Join the discussion on the following article:
User video: Walking tour of Mark Dance’s N scale Columbia & Western
Very,very nice. As an n scaler myself, this is one of the best I have seen. It’s a true work of art.
Great job! Some of the best scenery work in seen.
Beautiful layout! You have captured the essence of model railroading: realistic scenery and prototypical operation…a rare gem indeed. Thank you for sharing your layout with me and all the other modelers who view this fine film.
Absolutely Top Drawer … Mark’s superb masterpiece demonstrates what can be achieved in our N-Scale modeling world. I would love to see the layout featured in a operations video - ( with loco sounds of course ).
Buzz Bond … Z/Z CONVERSIONS
What a wonderful layout! I’m in awe! I only hope mine is as worthy of a video someday!
Excellent rockwork Mark! Also very clever use of drawer slides for your lifting bridge section.
What a superb masterpiece in N-Scale! You’ve captured everything that mountain railroading evokes and managed to combine it with excellent operation as well. If Gordon Odegard was alive today I’m sure he’d feel exhilarated at seeing what you’ve achieved since he set the benchmark for N-Scale layouts with his “Clinchfield” in '78. Can’t wait to see it in its “finished” state, though my bias for a slightly later era would want to see SD40-2’s in the bold red, black and white scheme dominate CP.
Ramon A J Lucas
Victoria Australia
Great tour; thank you for posting.
WOW!!! Hard to believe it’s N.Undoubtably the best n scale layout I have ever seen. “N/gauged” me for hours…watched it over and over. Congrats and many thanks for sharing with us.
Wow! And I learned how to pronounce Nakusp, which is almost as much fun as Myncaster or Similkameen. The border railroads have always been an interesting place to explore. Your modeling of them rivals that of Gib Kennedy.
Great Scenery and Wow real mountains! I could not access the larger screen so I did not see all the detail but I got many ideas on how to model industry. Thanks for the tour, but where were the (running) trains? Ten years is almost a lifetime but you got results and a fine model railroad. You must be proud and you get to operate it when you want. I will watch this video again and again!!! THANKS!!!
Thank you for the kind words everyone. If you wish to see trains running, as well as lots of videos ont he construction and operation of the layout, there are plenty at the C&W YoutTube site at:
https://www.youtube.com/user/markdance63
Just try pasting or typing that URL into your browser.
md
My old feeble mind has a difficult time understanding how this layout works, I’ve watched the video twice and have spent quite a bit of time looking at the track plan in GMR. The fact I can’t understand the layout simple means it is complicated. That I can’t understand is meaningless, obviously those who need to understand it have no problem. The scenery is wonderful and love how the mountain scenery dwarfs the trains, Great Job, Mark
Thank you Mark…yes the track plan, when laid on top of itself, is complex but operating on it is no more complicated than - at worst - a double deck layout.
The lowest storage deck is completely hidden and no operator other than myself interacts with it during a session. Otherwise, minimizing hidden mainline track to a two turn helix, keeping the direction of travel consistent and having only one pass through each scene helps a lot to reduce complexity. Other than the helix entry and exit (which are directly above each other) it is clear to an operator where their train is.
The middle two decks are conventionally stacked with lots of separation between them and, due to the mushroom design, an engineer running a train over the layout can see just two decks for about 60% of the run and only a single deck for the balance of the run. Only the branch line operator ever sees the fourth deck and, because it is above their head, they are only ever seeing an interacting with one deck at a time as well.
I hope that helps
md
Very nice scenery! It’s the most beautiful layout I see! Great job Mark. Do you made all the saw mill yourself?
Hi Mark…just finished reading your excellent article in 2016 MRP. Wonderful management approach to bridge model design in a given linear space. Did you scratch build the steel deck truss, Slocan River bridge? Planning something similar on my newly under construction HO M&P RR.
Art Kuperstein
Nice layout. Enjoyable to see it.
Hi Mark…could you please tell me more about all the fir trees such as if scratch or purchased and alo flocking material and the
Hi Philippe…yes all the structures I made myself.