Monday, July 03, 2006

Description

After many years of european modeling, I'm now through North American railroads.

In May, 2006 I decided to tear down my Austrian proto-freelanced modern era N scale layout and build a new one; this time I chose to model a portion of the Southern Pacific Coast Line in Central California during the summer of 1974.

There are several reason behind the decision of tearing down the Austrian layout:

  • I've been liking US railroads for a long time, especially the SP;
  • I want to model a real prototype in a real location in a specific time frame;
  • I want to operate the layout after a real traffic pattern;
  • I want very reliable engines out of the box;
  • I really like California;
  • I think the 1970s are fascinating;
  • After years of Model Railroader subscription, I simply couldn't resist anymore :-)
I started my research during the summer of 2006 and eventually chose to model the Coast Line. I asked information to US modelers on the internet, they were (and are) very kind; I've read articles on magazines; Books were also a great source of information. Here is the modeled area:


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