You’ve probably seen some photos of our large scale layout, the Snowshoe & San Juan. Our model railroad website (link in my signature) is mostly dedicated to the G gauge layout. But we also have an HO scale layout based on the Santa Fe railroad of the 1950s. A few requests for info on the HO layout have popped up so I thought you might like to see some photos of the HO layout that you will not find posted on our website. Background Info My dad started the HO layout back in the early 1970s in Wisconsin. Later he moved it to a suburb of Chicago. Then we moved to Southern California in the early 1980s and the layout moved once again. We’re still in California, although we do have a small place near Durango Colorado and that’s where our G scale layout is. The HO layout is a very simple double track line with a few sidings and one spur line that goes through a desert mountain. The layout has three major sections, a town, desert, and a residential area. Over the years a lot has been upgraded, detailed, and changed. We upgraded to DCC a few years ago. The newest addition is a small military base in the desert very loosely based on the logistics base out in Barstow, California. The era of the layout is in the mid to late 1950s. The main train we run is the Santa Fe Hi-Level El Capitan. My dad took this train in 1957 from Chicago to California and has been a big rail fan since. Another oddity we like to run is a Yellow Bonnet F7. Although these date to the early 1970s, we’ve always liked this unique paint scheme. When Intermountain released a version several years ago, we had to get one. Here’s a link to the HO scale page of our website so you can see what’s been posted: HO layout Here are some other photos that I don’t have room for on the website. If you have any questions please post. I’m happy to answer. Note if any of the photos fail to load, try refreshing the page. Imageshack is not the greatest when it comes to free image hosting sites. Hi-Level interior light testing
The only passenger network I’ve know in my lifetime is Amtrak. So I have a trainset based on the Southwest Chief. Here’s a Superliner II lounge testing the lights. Still have to paint the interior.
Same Superliner, but a good shot of the desert scene. The new military base replaced the string of maintenance cars.
Here’s a model I kitbashed to resemble one of the dorm cars used with the Hi-Levels.
Orange grove
Service station
Town Overview
Yellow Bonnet
Here is the new Military Base
Here is a DC-3 that used to hang over the layout…until the string broke. The plane crashed violently into the desert below it. Damage included popped out side windows, a gash on the side, slight damage to the main landing gear, the tail wheel was missing until it was found lying next to a donkey, and both “in motion” propellers broke off. “In motion” meaning just a circular piece of clear styrene. Since there were no figures inside, no fatalities were reported. No damage or injuries were reported on the ground other then some shifted sand and a startled donkey. Stationary propellers are now installed. The plane has since been grounded indefinitely pending further investigation of the crash.
