Publisher’sMusings
by Joe Fugate
Larger home layouts
The joys and challenges of being the
owner of a large home layout
B
eing theowner of a largehome layout has been an
interesting journey. Such a layout canbeboth satisfy-
ing andoverwhelming.
I startedmyHO scale Siskiyou Line inMay of 1991, andhere
23 years later it’s still not finished!With the2015National
NMRAConvention coming toPortland (I live in thePortland,
OR area), I’d like tohavemany new things to show.
Imodel the SouthernPacific Siskiyou Line in southern
Oregon, a linewhichhas providedmuchof thenationwith
its lumber. The Espee liked to run fewer longer trains, so I
designedmy layout tohandleHO trains up to18 feet long,
which is approaching thirty 50-foot cars, plus head-endpower
(2-3units) andmid-trainhelpers (1-2units).
I started regular op sessions in the late1990s, and that’s
when I settledonmodeling thedecadeof the1980s. The
Espee still ran cabooses at that time, and a lot of rebuilt first-
generationpower ranon the Siskiyou Line.
Imove thedate I’mmodeling through thedecadeof the
1980s as each year goes by, always staying 30 years behind.
Right nowon the railroad it’s April 1984, withbillboards on
the layout and anoccasional pieceof rolling stock decorated
Publisher’s editorial - 1
