As I write this, I am about to turn 79, and have been a "train boy" since the earliest I can remember. I'm told my dad bought be a Lionel set when I was very little. But I remember owning HO equipment by the time I was 10. I had built a couple of 4' x 8' HO layouts by the time I was 14, when the La Mesa Model Railroad club formed. 65 years later, that organization is still alive, building the world famous Tehachapi Pass HO exhibit in the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park. Decades ago, I moved away from San Diego, and have moved into larger and larger scales, first 1/2" scale, and now 1" scale, as I moved into outdoor model railroading.
The model railroading world orients in two directions, prototype enthusiasts and modelers, with most people having some of both interests. I am very much on the modeler side, as I love working with my hands and making things. My current railroad, the Westside Transfer Company (WTC), is no exception.
This is a 1" scale, 3' narrow gauge industrial estate railroad, a relatively rare set of choices. Nobody makes anything in this scale/gauge combination so I get to build everything myself.
I have been building the WTC for 8 years now, and for the first time, I now have enough rolling stock and track to begin "playing trains". As I have mentioned elsewhere, one of the operating principals this time around is to haul real goods, not pretend. This gives an added direction to not only the planning of the railroad, but how it operates.
These various pages show the beginnings of goods being moved. The current extent of the trackage is from the basement pantry area, across the back yard, up to the front yard. The WTC is projected to continue to the second story deck at the back of the house, as the final destination. Until then, goods are unloaded in the front yard and transshipped for final delivery.