Just to recap. This is a "toy train" layout. The principal design criterion was to be able to run trains and have fun. I am not a "rivet counter"; there are plenty of anomolies on this railroad. I am also not skilled enough or patient enough to build the kind of sceney that approaches reality. I like to say that my scenery is "evocative." It is meant to promote a feeling, not resemble reality. It will not stand up to close scrutiny...so don't do it! Few buildings (MTH, Lionel, Walthers) are weathered. The figures (from Arttista, K-Line, MTH and Lionel) frequently don't scale within the same manufacturer. I don't care.

What I have done is attempt to personalize the layout to family, so many of the establishments are run by or populated with family members.

The layout consists of three divisions: the Southern (which has both lower level and upper level tracks, the Union Pacific (also with lower and upper level tracks) and the Western Pacific (which has upper level tracks only). The Southern and UP have exchange tracks. The UP has a track that ascends to the WP. The WP has a track descends to the Southern. There is an industrial yard (the Portland Yard) that is part of the UP. The main switching yard is the Winter Park Yard which is accessed from the Southern Division.

The town is Winter Park (not even a resonable facsimile thereof) where I now live. One of the neighborhoods is Lake Oswego where I grew up. I have limited the size of my passenger trains to what looks good and what works. Thus, my potentially eight car California Zephyr is only six in operation. The same goes for my UP City of Portland which really has seven cars. My freight trains are limited to what I can fit on the Portland Yard passing sidings without overhang. This means five to six cars. I can pull more, I just don't want to.