Fort Yuma SP RR Station

[TedtheBuilder]

I've been working on this project for awhile and am ready to show it off. It began as a detour on a trip to Arizona when I saw this train station along the highway and had to take a look. I learned that the location was the first train station in Yuma, was built in 1877, and it served the region in many different ways. At one point, the station served the nearby Yuma Territorial Prison; and was even a California agricultural inspection station in the 1920s and 30s along one of the first coast-to-coast US highways - US Route 80, completed in 1926. Near the station are two bridges, one railroad bridge and one one-way road bridge. The road crossing was at the time of construction, the only US road crossing of the Colorado river for 1,000 miles!



It was replaced by a new station on the Arizona side of the river in 1926, and since then, the most well-known thing to happen to the station was to be featured in the film 3:10 to Yuma.

I'm not a model railroader, have never built a model railroad, but I love to build models, and have always admired people who can build large railroad setups. While surfing Youtube, I saw a couple of videos on the Inglenook Switching Puzzle, and later a video on small setups. This model really motivated me. This all happened around my trip to Yuma, so when I saw the site, it just captured my imagination and seemed like a perfect setup to build an Inglenook puzzle around. I used RailModeler to draw it up as an N-Scale 1'x4' layout. I got super excited to try it, and it turned out to be a great [and long] learning process of different modeling materials and techniques. I'd be happy to share more about the process if anyone is interested. Just let me know. Enough jibber-jabber.... Enjoy!

So here's the final result. I just took these pictures today.

Edit: Here is a link to my earlier in-progress post: New N-Scale Hobbyist for a Project

 

[Rico]

Very cool modelling, and an interesting history too!

 

[DeaconKC]

Very fine work.

 

[SD40 Jim]

Great choice of the prototype. You have very fine modeling skills. Now that you "got your foot in the door" of model railroading, maybe you should consider building one. A operational model makes it more interesting and fun.

 

[TedtheBuilder]

Very fine work.

Thanks!

 

[TedtheBuilder]

Great choice of the prototype. You have very fine modeling skills. Now that you "got your foot in the door" of model railroading, maybe you should consider building one. A operational model makes it more interesting and fun.

Thanks very much for the kind words. I went to a train show at the fairgrounds here in San Diego and they had several cool displays where they assembled a bunch of standardized modules built by different builders into one large, roughly 25'x25' circular [squared] traveling setup. I would love to build modules like that for other people to enjoy and operate.
For me, I adore the build process and seeing the final result, and I lose interest after that point. I want to move on to the next project. I have 20 model rockets in my office fully built and painted [during COVID] and I have yet to launch a single one. I can't explain it. Frankly, I don't know what I'm going to do with this layout now that it's finished....
I also went to the Train Museum in San Diego to see about getting involved, but that's an intense and weird environment for me. Very very serious, complex and technical compared to what I just pulled off. It's extremely impressive. I'd really like to do more scenery modeling with trains. I just have to find my next inspiration.

 

[SD40 Jim]

Thanks very much for the kind words. I went to a train show at the fairgrounds here in San Diego and they had several cool displays where they assembled a bunch of standardized modules built by different builders into one large, roughly 25'x25' circular [squared] traveling setup. I would love to build modules like that for other people to enjoy and operate.
For me, I adore the build process and seeing the final result, and I lose interest after that point. I want to move on to the next project. I have 20 model rockets in my office fully built and painted [during COVID] and I have yet to launch a single one. I can't explain it. Frankly, I don't know what I'm going to do with this layout now that it's finished....
I also went to the Train Museum in San Diego to see about getting involved, but that's an intense and weird environment for me. Very very serious, complex and technical compared to what I just pulled off. It's extremely impressive. I'd really like to do more scenery modeling with trains. I just have to find my next inspiration.

I understand, so do what works for you. When you find that next inspiration, I for one, hope you'll do another thread on that project.