Two-Railroad Town in MRP 2012

Model Railroad Planning 2012 features one of my custom HO layout design projects for a mid-sized space. As you may read about in the article, my client was interested in a real-life setting in California's Central Valley, but it took some searching to find just the right candidate location that met his layout vision.

Reedley, California was the client's choice and I think that the final layout turned out very well. The Southern Pacific and Santa Fe paralleled one another through town, with some industries sandwiched in between the two main lines.

The final design included hidden stub-end "X-factor" staging tracks below and is just one more example of how an around-the room design is so often superior to the "sacred sheet" HO 4X8 track plan folks are tempted to plunk down in a room that would hold something much better.

Editor Tony Koester and the Model Railroader staff did a fine job on production (as always), and generous assistance from railroad author John Bergman, Dr. Jim Lancaster and John Signor provided classic images of Reedley to complete the article. Click here to see this layout in my layout design gallery.