Hello everyone, my name is Kevin and I'm from Germany. I'm new to model railroading and I'm at the beginning of this hobby. Before I want to start with drawing layouts etc. I need a beautiful state / region because I only have small space but I want to show both realistical. I've never been in the USA and so I need your help to find the right place. I'm searching for a state where trains cross mountains and desert together. Something like this and this. I think you guys can help me best and I hope for your answers.
Your second picture (which shows a train in desert landscape instead of a lush valley) seems to be this one: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=390981&nseq=3 As you can see in the text beneath the picture, the photo is from Kingman Canyon in Arizona. Here are some more pictures from there: http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?location=Kingman%20Canyon Smile, Stein
Look for pictures in southern colorado and New mexico. That will get you desert and mountains with greenery.
All of the western United States have "lush valleys" and "desert" (even Nevada has "lush valleys"). The key is to decide how much of the layout to devote to each, and build a nice scenic break between the two. You don't say how much space you have, or what scale, and those are big impacts on what/how you do either of these. Check out Mark Watson's "Thunder Ridge" design (in n-scale), for a nice way to incorporate very distinct terrain into a reasonably small layout.
Kevin- Welcome to TrainBoard! State and local tourism web sites can often show photos of picturesque areas in the region. These might be worth a look.
hi metal, You didn't state a scale. But since you want a small american type railroad, I would recomand N-scale to do what you want. Last year there was a N-scale layout published in MR about a layout modeling the Denver, Co and west line of the older Denver & Salt Lake (now UP) up the front range of the rockies to the Moffet tunnel. Back in the 8-'s I rode this line once the line up to the tunnel is desert like without trees. The layout was hugh and ended at the tunnel at the top thats eight miles long. When I went into the tunnel it was partly sunny and at the other end it was snowing (it was in december). a photo from this line recently is here http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=175167&nseq=12 You could design a reverse loop to reverse loop stacked with multiple tracks on each for stageing. Make a nice layout that way. Randy
I'm going to build in N-Scale with the measure of 210cm x 40cm (about 6.88' x 1.31'). I've no idea about the metric system and I've never learned in school xD Yes, this place is just for an switching layout but I want to expand later and that's why I'm searching for this route because my Train shall have a "history" or background even if I'm planning in the present (suggestions?) and those routes are all UP. I can't imagin^^ You mean the Moffit tunnel? I looked around and found two routes I like: The Feather River Route or the Rio Grande. Unsure if the Rio Grande is eligible because I only found this old map in Wikipedia and the South is a Narrow Gauge but what about today? I just know that the railroad in Silverton is just Narrow Gauge.
A good combination with both desert and pine-covered mountain scenery would be SP/UP's Shasta line between Dunsmuir and Grass Lake.
That's what he means. The line Starts out in Redding (well, the valley sub starts in Roseville, but that's more than you need) and goes through lush pine forests as it climbs through the Sacramento River valley up through Dunsmir, Mt Shasta City and on to Weed. At this point it is in High Desert. (I'm not sure if this area is considered part of the Modoc desert or not) It splits here between the original Siskiyous line which makes it's way to Ashland Oregon through the siskiyous and the Natron Cutoff which is the current mainline heading for Klamath Falls Oregon which is more to the east in the Cascades. Currently the Siskiyous line is out of service but in theory is operated by CORP. Also, have you ever seen Pelle Soeborg's original Daneville and Donner River railroad? I think he has captured a very similar goal to what you want. He wanted to capture modern Desert railroading and modern Mountain railroading and so rather than model a single prototype, he created a layout that was one half a model of Mojave Ca. (Daneville)A major city on the SP in the Mojave desert and a freelanced crossing of the norther Sierra Nevada (Donner river) The mountain portion was fairly freelanced and really looks as much like Feather River as it does the American River.
LOL (emphasis mine). I have to remember, when driving through on 58, not to blink or you miss the "city" (the train yards, airport/"spaceport" and Edwards are of course very cool to see)! The American / Yuba / Feather / Toulumne / Merced... All the major river canyons look great (with the American and Feather having major rail lines). Even the Sacramento canyon, up near Dunsmuir to Shasta is gorgeous! Any would be a great area to model (as many have).
