Railroad Site
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North Pacific Coast Garden Railroad

Railroad Site

The Raw Material 

My home is sited on 4 acres of land just outside the Madison city limits.  Land is mostly cut grass with a moderate amount of shrubs and mature trees.  The location is sunny and open and contains a roughly 40 by 60 foot pond.

The layout will begin on the inside of the house in my basement family room.  The line will run into the unfinished portion of the basement and through a basement window at the rear of the house to the outside.

The outdoor portion of the layout will run down a hill at the back of my house to a pond located at the bottom of the hill.  Once it reaches the bottom of the hill it will circle the pond.

Layout Concept 

This will be an indoor/outdoor layout, making use of the indoor portion of the layout for the most structure intensive portion of the line and to protect equipment with minimal handling.  The outdoor portion of the layout contains more than enough space to model the majority of the trackage of the NPC and MT&MW.

Indoor Layout

The indoor portion will model the NPC's Sauselito docks and the NPC's Sauselito yard and maintenance facilities.  It will be designed to be operated as a switching pike in the winter when weather outside is too inclement to use the outside portion of the layout.  Weather permitting, train movements can be modeled beginning at the indoor Sauselito docks and yards through a portal to the outdoor beds all the way to the end of the NPC line in Cazadero.

The indoor layout will also contain staging tracks just below the basement ceiling.  The staging areas will connect to the indoor portion.  At the end of outdoor operating sessions, trains can be run into the staging area and secured in a weatherproof lockable area without the necessity of handling the trains.  

I'll document the indoor portion of the site this winter as construction on that phase begins.

The indoor portion can be operated on its own.  The outdoor portion can be operated on its own, fed by the indoor staging area.  With help from a few friends, both indoor and outdoor portions can be operated as a single layout.

Outdoor Layout

Outdoors, the layout will be modeled primarily on a hill that drops from my rear deck to a pond.  The hill presents challenges as the grade is to steep for a train to attack directly.  So the main line will wind back and forth across the face of the hill until the pond is reached.  

This shot looks back up the hill toward the house from the front of the pond.  The Southern portion of the NPC from Sausalito to Point Reyes will be modeled in this area including the entire Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railroad.

 

 

 

This photo, shot from the back of the pond shows the general area that will be used to model the northern half of the NPC.  That portion of the railroad will loop around the pond, making use of a number of water features that will be constructed to assist in modeling stream and river crossings of the prototype as well as the route along Tomales Bay.  These water features will also provide needed circulation and filtering for the pond.

 

Sausalito

This shot is taken at the rear of the house under the windows on the left rear side of the house.  The culvert and window in the middle of the photo are the access to the unfinished portion of the basement and the staging tracks that will be constructed in that area.  Tracks will run from there through my shop and into a finished family room.  Sausalito's dock and the NPC yards and shops will be modeled in the indoor portion of the layout.  This indoor portion will be designed for use as a switching pike when weather makes outdoor operation uncomfortable or impossible.

 

San Anselmo

The most non-prototypical portion of the track layout stems from the fact I want to model Mill Valley at the bottom of the hill and San Anselmo at the top.  For this reason, the branch line from San Anselmo to San Rafael will comes off before the Mill Valley Branch rather than after as it did on the prototype.

This is the area in which San Anselmo will be constructed.  The main line will come in from Sausalito at the bottom of the photo.  The branch line to San Rafael will pass through the upper of the two tunnels under the human walkway.  Meanwhile, the main line will continue down this side of the walkway toward the second tunnel at the right of the photo.  It will switch to the opposite side of the walkway through the lower tunnel in this photo.  The remainder of the main line will be modeled on the opposite side of the walkway until the base of the hill is reached.

 

San Rafael

You are looking at the site of San Rafael on the opposite side of the human walkway as in the previous photo.  The branch line will pass through the upper tunnel at the upper right corner of this photo.  San Rafael will be modeled along this upper line.

Once through San Rafael, the branch line will loop back through the lower tunnel to a holding pond that is part of the water feature that will be modeled beginning in the Sausalito portion of the layout and ending at the holding pond. 

Meanwhile, the main line will also pass through the lower tunnel through the human walkway to this side.  The main line will stay on this side of the walkway until it reaches the pond.

 

Spruce Point

In this photo, we're back on the opposite side of the human walkway.  Spruce Point refers to the group of Dwarf Alberta Spruces in the center of the photo.

In the center just below the tarp on the ground in this photo will be a holding pond for the water feature that will be installed in this section.  The feature will be a stream beginning at the tunnel into Sausalito (see photo for plastic pond) and ending at the holding pond in this area.  The branch line from San Rafael will come back through this lower tunnel ending in the holding pond.  The dock landing at San Quentin will be modeled out into this holding pond.

Meanwhile after leaving the San Anselmo yards, the main line will loop back to the bottom of this photo then take a 180 degree turn and pass along spruce point through the lower tunnel to the other side of the human walkway.

 

Main Line to Mill Valley

The hill drops over 9 feet from the block patio in this photo to the pond.  Once it has passed through the tunnel opening at Spruce Point to the left side of the walkway in this photo, the main line will need to snake back and forth across the hill to keep the grade at no more than 5%, the ruling grade for this layout. 

When the bottom of the hill is reached, the branch line will go to the left across the base of the hill to Mill Valley.  The main line will circle the pond beginning on the left side near the evergreen tree at the left of this photo.

 

Mill Valley and the MT&MW RR

The base of the hill is at the bottom of the photo.  The Mill Valley Branch will run from left to right across the bottom of the photo modeling Mill Valley on the right side.

At Mill Valley Union Station the NPC interchanged with the Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railroad.  Billed as "The Crookedest Railroad in the World", the MT&MW RR snaked back and forth across the face of Mount Tam climbing to the tavern at the top of the line.  My hill provides an interesting hill for the MT&MW RR to climb.  The tavern will be at the top of the hill.  From there, tourists will be able to hop onto gravity cars for the ride down to the John Muir Woods which will be modeled to the right of this photo at the base of the hill.

 

Point Reyes to Tomales

This photo is shot looking along the shore of the pond from a point to the right of the evergreen tree on the left of the pond two photos back.  Behind me at the base of the hill will be Point Reyes station.  Along this side of the pond will be the route through Marshall to Tomales. 

As this area is fairly open it lends itself to the kind of terrain found in this area of the prototype.  Also, there is a sandy area here that lends itself to modeling the route along Tomales Bay.  A water feature in this area may be used to provide a stream that dumps into the pond representing Keyes Estuary.

Note that a lot of compression of the NPC line happens in this area.  Because of the substantial Redwood forests in the northen part of the NPC, I'm skipping the redwood forests in the southern portion between San Anselmo and Point Reyes.

 

Tomales to Occidental

As we continue to circle the pond, we enter the section between Tomales and Occidental.

Tomales (lower end of photo) is farming country and there is plenty of open space to model the kind of terrain that existed on the prototype.

The line passes throuh Markam on this stretch and ends in Occidental which will be in the grassy area around where the grass is shaded in this photo.  Occidental is the gateway to the Russian River redwood resorts and logging areas.  Can the Browns Canyon Trestle above Markam be modeled here?  That remains to be seen.

 

Occidental to Duncan Mills

In this shaded area we enter Redwood forests.  The line passes through Camp Meeker on its way to Duncan Mills.  Duncan Mills will be at the base of the small shrub just above the center of this photo.  For screening purposes (from a subdivision being developed to the left of this photo), I wanted to pack this area with trees anyway.  The redwoods of the Russian River fit in well with this concept.  The branch line to Markhan could also easily be modeled in this area.

 

Howe Truss Bridge over Russian River

This site will require some re-grading and the removal of some vegetation.  But on thr right side of the photo we're looking over a corner of the pond.  Duncan's Mills would be in the foreground.  The Howe Truss bridge could cross the pond at this point in the general direction of the house.

Until the bridge is built, the branch line to Markham could circle around the shrub on the right side of this photo and function as a temporary main line.

 

Duncan Mills to Cazadero

The main line extends from the Howe Deck bridge across the Russian River from Duncan Mills through Elim Grove and ending in Cazadeo.  The bridge would terminate at the point between the large tree branches in the lower right of this photo.  I am standing in Markham.  Elim Grove and the Austin Creek disaster would be approximately half way between the bottom of this photo and the lamp post.  I plan to model Austin Creek with a stream that dumps into the pond beginning on the hill sloping down to the pond in the middle of this photo.

(c) 2007 Iron Horse 1:29