Black Hawk Railroad in 1/24th Scale

Fred Hutchison explaining his track plan

 

The switch stands are fully operational - a benefit of large scale

Storage cabinets under the layout

I visited Fred Hutchison's layout last weekend to provide him with some input on his 1/24th scale Black Hawk Railroad. Black Hawk was an interesting town in Colorado where gold and other minerals were mined and smelted as early as 1859. Two railroads eventually served the town, the Colorado Central and the Gilpin Tramway.

Fred is building a layout in 1/24th scale that is prototypically based. That is not something you see very often. 

It is essentially a one town switching layout. He is trying to replicate the track plan as it actually existed. That is a challenge given the large size of 1/24th scale.

The layout is situated in his garage with a removable staging section that will extend over the driveway. The whole layout is moveable to allow access to the rear. He also built very clever rolling storage cabinets under the layout.

Fred is decorating the garage like the interior of a station.   It will be interesting to see the layout  develop.