John's Alaska Railroad HO Scale Layout V2.0

 

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

Layout Design V2.0

 

Current Layout Overview (as of 2/6/25)
Overview Overview
Looking northeast: Whittier and Portage depot Looking southeast: Anchorage and most industries
Overview Overview
Unlabeled panoramic Label panoramic

And the movie

 

Here are the photos from past months:

 

And the current work in progress:

April 3, 2025
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John spent several evenings completing the ballast effort between Eppley's Curve and Rudd Spur. Required materials: ballast, spoon, wet water, full strength glue and 50/50 water/glue mixture.

The outer slope is applied with full strength glue. Next, a plastic spoon full of ballast is sprinkled over the glue. The full strength glue holds the ballast in place and therefore maintains the sloped profile.

 Next, the ballast is sprinkled over the ties, both outside and between the rails. A thumb then pushed the ballast between the rails. A heavy spray of wet water is applied followed by an application of 50/50 glue. Viola!
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Terry fixed spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread for Jackie's birthday dinner. Peanut butter bars made for a fine birthday dessert.

Rick stopped by the day before Train Night and glued the south tunnel portal in place. Inside walls on both sides need to be put in place to fill the gaps.

 Video: SD70MACs 4001 and 4014 pulled the entire Ultradome fleet through the tunnel proving there enough clearance between the train and portal crown.
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Rick began the work to install a turnout at the southern end of the Anchorage yard. He used a Dremel to cut away a section of rail.

Next, he put the turnout in place and slipped in the rail joiners.

 Finally, he applied solder to the rail joiners and rail.
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Video: F7 #1510 ran through both straight and divergent sections smoothly. Next week, a section of stub track will be put into place. Video: Rick ran two trains at once, the rock work train and the southbound Denali Express (DEX). Rick installed the wooden crossing planks for both Whittier yard tracks. Now Terry can get from her cabin to the grocery store.

 

April 10, 2025
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Video: From last week's operating session, the company work train was sent in the hole yielding to a fully laden Denali Star. Passenger trains usually get the right-of-way, as freight don't complain.

Scenery work continued along Eppley's curve. John cut strips of foam board using the hot wire to create land contours.

 The section between the mainline and siding received a hill cut to match the curves of the rail. John used weights to hold the foam board down while the glue set.
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John gave both sections a coat of dirt colored paint. Exposed rock received several different colors of gray.

Once the paint dried, John applied Mod Podge and then covered the forms with Woodland Scenics ground foam.

Next, John added some grass foam to the cut hill as well.
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Layering of scenic materials add a certain amount of color and depth. John will more material soon.

The cut hill received multiple types of ground foam, dirt and gravel. More material will be added soon.

 Rick crawled under the mountain and traced patterns to fill in the gaps on either side of the tunnel's portal. Next, he transferred these patterns to black cardboard.
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Rick pulled out the North Pole refinery board so he could access the front of the portal. Once he wiggled his body through the opening, he put the tunnel's black cardboard into place. Here are the cardboard fillers in place. Each filler will have black on both sides and then glued into place next week. It's time to add the new turnout for the north diesel siding. Rick used a Dremel to cut out a section of track and then pried it up using a putty knife.
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The new turnout was slipped into place and joiners added. Video: F7 #1510 was called out to perform track testing and got a big thumbs up on roll by inspections.  

 

April 17, 2025
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John purchased two Tortoise switch machines for the two new Anchorage yard stub tracks.

The switch machines include a paper template for drilling the mounting holes. These templates take quite a beating over time. Rick created a wooden template. Why didn't we think of this 41 switch machines ago?

 Rick taped the template under the table and then drilled the Tortoise switch machine mounting holes.
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Rick laid track from the turnout to the southern end of the yard.

The entire Anchorage yard sets on top of a sheet of cork. Once the track leaves the yard then there is an elevation drop. Therefore, Rick laid a cork road bed to accommodate the new track stub.

The new northern stub had holes drilled to accommodate the new Tortoise machine. It will be mounted next week along with the sub track.
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Princess Ultradomes Sanford and Iliamna returned from the Eppley shops. Both needed recalibration of wheel gauges and the Iliamna needed one of the coupler boxes shimmed.

John scoured the property and found a tree branch which resembled a cut down tree on the layout. He cut each branch off as if workers removed them with chainsaws. Over the next week, John will add a work crew and wood piles at this tree.

  

 

 

 

Feel free to contact me at john@alaskarails.org
Page created 9/4/17 and last updated 4/18/25