The S scale Sierra Northern
Mountain No. 3734 rolls a manifest freight past Truckee (above left). The eastbound mail train must be pretty light, as Espee A-3 Atlantic No. 3003 has been assigned the headend duties (top right) on this summer day. It can usually be found working the
equipment to operate on these clubs’ large modular layouts at local area train shows. These S standard gauge models followed the narrow gauge tenet for reproducing accurate, highly detailed scale models of specific freight cars, passenger cars and locomotives, albeit
to Southern Pacific standard
gauge prototypes. The number of avail- able S scale locomotives and car kits had grown significantly in past years (even many Southern Pacific proto- types), and I welcomed the opportunity to continue to scratchbuild and kitbash cars and locomotives for those SP pro- totypes not commercially available. The ultimate choice to rebuild a new
layout in S scale provided me a model- ing size that was large enough to contin- ue to add the amount of detail to each car and locomotive that I desired yet still allowed me to build and operate a layout of moderate size. The new layout would build on and expand my S scale standard gauge interests, but it would also retain a fair amount of Sn3 narrow gauge railroading for old times’ sake. The Sierra Northern Railroad would be my fifth layout, and I was deter- mined to incorporate all of the accumu- lated “learnings” from my past years of model railroad construction into this
42 JUNE 2013
short Sacramento Daylight between Sacramento and Lathrop in the flat Central Valley. GS-4 No. 4456, still wearing its Daylightcol- ors, heads a passenger consist near Blue Canyon (above). Diesels have taken over the switching duties at Truckee (below).
new model railroad. Perhaps the great- est learning was the desire to build and actually “finish” a layout within a reasonable amount of time. I’d seen far too many fellow modelers attempt to build huge layouts (myself included) that had no chance of ever coming near completion. The choice to model in the larger S scale helped to keep the rail- road at a modest design size, while the use of many newer construction tech-
niques and products decreased the completion time.
A new, dedicated building Our move to a small historic town in Georgia pretty much ensured that I would not have the benefit of a base- ment to house the new model railroad and I knew that the South’s weather would impose additional problems on maintaining a good-sized model rail-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100