Model Railroads

I have two model railroads that occupy my time, although I admit that model railroading has become the secondary hobby for me.  The oldest railroad both by date and concept is my version of the Colorado and Northwestern (C&N), a narrow-gauge railroad that ran from Boulder, Colorado to both Eldora and Ward CO. It was known as both the Switzerland Trail of America and the whiplash route. My own version is actually standard gauge rather than narrow gauge as I discovered that my favorite parts of the hobby did not involve building freight cars from scratch or from kits. The setting for the railroad is Gold Hill CO on the line between Boulder and Ward set in about 1904. My newest railroad is the AT&SFand moves us much farther forward in time to 1975 or so and is set in the warehouse district of Los Angeles, more specifically an area known as the "Patch". Keith Jordan's model work and Robert Smaus' pictures captured my imagination and so my version of the patch is coming into being this year. I'm hoping to start laying track and building structures in the next few weeks.

This is an archive photo I think I pulled from the Los Angeles City Library. The large building in the center is the Walnut Exchange building. The building with the pyramid shaped skylights is Phillips Poultry and across the street from Phillips Poultry is the area where the track curves in between the two brick buildings. The Nabisco building would be in the direction of the bottom right of the photo. In this photo a steam engine is between the curved walled buildings.The main area that I'm modeling runs parallel to 7th Street between the Walnut Exchange and Phillips Poultry. The entire area is known as the Patch and there is a lot of it that you can't see in this photo. The street in front is 7th Street and the cross street is Mill Street. The other street running parallel to 7th Street is Industrial Street.