Original Layout

This and the following pages show my home layout.  I have retraced my decision making process on how I got to where I am with model railroading and this is how it went.

Why did I choose Z scale in the first place?  First, I was influenced by members of a club to which I used to belong and second, Z scale gave me a lot of scale with which to work.  The main reason for selecting Z scale is that I could fit my layout into my garage and not have to give up parking two cars.

But why did I choose the Z-Mod standard for my layout?  Once again, a club to which I used to belong had Z-Mod as their standard.  Now I team up with members a new club, the “Texas and Beyond Model Railroad and Historical Society”, I am associated with and we can assemble a nice layout for train shows.

Why did I select Texas as my layout theme?  That’s easy…I am a life long resident of Texas and it is my home.  I cannot imagine living anywhere else.  There is nothing wrong with other parts of the country but Texas is simply my home.  On both my mother’s and my father’s side I am a Texan by several generations.

Since I grew up in the Lower Rio Grande Valley near the border of Mexico and have lived in Dallas, Texas, for almost forty years, why did I select west Texas?  Before I became interested in model railroading my wife and I visited the west Texas area.  Among the places we visited was Marathon, which is approximately 85 miles north of Big Bend National Park.  We spent one night at the Gage Hotel which is situated across the highway from the railroad track.  I noticed that quite frequently very long trains ran through this little town.  Wow!  What a sight!  A few years later when I became interested in model railroading, building a Z scale module of Marathon and the Gage Hotel was a natural starting point.  I began to become interested in what this track was all about that ran through this little town of 800.  This track was the Southern Pacific’s Sunset Route running from Los Angles, California to New Orleans, Louisiana.  The Piasano Pass, a few miles west of Alpine is the highest point along the entire route so that became my next module.  Alpine, Texas, between Marathon and Piasano Pass is the subject of my next module.  The Sunset Route crosses the Pecos River in a most spectacular way and thus is the subject of yet another module.

What are the railroad lines I model?  Obviously, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific, who bought SP, are the railroads I have for my layout.  In the future, I hope to add Amtrak, since it uses this track.  And, what era do I model?  I am so new at all this that I do not really have that figured out yet.  Consequently, the era is “Now and Then”.

Finally, what sort of power do I use?  I started with DC.  I am in the middle of converting to DCC.  I use CVP’s EasyDCC and am very happy with it.  I have all of my Micro-Trains F7s converted and I am converting my turnouts to Peter Wright ’s fantastic turnouts using Tortoise motors and will be controlling them with decoders.  I have lighting on module but I am on the fence about controlling lights with DCC.  This is taking me much longer than I expected because I have taken on the daunting task of seeing just how far I can go with the Achievement Program.  

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