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 2/6/25)

Looking northeast: Whittier and Portage depot	Looking southeast: Anchorage and most industries
Unlabeled panoramic	Label panoramic

And the movie

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Here are the photos from past months:

As Rick opens up two new spurs in the Anchorage yard, John begins to bring out rail cars from storage. These three beautiful Athearn Alaska Railroad GATC 20,000-gallon tank cars are aching to get out on the rails.

Although these cars are ready-to-run, a quick check finds they are slightly under weight. The railroad is state owned, so it comes as no surprise when John states, "Close enough for government work."

Video: F7A #1510 tests turnout 11-4 and determines it works correctly in both directions.

Unused resources created two new stubs: two high speed turnouts (one purchased by accident and the other provided by the Steve Booth Foundation), two unused connections on AM-1 #11, and extra track (one section was surplus while the other was purchased by mistake).

This bare area south of Eppley's Curve will be the future location for the Tunnel Section House with speeder. Here is your chance to vote for which section house will go here:

1. East Junction Section House

2. Section Foreman's House

Email your vote here.

Video: A friend of Terry's found an old childhood train in her basement. She asked if we could get it running again. This train is a 1954 Gilbert's American Flyer S gauge set. John set up the track while Rick torn down and refurbished the locomotive. It was fun bringing this set back to life after 71 years.

John purchased 10 vehicles from the estate of Steve Booth. Sometime in the past, someone tried to remove this FedEx truck without releasing the wing nut in the bottom of the display case. This cracked the bottom plate of the vehicle in half. John asked master restoration expert Rick to do the critical repair work.

Here's Rick soldering the second wire. After the third wire is soldered in place, Rick will hook them up to the AM-1. Finally, he will check to see if the turnout status is correct on the handheld controller's display. If not, then the wires will be switched.

John put the final touches on the vegetation that will be placed beside the new southern portal. This will help to cover the gap between the portal wall and existing plaster rock scenery.

With the two new stubs in place and Tortoise machines operational, Rick turned his attention to segmenting the power to them. Once this is completed, the power will be cut to these stubs when the swing gate is open. This allows for unpowered locomotive storage on these stubs.

Rick removed the deadman switch and hooked up the power wires from the stub. Unfortunately, he still found connectivity to the stubs. After a great deal of analysis, he discovered he cut the wrong rail. Next week, he will fix the problem and test the power connections.