HERE IS A SHORT VIRTUAL TOUR of my 20'x20' layout. Since the pages on Multi-deck Layouts, Operations and Forms, and Layout Operations include a number of general photos, this tour will tend to concentrate on more detailed photos (except for the first introductory photo).

This is the view as you enter the layout room. This is El Portal at the end of the line. The station and train shed are at the far end of the line while Highway 140, leading to Yosemite National Park, heads uphill to the right.

Looking through the railroad station arcade at Merced toward Observation Car No. 330 on the mainline. Both the station and observation car are scratchbuilt.

This view looks down the turntable lead toward the turntable in the Merced yards. On the left are the oil tank and water tank.

My model of Caboose No. 19. It was scratchbuilt from styrene.

The caboose also includes a full interior including an August 1939 pinup calendar and a conductor's desk with a blotter, coffee cup, and paper work.

My scratchbuilt model of the interlocking tower in Merced. This tower controlled the semaphores protecting the crossing of the YV and the AT&SF. Just beyond the tower is Bear Creek.

A freight train rolls westbound toward Merced through the eucalyptus grove east of town. The train has just passed over Black Rascal Creek.

Locomotive No. 29 slowly rolls to a stop next to the Merced Falls station while the cook from the Company Dining Hall watches from the hill above the track.

Highway 49 where it crosses the YV tracks at Bagby. After crossing the tracks, Highway 49 continues northerly to Coulterville. Details in this scene, from the wire fence around the hotel to the free-standing Flying A gas sign and the Highway 49 traffic sign to the Coca Cola sign on the building lean-to, were all duplicated based on prototype period photos of this area.

Locomotive No. 28 works the yard at El Portal. The grey building in the background is one of the railroad cottages which still exist in El Portal while the white building is the Standard Oil office. This building is now owned by the National Park Service.

A closeup of my scratchbuilt El Portal station. The decorative bark and branches on the prototype were duplicated with individual pieces of styrene.

The logging area worked by the Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber Company in 1939 (near current-day Highway 120) is represented by a section of the layout which is 77" off the floor. This is the truck reload area.

Web page development, design, and content copyrighted © by Jack Burgess 2008. E-mail: Jack Burgess