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North Pacific Coast Garden Railroad
Railroad OverviewThis is my third attempt to build a garden railroad. The two previous attempts, I ended up tearing up a partially constructed railroad when we decided to move to a new home. Now I have a perfect base for the garden railroad of my dreams. It includes an indoor portion, my family room in my basement. Outside there are four acres of land to use in developing the outdoor portion. In the past I've tended to bite off way more than I can chew, so I've decided to build the railroad in phases. The location of the outdoor portion of the railroad will be beginning at my rear deck, dropping down a hill to my pond, and circling the pond I'll be modeling a real railroad, the North Pacific Coast. The NPC was a short line that once ran from Sausalito ninety miles to the Redwood forests north of San Francisco. It was a commuter and tourist line running steamers from the San Francisco docks to its own dock in Sausalito. From there it hauled commuters and vacationers in passenger cars all the way up the line. It handled freight for a growing set of communities north of San Francisco. And was a lumbering line, providing the motive power for the lumbering of the Redwood forests. Lots of modeling possibilities are packed into only ninety narrow gauge miles. Want to know more? There are links in the left corner of this page to research material, standards for building the layout, information on the railroad's site, and to pages documenting its construction. The material will grow as I add to the site. Enjoy. Prototypes ModeledThe primary target railroad for my layout is the North Pacific Coast Railroad. To a limited degree, I will also model it's successor railroads, the North Shore and the Northwestern Pacific. I will also model the Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods RR, a standard gauge short line road fed by the NPC that ran from Mill Valley, CA. up to the top of Mt. Tamalpais and via a branch line, to Muir Woods.
Time PeriodThe time period modeled is the 1880 to 1910 time period. However, I may occasionally run a train or rolling stock from a successor railroad, the North Shore or the Northwestern Pacific which would extend my modeling horizon into the 1930s. Extending the horizon causes few problems in the northern part of the NPC operations as those communities were somewhat fixed in time. The communities in the southern part of the route grew quickly as a result of NPC traffic, the automobile and the Golden Gate Bridge which was completed in 1937. They will be modeled as they existed on the 1880 to 1910 time frame. ScaleI'm not a scale fanatic and own narrow gauge engines or rolling stock executed in 1:20.3 and 1:24. The primary scale for future purchases will be 1:20.3. Where possible, buildings will be constructed in 1:20.3. Railroad ResearchOne thing that attracts me to model railroading is the challenge of doing historical research. This is not a freelance railroad. It is modeled after a historic prototype. As much as reasonably possible, I want the railroad to be representative of the prototype - services delivered, stops along the way, yard layouts, structures, terrain, and rolling stock. For this to happen, s significant amount of time is being invested in historic research. See the research link for more information. Railroad SiteThe site of the railroad will be my home in Madison, WI. An indoor portion will be developed that includes a staging yard in the unfinished portion of my basement and Sausalito, the NPC's base community in my basement family room. See the Site Link in the left column for details. Railroad StandardsI have developed or am in the process of developing standards for track, structures, layout base and scenery, human access, railroad utilities, plants and roadbed. See the Standards link in the left column for details. ConstructionThis will be a large garden railroad. Yet I want to have trains running by fall of 2007. So the layout will be built in phases. See the Construction link in the left column for details. |
(c) 2007 Iron Horse 1:29 |
