advertised as HD and, as the picture shows, alledgely running in HD mode, but it really does not matter; I can clear see the position of the breakdown train and watch trains wind their way out of the storage yard. Once I have the operation a little more refined and completed the outstanding trackwork tasks, I will endeavour to take some photographs and a video showing the trains running. Thus far, I have not actually missed driving the trains myself and enjoy simply watching them work their way around the layout; there was a rather special moment when the three trains were stacked one above the other on the three levels... TTFN!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. We were away last week celebrating a family birthday, the first time we have seen any of our immediate family for nearly four moths! However, work has been progressing and the track is now fully laid in the upper level below: There are a couple of places that need sorting out. In particular, where the track levels the helix and heads across in front of the window is a bit awkward, as there the curve in the track is where the gradient changes. As this will be hidden, I think I am going to change it to be two curves with straight track between them on the graident change to ensure trouble-free running here (40' box cars seem fine but the 85' passenger carriages are not; the combination of the curve and gradient change are not a good combination!). I also need to install the point motors for the dual crossovers and wire in the droppers from the track. However, it does work and I have had trains running in both directions around the entire layout I am currently focussed on getting iTrain working as I want it. It is quite a learning curve and I have found a few problems which I am slowly overcoming. For example, my streamliner trains have electrical pickups for interior lighting, and even though they are not fitted, the Digikeijs block detection fires (the DR4088 is incredibly sensitive to any current flow and I have had problems with capacitance) and this confuses iTrain. Fortunately, the sofware is so flexible that it is possible to overcome this by configuring each feedback with switch on and off delays. My aim is to get the routing in iTrain working to the point that the layout will run in full automatic mode and I will then do some filming...

Hi, I have just purchased the Bachmann Branchine Hampton Loade station building set (items 44-0082 and 44-0083). I know that I will need to power the lighting using their "Just Plug" lighting system, which is fine. My query is that I have some Gaugemaster GWR Platform Lamps that I need to illuminate and I am trying to figure out if I can drive them from the "Just Plug" system. From what I can tell, this should be fine because I can use Linker Plugs (item WJP5685) to splice the wires from the lamps on to cables that can plug into the lighting unit. Could anybody tell me if this is correct? Thanks! Ben

Hi Mick, As I use Digiekijs on my layout, I use a DR4018 to drive them and then detect their position using the in-built switch connected to a DR4088. There is an enhanced version that has more than one switch if you need frog polarity switching (I don't need this on my large US layout as my smallest locomotive has 16 wheels that pick-up current, so if they stall in an insulfrog point, I have bigger problems!). If you are interested, the DR4018 should work with any DCC system as it just sits on the accessory bus. They really are brilliant and I wish I had discovered them sooner as I would not have used Peco solenoid motors had I known... Cheers, Ben

Hi Mick & Rodney, Hate to say it but I agree with Rodney; excellent idea let down by the motors having such low torque (due to the design you described) that they are simply too unreliable (I found the "best" I could get was about 1 failure in 10...). For me, any chance of the motor failing to drive the point is unacceptable and in the end, after hours of frustration, I removed the Cobalt-SS from my layout and now use the excellent, bullet-proof MP1 point motor instead. Cheers, Ben

I have reached a major milestonre this weekend with the completion of the baseboards for the upper level (well, nearly finished; I need to add some bracing). Following on from my previous post, below shows the next section of the upper level installed. Next, I installed the supports and then the baseboards above Dale Junction, the next two photos below: After the helixes, the long baseboard in front of the window was a part of the build I was concerned about. I wanted to avoid any supports from the baseboard beneath, so the solution was two 36mm steel "L" girders, which give a lot of rigidity for very little weight, As the photo below shows, they have worked perfectly; the rack of magazines in front of the window are actually blocking more light, so I need to move them! To finish, the photo below shows the (nearly) completed upper level: Once the bracing is installed, there is just the small matter of about 40' of tack to lay (20' on each track)...

I have made some small steps of further progress over this past week. First off, below is a photo I should have posted last weekend showing the last screw being driven home in Helx A, marking completion of its construction. During the week. I have laid the dual cross-overs at the top of Helix A. The purpose of these is to avoid bottlenecks in the lower half of the helix. In particular, it will allow a train to leave the storage yard, run round the reverse loop and climb the whole height of the helix to the upper level on the outer track; at the top of the helix, the train can then cross over to the right-hand track to around the upper level and then descend Helix B to Dale Junction. Above is a view of the two cross-overs; all that is required now is to install the point motors. The nearer chord is a little tighter than I would have liked at about 24" radius but everything happily negiotiates it and I have a similar radius in the double junction inside the helix, so it'll have to do! Above: USRA Light Mikado 2-8-2 #2499 has reached the head of steel at the top of Helix A with its breakdown train. I have tried to find details about breakdown train consists but without any luck, so this is my best guess! Above: This evening, I have installed the next baseboard section on the upper level. This weekend, I hope to make some further progress with the upper level baseboards, although with the lockdown restrictions being eased here in Wales and a nice weather forecast, we might well venture further afield than we've been able to do for weeks!

I reached a major milestone today, with construction of Helix A now completed and just the final 3/4 turn of track to lay. This is going to be a slightly complex task as there will be a cross-over in each direction. The reason for the cross-overs is as follows: Westbound trains can climb the outer track of the helix and then cross to the inner, right-hand track before emerging on the upper level (i.e. they will appear correctly on Track 1); this means that all trains leaving the storage yard, after running around the return loop, will ascend the helix on the outer track. Eastbound trains can leave the upper level on the outer, right-hand track (Track 2) and then cross to the inner track to descend the helix; this means all that all trains approaching the storage yard will descend the helix in the inner track. So, not only will trains be able to climb the helix on the easier gradient but conflicts between ascending and descending trains will be eliminated in the helix. The track plan in the opening post does not show the cross-overs; I will try to update it to some them and incorporate the other tweaks that have been made to the plan since construnction started. Above: A view of the completed Helix A with just the last 3/4 turn of track to lay. In the photo are the last two boxes of Peco track I will use; I have used 5 before these two (four of Code 100 and one of Code 83, as well as lot of recycled Code 100 in the storage yard from a previous layout). I worked out that the layout has a total of about 8.5 scale miles of track. Above: I have placed the portals for Hermosa Tunnel in approximately their final position and I could not resist staging a couple of photos... Emerging from the Track 1 portal #4014 leads #3999, whilst in the helix #4023 nears the top of the climb. As noted above, trains ascending the helix will normally do so on the outer track with the (slightly!) easier gradient and gentler curvature. However, 4023 has been fitted with Bullfrog Snot liquid traction tyres and can easily handle its train on the inner track. Above: A close-up of #4014 and #3999 emerging from Hermosa Tunnel. To finish today, you may have noticed on the track plan that the lower level features a "scenic window". The purpose of this is two-fold; first, it allows me to practise building desert scenery and second, it gives a little bit of scenic interest on the lower level and, in due course, will be the only part of the layout where there will be scenery on all three levels. It is not intended to be anywhere specific and, as I have found out, I should not have planted cactii as they are native to Arizona (Wyoming is too far north). Whilst it is only 23" long, I have used it to take a few photos, so below is a portrait of #4014. Depending on the weather tomorrow, I hope to get the crossovers laid at the top of the helix and then, all that remains is to complete the upper level. Exciting times!

Thank you! I have that edition in my collection and it's a fabulous layout; something to which I can aspire!

I have uploaded a new video of two trains crossing at Dale Junction to my YouTube channel: #4014 and #3999 are working an eastbound manifest freight and have climbed from Laramie left-handed on Track 1 and at Dale Junction, they cross over for the more conventional right-handed run down the Hill to Cheyenne on Track 2. Coming the other way is #844 hauling a reefer freight on Track 3 and it will join Track 2 for the descent to Laramie. This video shows why there were two facing crossovers in the eastbound direction; #844 does not need to stop on Track 3 for the eastbound train to clear the junction.

If you took Model Railroader, then it is now possible to search their online archive, as they have digitised every single magazine since the very first one was published in 1934! You can sign-up for 24 hours of free access, so I might well try that over the weekend. I have also put a post in the Overseas Modelling forum as you suggested to see if that turns up any information - fingers crossed! Ben

Hi, This is an appeal to anybody out there who would be able to provide me with any details, photos or video of the N gauge layout that used to exist at the erstwhile Forest Railroad Adventure Park in Dobwalls, Cornwall. Whilst photos and videos of the 7.25" lines are easily found, I have been unable to find anything online relating to the model railway, which was housed in the shed above the carriage storage sidings and (I think) depicted the Union Pacific's dual track mainline across Sherman Hill. I believe in the later years of the park's existance, the layout was removed and replaced by the Southern Exhibition. I have also been told by a contributor to the thread on my layout of Dale Junction that an article about it appeared in a modelling magazine, which was most likely in the 1980s. I have written to Andrew Burnham, editor of Continential Modeller, and he has told me that he has no record of an article in the pages of his magazine, so it must have been another publication. If anybody could help, I'd be most grateful. I am interested really for sentimental reasons; I loved visiting the Park whenever we stayed with my grandmother in Plymouth for our summer holidays and now that I'm modelling the UP myself, it would be lovely to try to find some information about it. Many thanks, Ben

I have received a lovely email Andrew Burnham, editor of Continental Modeller. He has had a look through the index and can find no reference to any article about the layout in CM, so it must have been another magazine in which that the article you remember appeared. However, Andrew did mention that he had found a undated flyer that mentioned the layout in the shed above the carriage sidings and that is exactly as I remember it; it was at the north end of the site, next to to the second entrance that was used for coach parties. At some point, the layout was removed to make way for the Southern Exhibition, which was used to display John Southern's collection of wildlife fine artwork (which I can recall quite clearly, as some of the paintings were absolutely stunning). I will continue my search for any photos of the layout and perhaps somebody reading this might recall which magazine the article was published in...? Here's hoping anyway!

I have just emailed Peco in the hope that they might be able to help out; if they don't know then there probably isn't much hope!

Thanks Keith; definitely Dobwalls and by the looks of it, in its heyday when Union Pacific stock worked the Union Pacific route and Rio Grande route worked the Rio Grande route. They also used to run a steamer and diesel on both routes during peak times. By the time of my last visit in 2001, one of the Mikados (General Palmer) was working the UP route and the Amtrack-livieried diesel was on the RG route i.e. both locos were wrong but I suspect nobody cared

I have a little over 100 freight cars of various sorts, so in theory I could run a scale length train... I might try running something around the 60-car mark but would need to think carefully about what would be suitable motive power! I would love to see your photos if you have any way scanning them in (assuming you can find them of course!). Whilst I have still drawn a blank on finding any photos or videos of the layout, but I did find this lovely footage of Mr Southern driving the Big Boy: As stupid as it sounds, it still brings a tear to my eye seeing it running like this in its heyday knowing what subsequently happened. I can remember queues back into the village of Dobwalls during the height of the summer and having to wait for seemed like ages to ride the trains (even with two trains running on each circuit). So sad what happened.

So it was clearly a working model then. And you're right, nothing really can make up for it closing My record so far is #4014, #3999, 31 x 40' freight cars and a caboose. I'm sure one day I will try with an even longer train!

I think it's unlikely that we're both mistaken about it running! Have tried searching to see if I could find any reference to it Continental Modeller but drew a blank; I think I might email Peco to see if they can help as I would love to see it again. Thanks for the comment about the update and helixes (helices?). I was nervous of building them at first but an article in Model Railroader demonstrated the very simple yet effective stacking method that I've employed. Having never built anything like this before, I am pleased with how they have turned out. Ben

First of all, a huge thanks to everybody who has reacted to my opening post and those who have subsequently commented. I've been in the railway room for most of today working on Helix A (photos coming up). We have some family cine film of the early American period when the trees were freshly planted and what became the Rio Grande route opened, so shortly after you went by the sounds of it. I think a lot of people knew Mr Southern (as I always called him!) and he was such a lovely person. As I'm sure you know, all bar one of the locomotives now reside in Australia, I think at the Diamond Valley Railway and in various states of repair. I hope to see them running again, even though it will never be at Dobwalls again. I assume that after the holiday home scheme failed, it's gone back to being either a farm or brownfield site. So sad. I am by no means an expert but the Brockenloks are magnificent locomotives. On the second day of out trip, we spent the day on the Nordhausen turn, which operates Nordhausen - Drei Annen Hohne - Eisfelder Talmuhle - Drei Annen Hohne - Nordhausen (the loco comes off the carriages at DAH and they then continue to the Broken whilst the locomotive takes carriages from Wernigerode on to ET and back to DAH). I fired all of it except the section north of Nordhausen, where they have to keep to the tram timings. Watching Jens (the driver) handling his locomotive was a masterclass of the art from years of pratice. As I'm sure you know, the Brokenloks have Trofimoff valves, which means that to get the locomotive moving, you have to open the regulator to just the right spot to emit enough steam to push the valves on their stops on the spindle before opening up further. When this happens, there is a very distinctive "clunk-clunk" noise. With Jens, it was one smooth motion to the perfect spot, clunk-clunk, regulator in the roof (this is how they keep to the tram times and why he drove!). Coming into stations at what seemed like frightening speeds, it took one brake application to stop in precisely the right place. Incredible. Thank you Keith, very kind of you to say. I am very lucky to have the space that I do Did you ever see the N gauge layout at Dobwalls running? I think I did once but I might be mistaken as I was young at the time and I can't recall if it was a static model. I would love to see some photos or videos of it but sadly, I have not been able to find anything online. Thank you John. As you have probably worked out, all of the visible track on the layout is Peco Code 83; in Dale Junction itself, the straight turnouts are #8, used in conjunction with their curved turnouts. I faced a bit of a dilemma with the Junction and went through a number of designs before settling on this arrangement... Had I used shorter turnouts, I may have been able to use all straight turnouts (which is how the prototype is) but I was not sure how the big articulated locomotives would have looked. I therefore felt a better compromise was to use #8s with curved turnouts to "bend" the junction at either end so that it would fit into the space I had available on that wall. I think it's worked reasonably well, especially for photography in the junction itself and you have picked that up, so I think it's worked So, to work from today... Above: Helix A in its current state, with two test trains having climbed to the "head of steel" (I didn't notice the caboose had uncoupled from the rear of the train on Track 1 until after I'd taken the photo, obviously!). The first thing I did today was to get the wiring in place, which comprises a Digikeijs DR4088 for block occupency detection and two LS Digital 5410 reverse loop modules (which are necessary as the upper level of the layout is a ballon loop and so requires polarity switching). I then installed 1.5 turns of the helix, complete with getting the track down and wired. This now leaves "just" the final 1.5 turns to go and this Helix will be complete! Above: For comparison, this is Helix B, which was completed last weekend and with the first section of the Upper Level baseboard installed. It has 7.5 turns in total. Thanks again to everybody for the comments and reactions. The day job beckons for the week ahead, so there may not be much progress, but I will try to post a few photos taken during the layout's construction. To finish off for today, the photo below shows FEF-3 #844 coming off Track 3 and onto Track 2 with a westbound reefer working.

Thank you I was not very happy either with how 4014 starts away in this video. It was under the control of iTrain and within the software, you have the ability to speed calibrate your locomotives (indeed, it is essential if iTrain is to automate your layout); that calibration shows that each speed step is precisely 1mph (which is also what the manual says). So in thory, with iTrain simulating accceleration, it should have been super smooth. Also, the advice you're given when using iTrain is to disable acceleration and deceleration, so that iTrain can accurately track the positin of the train (which it does exceptionally well), so I am not really sure what caused this. More investigation is required... I love your Sud Harz layout. I am not sure if you remember but I spoke to you at the Warley show last year when you were exhibiting it; I mentioned that I have been lucky enough to fire a Brokenlok between Schierke and Brocken on the FRfWHR/HSB exchange a few years ago...

Whilst I appreciate this thread has gone quiet of late, I thought people might be interested to see a thread I have just started about my layout modelling Dale Junction on the Union Pacific's Transcontinental Route across Sherman Hill in the 1950s: I hope it provides a bit of inspiration!

Hi Gordon, Thank you for the inspiration and encouragement. I've taken the plunge and started my own thread. I hope you get your heron problem resolved... Best wishes, Ben

Dale Junction in HO Scale Above: Sometime in the summer of 1957, Big Boy #4014 leads Challenger #3999 on an eastbound manifest freight train through Dale Junction in Wyoming. The genesis of my layout (and hence this thread) can be traced back nearly 40 years, to the much missed Forest Railroad Adventure Park at Dobwalls in Cornwall. As a young lad, my late grandmother lived in Plymouth and we would visit her for a week every summer holidays, and the first day of those holidays were always spent at "Dobwalls" as we always referred to it in our family. I became friendly with the park's owner, John Southern, and would always write to him before we visited to arrange to meet him. He was always so welcoming and friendly, and when I found out that it had closed with relatively little notice, I was heartbroken. But my time there sowed the seeds for my love affair with the Union Pacific and, in particular, the Big Boys... One of my small claims to fame is that I actually drove the Dobwalls Big Boy; it was the first steam locomotive that I ever drove and as you might imagine, it left quite an impression. I am very fortunate to have a video footage, taken by my father, of the event. In the years since then, I have slowly been collecting Union Pacific equipment and built up quite a collection, including two Big Boys (4014 and 4023), a Challenger (3999) and an FEF-3 (844), together with a reasonable number of freight cars and two complete City Streamliner trains, the City of Los Angeles and the City of San Francisco. When my wife and I moved to North Wales in 2012 and extended the house a few years later, I finally had a room in which I could construct my dream layout to represent a part of the UP's transcontinental route between Cheyenne and Laramie, the stomping grounds for the Last of Giants. I had a number of "givens" and "druthers", as the famous American layout deisgner John Armstrong described them, for constructing my dream layout and they were as follows: Depiction of the main two tracks over Sherman Hill in the mid-1950s, allowing the last few years of steam operation to be depicted next to first generation diesels. As I am not a fan of constriucting buildings, I was quite happy to have scene set high up on the Hill with little railway infrastructure. This was also inspired by the N gauge layout that was at Dobwalls. A layout designed to mainly watch trains go by (I am also constructing a model of Cardigan in West Wales, which satisfies my shunting needs!) but with some operational interest. Multiple levels to make the most use of the space in the room and no duckunders (the layout had to be walk-in). To achieve these aims, I have two helixes to lift the trains between the three levels. Reasonable length trains. Whilst scale length trains would not be possible (generally speaking, not even in the cavernous basements in the US itself), there was a hypothesis made in Model Railroader magazine that if you cannot see both ends of a train at the same time, your mind's eye will make you think it is longer than it actually is. I therefore aimed for trains of 25 or more freight cars (except for the passenger trains) and to help the illusion, the viewer walks into the layout between the helixes and Dale Junction opens up in front of you; apart from standing in the door to the railway room, it will not be possible to see the whole of a train running through the layout. DCC operated and with extensive use of computer control. All I needed was a location and after some research (mainly books but also on the Interweb), I came across Dale Junction. This is where Track 3, which was constructed to ease the westbound graident from Cheyenne, met the original two tracks. Further, on the section betweem Laramie and Dale Junction, the route was operated left-hand running, and between Dale Junction and Cheyenne, it was the more usual right-hand running; hence, Dale Junction is where the trains switched from left- to right-hand running. As I knew was only going to build this layout once, I spent nearly 3 years researching and developing a plan using XTrkCad. The planning has paid of in spades; I am about 75% of the way through constructing the benchwork and laying track, and I have followed the plan almost to the inch and to the point. The aim of this thread is to chart the construction of the layout. Even though I've been a member of RMweb for a number of years and have made a few posts, I had been a little reluctant to start a thread as I am not sure how much interest there is in American layouts in the UK. However, having posted in Gordon S's wonderful thread about his stunning Eastwood Town layout and getting favourable feedback about my layout, I felt suitably inspired to start a thread. Construction started in November last year and I had expected progress to be much slower as I have a number of interests, including as a footplate volunteer on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways. However, the Coronavirus outbreak has resulted a huge amount of unexpected free time, so progress has been more rapid than anticipated. To start things off, here are screen captures of the track plan taken from XTrkCad. The planning has paid off because aside from a couple of tweaks to the storage yard, the layout has been constructed exactly as designed. The layout is housed in a room 17" x 12", with the door being in the bottom-right corner of the plans shown below. Above: This is the storage yard on the lower level, which represents both Cheyenne and Laramie. The changes to this design are one less storage siding and some additional locomotive holding sidings. The holding sidings were the idea of a friend from the FfWHR, who suggested that locomotive changes could be simulated by the yard operator during operating sessions. I thought t this was a brilliant idea, so added the sidings. The general idea is that all trains will face to the right in the storage yard. Upon exiting, they can either head right and climb Track 3 as a westbound train, or use the reversing loop to get to either Track 1 or 2; depending on where they go from there, they either come out on the middle level on Track 1 (left-hand running) as an eastbound trains, or come out on the upper level on Track 2 as a westbound train. The longest track holds the train in the lead photo, being #4014, #3999, 31 freights cars and a caboose. Above: This is the middle level that features Dale Junction. The reason for there being two cross-overs in the eastbound direction is to facilate an eastbound train chaging from Track 1 (on the left) to Track 2 (on the right), whilst a westbound train leaves Track 3 and gains Track 1. I will demonstrate this in a later post. Above: This is the upper level, which will simply depict Tracks 1 and 2 somwehere on the hill. Above: This is an overview of the layout and Dale Junction, the focal point of the layout. The photo is taken from the bottom-left corner of the room. This view will remain open, as the track that heads into Hermosa Tunnel passed in front of a window, so there will be no backscene, and for the upper level, the baseboard will be kept as thin as possible. In the middle of the photo, the computer driving the layout can be seen; this is running iTrain, which is connected to the Digikeijs DR5000 controlling the layout. Actual track power is provided by two Lenz LZ103 boosters (one for the storage yard, lower helixes and Dale Junction, and the other the upper helixex and upper level), with the track output from the DR5000 running the accessory bus that drives the points. The layout features full block detection (allowing iTrain to automatically drive the layout) and operating signals (also controlled by iTrain). I also have a YouTube channel, to which I have uploaded a couple of videos of the layout (plus a couple of other bits and pieces); here is a link to the first: I hope people find it of interest and I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have. I will try to keep it reasonably up-to-date but will also provide some history of the construction, plus of course some train photos. Enjoy