Here is Whyte Hills Pass, a layout in American N Scale. This layout is available for exhibition.

WHYTE HILLS PASS by Bill Garden

The layout depicts a scene in the USA between Chicago and Santa Fe on the route to California. The main aim of the layout which is normally located in a spare room is to watch trains go by so the track design of a double back loop allows trains to be seen more than once on their journey from the storage yard. There is only one siding on the layout which serves a distribution company so switching is infrequent on the line.

Locomotives and rolling are in various liveries including Union Pacific, Burlington Northern, Santa Fe, SOO and Amtrak. Most of the rolling stock is of modern design but some heritage trains are also run to give variety. Most of the models on display are made by Kato, Atlas and Athearn. Operation is DC and track and points are Peco code 80 and control is via a Gaugemaster Twin controller.   Points are operated by Peco motors using toggle switches.

The layout is nine foot long by three foot four inches wide and is of lightweight construction using softwood for the frame and insulation board for the top on which sits the track and scenery. The scenery was made using polystyrene blocks, contoured then covered with plaster bandages which were then painted and covered with various scatter materials from the Woodland Scenics range.

The layout was finished for display in October 2005 and it does what it was meant to do.   It had its first public display at Falkirk in November 2009 and is available for future public display.

The cows watch as railway workmen puzzle over the best way to remove the errant GP20 from the trees


 

A SOO line mixed trains thunders out of tunnel and over the level crossing

 

A Burlington Northern coal train with a pair of SD70Macs at the head.

Here is a video of the layout when it was on display at the Cupar Model Railway Exhibition in 2011


Awards:

At the Great North of Scotland Exhibition at Elgin in April 2013, the layout won two awards - The Kean Kennedy Shield for best scenic layout and The Moray Quaich for the best layout voted by fellow exhibitors.