A portable layout

The concept of this layout is the base camp of an early logging outfit, on the shore of a protected inlet somewhere in the Pacific Northwest - Washington or Vancouver Island, around 1900.

The operation started logging within easy reach of the shoreline. As logging crews moved further inland, a narrow gauge railway was constructed to haul logs to the shore. Logs are dumped into the water, made up into large rafts, and towed to a sawmill several miles away.

Mainline railroads are still years into the future, so the camp´s only connection with the outside world is the once weekly sternwheel steamer which brings all supplies and the occasional passenger. Locomotives were shipped in by barge, and most cars have been constructed in the little carpenter shop, from locally cut lumber with iron parts only brought in on the steamboat.

Click to see the full trackplan !

The layout

This layout is designed as a small test layout, which can also be taken to meetings etc. It comes apart in two 48" sections + the fiddle yard , to fit the trunk of my car, while the total length of 12 ft fits along a wall of my train room.

The loco roster starts with an ancient Dunkirk and a couple of rather beat-up Porters. Current mainline power is a 14t Shay, and manage-ment looks forward to invest in a 25t Climax "superpower" as mainline runs increase in length.. Infernal combustion engines are still in the future. Logs are shipped on disconnects (from Keith Wiseman and Rusty Stumps) and several homebuilt freight cars also run on disconnect trucks.

The carpenter shop is inspired by Bob Clarke´s car repair shop (Sept ´96 Gazette). The engine shop will be an open air post-and-beam shed, to display the machinery in the attached blacksmith shop.

The work boat and its dock are strategically placed to hide an unrealistic crack in the water´s surface where the layout sections join.

Status

I have a large part of the rolling stock in place (needs to be weathered and detailed though..), a bundle of Micro-Engineering code 70 On30 track, and a couple of plywood sheets pre-cut to form the modules. All I need to get going is that shipment of code 70 turnouts...

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