The Texas, Colorado and Santa Fe

Construction began on my first layout in Dallas in late 1981. It was featured on the tour for many Dallas conventions but the highlight was the Santa Fe Modelers annual convention in 1985. It occupied an 11 x 19 foot room in a detached garage. Control was with CTC-16 and part of the layout was signaled. I scratchbuilt all the structures. Track was mostly Shinohara code 83 but some was custom laid by good friends Lynn Zimmerman and Dick Roark of Houston.

I modeled the Santa Fe's Plains Division, loosely following the second and third districts from Waynoka to Clovis in 1942.

The layout was dismantled in 1989 and my ex-wife, her lawyers and the IRS helped themselves to the proceeds.

Now 17 years later I am well on the way with Phase II!

This was the main yard control panel and the control panels for the main line turnouts. I wanted to try and simulate a CTC machine as best as possible.	I scratchbuilt the Pratt depot from styrene. The water tank was an NJ brass import. The background was painted by Tom Cotten.
Here 4-8-4 number 3776 pulls the Scout past a lone windmill.	The center island of the layout was a yard and engine facility loosely modeled around Amarillo where I grew up.

One of my big interests is Santa Fe reefers. Here an eastbound GFX, with three FT's in charge, hustles a train of strawberries and lemons to eastern markets.	Big concrete grain elevators were the Cathedrals of the Plains. I built this one from PVC pipe and named it for the late Lee Berglund who was a dear friend.

I scratchbuilt the 135-foot turntable out of styrene using photographs my dad made of Amarillo in the 1950s. The roundhouse was built from plaster castings from moulds I made from scratchbuilt patterns.

Created: April 21, 2002
Last Update: April 21, 2004