Sadly Keith's gorgeous N scale Blue Mountain railroad is no more. Most of it met the dumpster in July 2014. But memories linger on. I had the opportunity to shoot some photos of it just before its demise.

Keith used N scale for what it does best - not cramming 20lbs of railroad in a 10lb can, but to display sweeping scenic vistas. The scenery on this layout looked very nice. In places it looked even better.

R.I.P.

This is the third version of Jim Barta's Black Canyon Railroad. I've had the priviledge of watching his railroads and his modeling skills grow. All this is packed into smallish family room over his garage.

Lots of buildings, scenery, and operation not to mention a magnificent mountain backdrop!

Jim is a pure craftsman. His On3 model of the D&RGW is a museum piece. His cars all feature full underbody detail. He scratch builds all kinds of things. And his locos run flawlessly. Top it off with some magnificent scenery and voila! Railroad magic.

Pete is the owner of Canyon Creek Scenics and maker of some of the best commercial trees you can buy.

Although he his layout is not complete portions of it look very nice indeed. And since it may be scheduled for a tear-down and replace operation soon here are some pictures to show what he's done. Most of the scenery on this layout has been in place for a very long time. Pete is a true artist and craftsman when it comes to fabricating model trees. Conifer trees are his specialty. You have to see the detailed trunks on his foreground cedar trees to believe it they photograph so well. Personally, I'm convinced they helped me win prizes with some of my pictures.

Ralph loves to run his trains. His UP railroad has more operation per square foot than any other I've seen. But in addition to having major trackage he's also got some nifty scenery.

Joe is building a mushroom layout of the Southern Pacific's Siskiyou division in his basement. Joe seeks to get the feel of a lazy summer day in Oregon. His scenery is right on the mark.

These pictures show some of super-detailed scenery. If you'd like to see more you can take a look at his Siskiyou Lines website. He also is producing a 5 volume set of DVDs about his layout and the techniques he used to design and build it. I can vouch that these DVD's (or VHS tapes) are well worth the money.

I got interested in our hobby when I was 16. I joined the East Bay Society of Model Engineers but my home layout(s) never progressed beyond the disaster-area phase. Do you remember what you accomplished in the hobby as a teenager?

I first met Shaun Toman when he was a 17 year old. With a smidgen of help from his grandfather Alex he'd transformed his bedroom into a UP railroad empire. He loved to scratch build structures and machinery (grain loaders and container handlers) getting tutelage from the late Lyle Noah of Scratch Built Models. He had a good eye for weathering too.

His bedroom layout is gone but he has a new switching layout. You can see pictures of his new layout from Sept 2005 on his Damage Design website (he's now a professional graphics artist.