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:

John's daughter Anne created these Alaska Railroad pins. When first time visitors successfully run a train, they will be promoted to engineer and awarded a pin.

Terry continued work on the table skirts. She spent lots of time hemming them on her sewing machine and by hand as well.

The next section runs through the double track section. Boxes stored below need to be turned 90 degrees so as to not bow out the curtains.

Rick continued to work on derailments on the track gaps north of AML. On the inner rail of the section south of the gap, he discovered the rail was higher than the inner section north of the gap. He used a Dremel grinder to reduce the height and then finished the rail with a file on top and a triangular file on the inner edge.

Two McKinley Explorer Ultradomes returned from the Eppley Shops. One had a coupler replacement on one end and the other railcar had a coupler height adjustment.

Keri Hiler, the daughter of my deceased friend Steve Booth, sent this huge box of scenery items. I plan to work all of them into my layout as a tribute to his wonderful life. Here is a somewhat complete list of everything received.

Additionally, I purchased some of his items on eBay. The semi tanker was one purchase and the nine cars was another. Again, I plan to integrate them all into my layout. The Mini Coopers will be part of Mike Cooper's car dealership.

During train night, we celebrated Terry's birthday. Jackie made dinner which included chicken and Ramen noodles and salad bar. She also purchased this tasty Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

Rick spent a fair amount of time on his hands and knees tonight. He discovered the A.I.M. Single Timber Tunnel Portal needed to be high enough to allow the Ultradomes to pass underneath. This involved cutting into the mountain foam above it.

Underneath the bench work, on his knees with his hands crammed into the mountain space, Rick made the Styrofoam mountain cuts. Afterward, he discovered the portal still was not high enough to allow the Ultradomes to pass.