John's Alaska Railroad HO Scale Layout

It took 18 years to completely build my HO scale Alaska Railroad layout. Long story short, we sold our house and had to tear it all down in one evening. Yes, in one evening! Unfortunately, I had to throw away the scenery, track, wiring, risers and cork road bed.

In November of 2016 my daughter Anne expressed a strong desire to have her son (my grandson) see my trains run at Christmas. I wasn't able to make it happen, but seeds were planted... read more.

And now to the details. The layout diagram is shown below and clicking on it will reveal a "super sized" image. The next section gives a blow-by-blow photo journal report of the work as it progresses. Enjoy!

Layout Design V2.0

**Current Layout Overview (as of 12/1/22)**

Looking northeast: Whittier and Portage depot	Looking southeast: Anchorage and most industries

Unlabeled panoramic	Label panoramic

And the movie

Here are the photos from past months:

2017:

2018:

2019:

2020:

2021:

2022:

2023:

2024:

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

And the current work in progress:

November 6, 2024

The scenery next to the fascia needs to be grandson proof so John glued the tundra into place using one part Mod Podge and three parts water. A portable fan was placed at one end to speed up the drying process.	John added rocks to the water flowing out of the culvert. Once the glue is dry, realistic water will be added until level. Eventually, little mini waterfalls will be added in front of the rocks as well.	Over time bubbles eventually appeared in the Boy Scout camp stream. Rick used a Dremel Micro Drill Bit to bore out the top of the bubbles and vacuumed away the debris. Realistic water will be added to fill the cavities.

Video: Bicentennial F7A #1510 pulled a freight train through the area of TwentyMile. Rick was testing #1510 as it seemed to behave erratically. He unplugged and then re-plugged the connector to the LM-03 and all problems seemed to go away.	Video: The freight train passes through the future area of Anchorage Sand and Gravel	Video: Snaking through the gap of the mountains, Freight 120N (Whittier to Anchorage ARMS Barge) heads through Clayton's Alaska Railroad double track mainline south of downtown Anchorage.

November 13, 2024

Bicentennial locomotive #1510 continued to sputter while pulling a lengthy freight train. Rick discovered hair around its wheels so spent some time cleaning them.	He still found its operations still quite lackluster so he cleaned some of the main line track by hand using mineral spirits.	John added the first layer of realistic water to the rock falls.

The digital scales went missing and numerous people spent several weeks hunting for them. John searched inch by inch and finally found them on top of a three drawer plastic cabinet under the train table.	This gave him the opportunity to add two rail cars to the fleet. These came from boxes stored under the tables.	The 54 foot gondola with fiber optic cable reels was found to be close enough to NMRA weight.

The 40-foot 3-bay ribbed hopper needed the addition of two ounces of lead plus Kadee couplers.	Rick spent some time on his back adding several more feet of inner radius tunnel wall.

November 20, 2024

A little bit more water, some brambles, a sprinkling of ground colors, a coating of hair spray and the culvert work is complete. Obviously, subject to future tinkering...	Over the past few weeks, Terry has been featuring our favorite meals and desserts. Tonight, she topped the lasagna and Texas toast dinner with Hot Fudge cake, in honor of our city's Frisch's restaurant closing.	Video: The latest GoPro video railcar iteration passes the Anchorage yard. This improved version has everything contained in one car. Next week, we shall see the video it took of the expanded inner tunnel wall.

Video: Rick worked on the Royal Celebrity Ultradome as it tended to lean to one side while taking a curve and then remained in that position. The first run of the repair looked good.	Video: A better visualization of the fix can be seen as the Royal Celebrity Ultradome had other Ultradomes on each end. This overhead video view shows how all the railcars remain in perfect alignment. The power was provided by heritage paint scheme power GP40 #3004 and #3001.	Rick placed shims on the top of the trucks on both sides of the screw post. This provided the Royal Celebrity Ultradome the needed stability to prevent the body from leaning.

F7 #1510 is headed to the Eppley Shops for wheel and motor cleaning. This heavily used flagship locomotive has accumulated years of dust, dog hair and grit.	Video: The Superintendent of Locomotive Power ordered three SD70MACs to pull the entire fleet of Ultradome cars. Seen here at TwentyMile, the MEX cruise train transports hundreds of passengers from the Port of Whittier to Denali National Park.

Feel free to contact me at john@alaskarails.org
Page created 9/4/17 and last updated 11/21/24