By Bob Harper & Bob Deakin.
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“CASCADE YARD” is the small, portable part of my 220ft home layout depicting 3ft narrow gauge operation in the Rockies in southern British Columbia.
Historically, the Columbia & Western Railway ran from the silver mining area around Rossland to the smelter at Trail on the Columbia River. My fiction
is that the narrow gauge prospered as a joint CP/GN line, and the branch extended to tap the timber stands and mines in the mountains around Cascade Lake;
so that timber traffic, ore from the Soggy Bottom Mining Co, general freight and passenger traffic from the growing tourist trade mean that I have an excuse
to run anything I like!
Built to American ¼ inch to the foot scale, i.e. 1/48th, the track is all handbuilt to ¾ inch gauge.
Most of the locos are brass imports from the Far-East, whereas a fair proportion of the rolling-stock is from the excellent Bachmann ON30 range,
re-gauged from 16.5mm. As time allows, this will all be super-detailed and re-painted. Scenically the layout is based on the dramatic cliff faces
on the Kettle Valley route a bit further west. The major feature of the layout is the digital command control (DCC) operation, which allows full
light and sound effects to be incorporated into the locos. At previous exhibitions, I have been persuaded to hand over control to eager viewers,
so it is possible that you may be able to have a go at blowing the whistles yourself.
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