The Gilpin Gulch Rail Road

Why build a model railroad?

And, what is the purpose of a model railroad? Model Railroad Layouts are built for many different reasons. Some folks just want a place to run their collections. Some folks have a major theme in mind such as a coal hauling road or a passenger road or some type of specific industry. In my case, I wanted to have a hobby I could practice at home, in any weather, alone or with family or friends. My thought was that the railroad would be a "Miniature World" where most everything that happens on a real railroad would happen:

• Passengers are picked up and dropped off at stations in many different towns.

• Coal is mined and brought to places that need coal like power plants, rail yards and industries.

• Raw material and supplies are brought to factories and finished products are brought from those factories to distribution centers and warehouses.

• Logging is done in one area and the timber is brought to a mill. Finished lumber is then carried from the mill to lumber wholesalers and warehouses.

• Gravel is mined, loaded into hopper cars and delivered to construction sites and railroad maintenance facilities.

• Oil is pumped from oil wells, loaded into tank cars and brought to refineries.

• Steam engines are repaired, serviced and coupled to trains for travel all over the railroad.

This "Miniature World" concept allows a modeler to include many different types of rolling stock and industrial and railroad structures on the layout. It also allows for the inclusion of homes, churches, retail businesses and most anything that can be found in the real world. This all inclusive concept has made construction of the railroad very satisfying to me and I hope an enjoyable experience for visitors.

I have also enjoyed animating many of these structures to add interest to the layout. There are structures that dump coal and gravel into hopper and gondola cars and places where these cars are unloaded elsewhere on the layout. Since this is an all steam railroad, there are 15 to 20 operating water tanks scattered throughout the railroad. With steam locomotives tenders needing to be refilled every 50 miles or so, water tanks were an absolute necessity. All of my water tanks have operating spouts with water supply sound systems. I also have several buildings with operating doors and approximately 100 vehicles with operating headlamps and or taillights. There’s also an operating windmill/ice cream stand, an operating coal mine and an operating barrel loading facility. Construction of these animations and lighting effects has been a very satisfying part of building the layout.

Model Railroad Description:

The Gilpin Gulch Rail Road (GGRR) is a DETAILED model of a fictional all steam rail road which could have existed anywhere in the western U.S., around the 1900-1940 era. I chose to place the railroad in Colorado, so I could get away with using just about anything in the way of equipment which looked western. I also thought the line could buy used equipment from just about anywhere else, as long as it was steam era. The railroad has purchased equipment from Union Pacific, Western Maryland, and the PRR, among others. The Railroad has connections with the Southern and ATSF (Alpine Terrace, South Fork).

The present layout was started in January 2007, and basic scenery has been completed. The layout occupies the complete basement, an area of about 1200 square feet, with about 1400 feet of track and 160 turnouts. Minimum radius is 18”. A five turn helix is used to move complete trains to and from a 6 track lower level staging area. There are six independent routes for operations by inexperienced guests, but regular operating sessions are also routinely conducted for experienced model railroaders who want to conduct timetable operations. 14 -22 trains are normally run at these 3-hour sessions, which results in the movement of over 200 pieces of rolling stock around the layout. A car card system is used to direct operations for these sessions, which typically involve 8-10 model railroaders.

The railroad also features operating water tanks with sound units, two coal loading and two coal unloading facilities which handle live loads, gravel loading and unloading with live loads and operating barrel and log loaders.

Most of the structures are lit for night operations, and many of the vehicles feature working headlights and /or taillights. Some signalmen are also equipped with working lanterns.

The railroad is powered by an NCE DCC system with radio and tethered throttles. There is also a WIFI interface to allow train control via smart phones.

The towns on the layout are named after family members and the industries are mostly named after friends, although I have thrown in some jokes here and there!

In this site, I hope to present photos of the railroad, descriptions and instructions of projects related to the layout, documentation of operating sessions and other related information. I am not an expert on railroads or model railroad construction. My intent here is just to show one way to build a model railroad and what I have done, (with instruction and encouragement from many others) !

I hope you enjoy this site and come back periodically to see any updates.

If you have comments or questions, You can contact me at: GAIGEGEORGE@YAHOO.COM

George Gaige

The photographs in this site are the property of the author and should not be reproduced for commercial purposes without permission. For easier viewing, you can click on the image and view an enlarged version.