A Backyard Disney Railroad

In an Anaheim, California neighborhood, not too far from Disneyland, there is a magic kingdom of a G scale garden railroad being built by architect Dave Sheegog. His wonderful layout is featured in this month's Garden Railways magazine and features faithful reproductions of all of the Disneyland locomotives, along with many of the structures and landmarks of the famous theme park - all set in a beautiful garden setting. Dave's layout is a remarkable achievement and has been a great inspiration to my own modeling efforts. Check out the great video below, then head on over to the Castle Peak & Thunder website for more details and photos of this amazing model railroad: www.cptrr.com

The Big Thunder & Western Story

A rare unused all access pass for the Big Thunder & Western. Note the signature of the Railroad's third president, Elias Homage III, grandson of the line's founder.

The Mythos

Once upon a time, in the wild & woolly American West, there was a railroad like no other. Built in the early 1870s by that daring pioneer of the rails, Elias Homage, the narrow ribbon of rail wound its way through mountains, deserts and grandiose canyons; a near miraculous engineering feet of the Victorian Age. It connected the mining boom-towns of Big Thunder and Grizzly Flats with the outside world via the ships and river boats that made port at Fowler's Harbor. Along the way, the railroad passed through some of the most spectacular scenery in the world; a veritable Nature's Wonderland of cascading peaks, rivers filled with beaver and playful bears, unpredictable geysers, bubbling "paint pots," cactus forests, fantastical red-rock formations, breathtaking canyons and even some rainbow hued caverns. The name of this legendary line was the Big Thunder & Western.

The BT&W ran a first class roster of colorful steam locomotives and rolling stock which were lovingly maintained by their crews. So well cared for in fact, that much of the line's original equipment continued to operate well into the 20th century. Isolated by wild rivers and high mountains, the little short line chugged along for decades, outliving the mining booms to become a curiosity for tourists and a major actor in dozens of Hollywood Westerns.

In 1952, none other than Walt Disney paid a visit and took a ride on the fabled line. Accompanied by his associates Ward Kimball and Roger Broggie, Mr. Disney was said to be on a fact finding mission for a "new concept in entertainment" that was being planned for Anaheim California. Enthralled and enchanted by the Railroad and its spectacular scenery, Disney and his associates returned to California with a boxcar load of sketches, photos and grand plans.

Of course, the old-timers in Big Thunder country know full well that Disney copied many ideas from the ol' BT&W, right down to the colors of the locomotives later used at Disneyland! Not that anyone minded much.

Porter #2 passes through the cactus forest on its way to the depot. Next stop is the paint shop, where it will be repainted and lettered for the BT&W.

The Model

The "real" Big Thunder & Western is, of course, an On30 scale model railroad currently under construction in a corner of my studio. Inspired by the sights, sounds and equipment of the various Disney railroads, the BT&W will be a whimsical caricature of Western narrow gauge railroading.

The above plan is actually for the second Big Thunder & Western. The first was begun in HO scale and never completed. As work progressed on the original, it became more and more apparent that the ideal scale/gauge combination for what I was trying to do was actually On30 and not HO. So, I took a deep breath, traded away most of my HO equipment and started over. There is a wide variety of equipment available in On30 that lends itself perfectly to "Disneyesque" modeling. The Porters, Forneys and other fine running locomotives now available from Bachmann are an ideal place to start. I simply love the chunkyness and charm of these models and the high level of detail that can be achieved in a relatively small space.

My track plan is pretty compact for an On30 railroad and fits in a footprint of just 6x10'. It's adapted from the "Elk Creek & Western" by Ian Rice, published in the January, 2000 Model Railroader. I changed Ian's excellent plan by adding another 12" to the back of the layout, allowing room for the town, and making the grade up and over a little longer and easier. I also lengthened the passing siding, added a 48' turntable to the Big Thunder yard and replaced Ian's dubious swinging gate idea with a much sturdier faux truss bridge duck-under/lift out.

As you can see, this plan includes Big Thunder Mt, the town, station, geysers, a couple of bridges and Rainbow Caverns. Once this section of the railroad is completed, future expansion plans will take the line passed Cascade Peak, over Bear River trestle and on to Grizzly Flats and Fowler's Landing.

Progress on the railroad can be sporadic and downright slow at times as I juggle artwork, home life and hobby time, but I feel I'm on the right track with this project and have every intention of seeing it through. Stay tuned!

© Dave Meek

Magic of the Rails • Walt's Favorite Car

Magic of the Rails • watercolor, 10x18"

I really enjoyed painting this one.

I loved growing up near Disneyland and painting this piece brought back some fond memories of the old Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad. They say that combine 101 was Walt Disney's favorite car and it certainly was a pleasure to feature that car in a new bit of artwork. There is a wonderful series of articles by Steve DeGaetano running on MiceAge right now that tells the history of the combine and the current efforts underway to aquire the car for the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society. I was pleased and honored that he chose to include my painting in his column.

I have donated the original of Magic of the Rails along with 10 limited edition giclée prints to the Carolwood Foundation. They will be on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum booth at the upcoming D23 Expo in Anaheim, September 10 - 13. It is my understanding that the original painting will be auctioned off, and the prints offered as donation premiums for those contributing to the combine's acquisition and restoration. Because of these fund-raising efforts I will not be selling prints of Magic of the Rails until the donated prints have all been claimed.

It was my great pleasure to do this painting for Carolwood and I hope that all fans of Walt Disney and his railroad legacy will do their part in helping the Museum to acquire this unique piece of Disneyland Railroad history.

© Dave Meek

Magic of the Rails - Work in Progress

Here's a new piece I'm calling 'Magic of the Rails'. It was inspired by many childhood trips to Disneyland where I had my first introduction to steam railroading. The view is looking southwest from the Main Street Station platform where engine #2, the E. P. Ripley, is just about to depart for a Grand Circle Tour of Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom. Just behind the locomotive is the first car of the original Disneyland passenger train, Wells Fargo Express Combination Car #101.

Said to be Walt Disney's favorite car, the Combine was one of six original cars in the train known as 'Retlaw 1' to the old Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad crews. Combine 101, along with the rest of the passenger train, was retired from regular service in 1966 when new open-sided cars were brought on-line for better viewing of the Grand Canyon & Primeval World dioramas. The combine, along with coaches 102 - 105 were later traded away to a private collector, while car 106 remained at Disneyland and was eventually converted to the luxurious Lilly Belle Parlor Car that one can see on the line today.

But now Combine 101 may be coming to the end of its long journey home. No, not to Disneyland; the Carolwood Foundation is doing their best to acquire the car for the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society, a group of dedicated folks committed to preserving Walt Disney's railroad legacy. The CPHS operates a small museum out of Walt Disney's barn in Griffith Park, California. 'Walt's Barn,' as it is known, was where Disney spent many enjoyable hours tinkering and building things for his Carolwood Pacific backyard railroad. The Barn was relocated from the Disney property in Holmby Hills to its current spot amid the Los Angeles Live Steamers Museum in 1999. It is hoped that Combine 101 will also be acquired and displayed near the Barn sometime in the not-to-distant future.

All of this takes money of course, and the Carolwood Foundation is currently working hard to secure the necessary funds for the historic car's acquisition and subsequent preservation. I'm doing my small part by creating the artwork above. I'll be donating the original painting along with several prints to be used in Carolwood's fund raising efforts.

© Dave Meek

Track and Wiring for the Virginia, Truckee & Sierra

For the previous post in ths series, click here.

VT&S #20, Tahoe, simmers in front of the Granite Gap depot with a little help from Photoshop.

It's been a little over five weeks since work first began on my little N scale Virginia, Truckee & Sierra layout and I'm happy to report that a great deal of progress has been made. All of the track and wiring has been completed, fascia boards have been added, and work as begun on scenery and structures.

Here' a video showing the inaugural run over the line to check track and wiring:

Track & Turnouts

Overall view of the VT&S. The Carson River High Bridge has yet to be built.

The track and turnouts are all Atlas code 55 laid on top of Midwest N scale cork roadbed. Both bridges use Micro-Engineering code 55 bridge track. Most of the track has been painted with Floquil Rail Brown and the rest will be touched up soon. I really like the closer to scale look of the code 55 rail and since changing out the wheels of my rolling stock to Micro-Trains low profile wheels, operation has been nearly flawless.

Some temporary structures have been placed on the layout to help visualize the completed scenes. Caboose Industries' ground throws have been installed to control all five turnouts on the VT&S.

The track was laid on the roadbed with "Goop" contact cement. This stuff has a working time of about a minute so you've got to get it lined up right the first time. Rail joints on curved track where soldered, while most straight sections where left unsoldered to allow seasonal expansion and contraction of the rail. I've found through past experience that this is an important detail not to overlook - kinked and out of gauge rail will kill your fun faster than just about anything.

Since everything is within easy reach on the VT&S, all five of the turnouts are controlled by hand using Caboose Industries ground throws. The throw bar on these ground throws is way too long to suite me, so I snip it off and use the short side, using a shortened Atlas N scale track nail to join the ground throw to the turnout throw bar. I drill out the holes in both the ground throw and the turnout throw bar to accommodate the nail and then mount the ground throw right at the ends of the long throw bar cross ties. Even though the Caboose ground throws are still vastly out of scale, this type of installation provides a somewhat more prototypical appearance. And they work great.

Wiring & Controls

The simple block wiring control panel.

The VT&S uses simple block DC wiring. 14 guage buss wires run beneath the entire layout with feeders carrying current to the different blocks. Yes, this is wiring overkill, but I simply have no patience for electrical problems on a model railroad. There are five wiring blocks controlled by SPDT toggle switches and the layout is wired for two cab operation, though only one cab is currently installed. Truth is, I don't know what I would do with two cabs on a layout this small, so, for the time being, all power is supplied by a single MRC Tech II power pack that was salvaged from a previous layout. The power pack sits in its own little recessed "cubby hole" at the left end of the layout

The five wiring blocks can be seen clearly in the above photo. This scheme allows me to have two locomotives on the layout at one time, with one parked at the Granite Gap depot and the other on the main loop, and to have them swap places from time to time. This is primarily a display layout, a place to watch trains run through some nice scenery. Complicated switching gymnastics are not part of the plan for the VT&S.

The panel itself measures about 4x9" and was created using Adobe Illustrator. I printed out two copies and used one as a drilling guide for the toggle switches by taping it to the layout facia. Once the wholes were drilled, the torn up copy was removed, and the second copy was glued in place with 1/2" round holes cut out for the switches. Then the sitches were wired and installed from the rear. In the near future, a piece of plexiglass will be cut to size and installed over the panel to protect it from wear.

What's Next?

The pony truss bridge is a scale 87' long and was built from a Black Bear Construction Co. kit. The 2-8-0 is from Roundhouse and is still lettered for an earlier layout.

Now that everything is wired up and running smoothly, I can get started on the scenery and structures. Fortunately, I have a lot of structures already built from previous layouts, like the pony truss bridge shown above. In fact, the layout was designed with many of these existing structures in mind. The biggest single construction project will be the high curved trestle over the lower part of Carson River. I'll be getting started on that as soon as I can get the parts from Black Bear Construction Co.

In the mean time, I'll be roughing in the tunnel area and building the canyon walls with extruded Styrofoam. Time to get back to work!

© Dave Meek

Happy Birthday Disneyland Railroad!

© Disney

54 years ago today, July 17th, 1955, Walt Disney first opened the gates of his Magic Kingdom, Disneyland. To kick off the opening festivities, Walt himself, at the controls of engine #2, the E. P. Ripley, piloted the very first train of the then Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad into Main Street Station. Since that day, the marvelous sights and sounds of turn of the century steam railroading have continued to greet the millions of guests who come to Disneyland each year.

Walt Disney had a lifelong fascination with trains and railroading. From his young days as a news butcher on the Missouri Pacific to the planning and building of his theme parks, Disney was enthralled with the magic of steam trains. After achieving a certain level of success in Hollywood, he built a scale live steam railroad, the Carolwood Pacific in the backyard of his house in Holmby Hills. But all the while he was dreaming of bigger things. Every early plan for Disneyland included a train ride and he reportedly told his "Imagineers" when planning the park, "I just want it to look like nothing else in the world. And it should be surrounded by a train."

Walt got his wish in 1955 when Disneyland opened to the public. It has been said that Walt built Disneyland to have a place to run his trains; basically as a giant model railroad, and I think there is some truth to that. But his vision to preserve real steam railroading for families to enjoy for generations has benefited us all, myself included.

Having grown up in Southern California about a half-hour away from Disneyland, I can trace my personal fascination with steam trains back to the first time I saw one pull into Main Street Station. A puffing, panting time machine, resplendant in green and red and gleeming gold - the colors of Christmas - the little trains of the Disneyland Railroad ignited a lifelong passion for trains in me that has only grown stronger over the decades. This passion has brought me countless hours of joy and fascination as I have ridden, chased, painted and modeled the vanishing raillines of the West.

So, it is with heartfelt gratitude that I wish Disneyland and the Disneyland Railroad a happy 54th birthday. Thanks for the trains, Walt.

For the most complete information on the Disneyland Railroad, be sure to pick up Steve DeGaetano's authoritative book Welcome Aboard the Disneyland Railroad available from Steam Passages Publications.

© Dave Meek

Benchwork for the Virginia, Truckee & Sierra

For the previous post in this series, click here.

Things are progressing quickly on my Virginia, Truckee & Sierra N scale project. As you can see from the photos, the benchwork and supports are finished, and the backdrop has already been installed. The gaps in the plywood sub-roadbed are the future locations for bridges. All of that messy benchwork will be hidden once the Masonite fascia is installed.

I'm using what I like to call the "box and stilts" method for my benchwork. It's sturdy, versatile and quite easy to build. First, you make a simple box from 1x4's that matches the outside dimensions of your layout or module, in this case, 24x48". This forms the base of your layout so make sure it's good and square. Next, determine the maximum depth that scenery will extend below the roadbed and cut "stilts" from 1x2's to support the roadbed above the base at that height. I'm planning for some dramatic vertical scenery on the VT&S, so my plywood sub-roadbed is on stilts that raise it 7" above the base. When the roadbed and track are installed, this will allow for a canyon about 95' deep in N scale. There are no grades on the VT&S so all of the stilts were cut to the same length.

Using a steel ruler and a bar compass, I drew my track plan full size on a 2'x4'x 3/8" plywood sheet and then cut it out with a scroll saw, allowing at least 1 1/2" on either side of the track center line to accommodate the cork roadbed. When that was finished and sanded, I installed it above the base on the stilts described above.

In keeping with my plan, almost everything that has gone into the railroad thus far has been recycled from previous projects. That includes the support legs, most of the lumber for the box and stilts benchwork, the backdrop, and even the drywall screws used to hold it all together. About the only thing I had to purchase new was the 2'x4'x3/8" plywood sheet used for the sub-roadbed.

Currently I'm waiting on a delivery of cork roadbed and a few other items from W. K. Walthers. When those arrive, I can begin laying track and wire everything up to get some trains running on the VT&S.

For the next post in this series, click here.

© Dave Meek