Overall Layout

    A man's home is his castle but his home is his layout.  So it is in my home so long as I maintain room in the garage for two cars.  I am lucky to have a slightly oversized garage, but it is not always easy to keep peace with an ever-expanding model railroading interests.  The photo below is a couple of years old and many changes have been made to accommodate more and more layout and workspace.

Click on the photos to see larger photo.  Click back to return.

Now I have my layout on wall hangers and slightly higher so I can set up another layout below (when I complete the design and get it built).

    The layout is twenty-four feet in length and starts on the right, which is the back wall of the garage and extends around the corner to the left wall.  The layout as shown consists of five modules depicting west Texas.  It begins on the incomplete module on the right that may someday be a Houston, Texas yard.  Traveling west the next module is Marathon, Texas.  The Marathon Module is the first "real" module I built.  Leaving Marathon the tracks lead to Alpine, Texas in the corner.  Out of Alpine the train climbs the Paisano Pass module before arriving at another incomplete module on the left that may also be a yard in El Paso, Texas.

    There are two other modules not in this layout and they will be discussed in more detail in the following sections.  The Nolan River Module, which is actually a pair of ninety degree, outside corner modules, was designed and built for club and show layouts.  The Pecos River High Bridge Module was designed and built because I was inspired by the prototype and it interesting history.  This module attracts attention at shows because of its size and intricate detail.