# Western Regionals Day2, Pt.3 - MORE PIX!



## Gary Woolard (Jan 2, 2008)

Dick & Peggy Friedman's Denver & Pacific Falls Railway was listed on the "Find the Hidden Object" quiz sheet, so we went in expecting to find a ?Zebra? or ?Alien from Outer Space? or... THERE IT IS!!! An animated Tyrannosaurus Rex was bobbing up and down and roaring at a mixed freight rumbling by. Fortunately the T. Rex settled down or the cows at pasture would probably have stampeded into the barn. This "Way Out" West layout incorporates the fantastical without missing a turnout.








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Everything appears normal as we pass a village by a lake...










...to select from an array of transport options stopped at the Canyon City station.










This streamlined McKeen Motor Car loops to the lake and around to the local attraction...










...The Mystery Tree: The World Famous Gigantic Hollow Tree Stump!










The freight is heading out to the return loop at the end of this extended dogbone layout...










...where it passes the Fairy Swan Special, which runs its own loop between cabins, campers and forest dwellers.



















A "Micro-Miniature Rose Forest" completes the 'rest & recreation' loop of the Friedman's "sometime,somewhere" layout.











Dick Friedman headed the organizing committee for this year's West Coast Regional Meet put on by the Sacramento Valley Garden Railway Society. He's been answering questions about the Meet on MLS for the last year. The SVGRS club pulled together five days of layout tours (Redding, Sacramento (3) and Reno), a train ride with ice cream, a barbecue with ride-on train rides, and a guide booklet that helped everyone get around. Sacramento club members popped up everyday helping to keep each other's trains running while the hosts chatted with visitors. The West Coast Regionals have always been a laid-back way to enjoy garden trains and this year was no exception. Thanks, Dick, for all your hard work.

You could describe Dennis & Carla Hanks' railroad as a perimeter layout... or a track around a pool, but that won't even begin to capture it, so here's a thousand words of pictures. Two loops circle the yard with a dogbone tucked inside (part of which is visible passing behind the patio table in the picture below.) Add a narrow-gauge mining and lumber operation, a rock garden and three waterfalls... Let's take a look...










A flume from the mining district feeds the waterfall tumbling into the deep end of the pool. The canyon behind the falls hides a complex of tracks and sidings where the dogbone takes the trestle loop over the mainline and the shortline travels down to an interchange point. A Challenger pulling freight takes the outer mainline while a tank engine pulls coal cars around the dogbone.






























During the 19th National Garden Railway Convention (Sacramento 2003), the Hanks Shortline had just started operation. Since then towns have sprung up to support the miners and loggers, along with maturing landscaping. The switchbacks have made it all the way to a storage shed at the end of the tracks.



















Along the way, that "Alien from Outer Space" from the "Hidden Objects" quiz popped up in the rock garden.










The Hanks family didn't let a deck or a patio slow down the mainline. Just remember to look down when you head out to the pool...










That Northern Pacific passenger train above is headed on the inside mainline for the curve behind one of the other waterfalls.










Here the freight goes by on the outer loop. Look to the base of the hillside in the shot below and you'll notice the dogbone coming from the canyon to parallel the mainline along the fence...










...until all three tracks turn the corner along the back.










Since the tank engine on the dogbone is headed back to the corner waterfall, we'll go along and take a look...










...at the dogbone as it passes the waterfall, the patio table and the gazebo to serve Wedono City in Palm Tree County.



















A last look back before we race to the next layout. Dennis and Carla have succeeded in setting up a railroad that rewards both contemplation and active participation.












More Day #2 layouts coming... any day now. : )


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Great pics Gary. Love the stump photo. Thanks


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