Greetings. This thread is being started as a place to present the Castle Peak and Thunder Railroad, an outdoor G scale railroad themed to showcase Disney films and attractions. The locomotives and rolling stock are modeled after the DLRR. It is located in my backyard in Anaheim, California. I have been adding to it on and off for about 10 years.

I was introduced to this forum by Steve G. I had his books and was curious about the colors of the Relaw 1 coaches. I sought him out with my question and he turned me toward a whole discussion of the issue at Burnsland. I was amazed at the level of expertise here and the good nature of all the contributers. You all ought to be applauded. There are other crazies in this world!

I think that the most coherent way to present the railroad so as to promote a focused line of thought and feedback will be to do it in installments. I will add a new installment every few days after discussion of the previous one has died down. The installments will be:

1)Entry (Song of the South, 101 Dalmations, Tarzan)
2)Adventureland (Indiana Jones and The Incredibles)
3)Main Street USA (including Treasure Planet)
4)Castle Peak (Lion King, Hercules, Fantasia, Primeval World)
5)Fantasyland 1 (Snow White, Alice, Peter Pan, Little Mermaid)
6)Fantasyland 2 (Sleeping Beauty Castle, Finding Nemo)
7)Frontierland (Big Thunder Station, Robin Hood, Brother Bear
Tommowland (Star Tours: Tatooine, Hoth, Forest Moon of Endor)
9)California Adventure (Grizzly Peak, Monorail, California Screamin')
10)Separate Exihits (Carolwood Pacific and DLRR locomotives)

I hope you all enjoy the tour!

The Entry

Then entry starts in the front yard with a Disneyland Resort bus stop. A point-to-point trolley takes "visitors" from the stop down the side of the house to the entry sign. Along the way are posters of 28 of the films and attractions that are featured on the railroad.




This is the entry to the yard. Note in the lower left corner is the tunnel where the trolley disappears to deliver "guests". Is is difficult to see in this photo, but if you look closely you can see Tazan and Jane as they flank the sides of the sign.

That is just fantastic, David! I love the detailing ("it's a g-scale" world made me laugh out loud).

Of course, this creates a problem for me: I either have to duplicate what you've done in my backyard, or my Disneyland-loving son will want you to adopt him.

Boy, I'm going to miss him.

This is going to be fun! Thanks, Dave!

I still think your railroad is magazine worthy. If you don't want to write one yourself, we should collaborate!

This is a really great layout, so far! I've never seen anything like it! I can't wait to see more!

Yes this will be fun, I can hardly wait for the next installment, I’m not sure I want my wife Sharon to see this, she might want something like it in the back yard. I do have some “G” trains but that would be a major change from my 50 years of HO.

BTW The tunnel isn't that hard to see.

Time to make the change now, Jazz, while you still have some eyesight left!

Amazing, simply amazing!

Do you accept visitors

Okay, now that my jaw is re-connected where do you get your figures?

Tree ornaments perhaps?

wow...great stuff