I had modeled HO from the time I was about 10 years old and switched to N scale in 1977 at the age of 20. I knew that when I built my dream layout that is would be set in the early 50’s. I have built a few small layouts and also a set of N-trak modules that was 24 feet long. In 1984 we( the exwife and I) purchased 22 acres out in the country and moved our 14 X 70 mobile home on to it. Later that year I bought a 14 X 52 mobile class room building for $500. It was all open except for the furnace. So I started drawing up track plan and started building a layout. In 1993 we purchased a new modular home and I moved the old 14 X 70 and set it beside the layout room. I gutted to old home and left the back bedroom intact for a storeroom So the layout room was 28’X 52’. I spent about a year drawing a basic track plan for the area. The layout would have code 55 track on the all visible parts of the layout and the helix and staging would use Atlas code 80 with Peco switches. I wanted # 10 or larger switches on the main and #6 in the yards. We got a divorce in 1997 and I walked away with my tools and trains. I always wanted to build my own house so after the divorce was settled I started looking for property to start building. I had the track plan all drawn up for the 28 X 52 and with a few modifications I could get it in a basement so that is the size of the house. I drew up a plan for the upstairs and started building the house in June of 1998. Took me till Thanksgiving of 1999 to finish the house doing almost all the work by myself. I was so burnt out of building that I didn’t start building the layout till the February of 2001. Having the track plan already, I needed to figure out what I wanted to model. Being a big UP fan and having bought a lot of locos and rolling stock in UP paint, I was going to model Sherman Hill but there isn’t a lot of switching there and I wanted a lot of operation. I looked at Donner Pass and it didn’t offer much in the way of way freights either. While at a train show I found a book on Feather River Canyon and bought it. After studying it for a few weeks I made it fit to my track plan. With all the UP equipment that I already had and didn’t want to start over, so I backdated the UP buyout of the SP WP and Rio Grande to 1952. So on my Feather River Canyon layout you will see locos and cabooses from from UP, SP, WP, and Rio Grande. The layout uses CVP’s EASY DCC with 8 wireless and 8 wired throttles. For powering the layout I use 6 CVP"s 10 amp boosters (this is enough power to power most large scale layouts)
Here is the track plan. It is a mushroom design with the the layout at 53" at the lowest point. The staging yard is 90" off the floor. The helix is 9 1/2 turn that rises from the 53" to 90" at the staging yard. The grade is just a little less than 2% on the helix. On the layout the grade is about 1 1/2%. The sidings will hold 60 car trains. This is what I call the lower part of the layout.
This is the upper or the mushroom part.
Over the next few days and weeks I’ll be posting photos on what I have done so far.
