History: I started design of the layout in 1979, in a very small room with no thought to ever making it this large. It was first run in 1985 on a much smaller scale. It didn't really take off until I moved to Colorado in 1987. Aviation interest appears on the layout with the airport and operating lighting system. I didn't decide to build any individual road or location, just have fun with a more eclectic layout. What you see today is the result of approximately 9000 total hours of fun and at times, frustrating work. Operating the layout seems to have taken second priority over building and wiring it. No layout is ever finished and hopefully I can start to enjoy more the fruits of my labor.
Layout specifics:
My layout is roughly a large horseshoe shape 24 feet wide and 16 feet long covering approximately 400 sq feet. All of the approximately 700 feet of track is Lionel O-gauge and all switches are Lionel 022 automatic with original controllers.
Two Lionel ZW tranformers power most of the layout with a large 12v and 5v DC supply used to power lighting and solid state accessories. At present there is no remote control used, but that could be a future addition when I start to spend more time running it then building it.
The layout contains over 4 1/2 miles of wiring. I know this because I used nearly four 5000 foot spools of #18 gauge teflon covered wire that I purchased at a surplus store plus several more thousand feet of multi-conductor cable used for switches and accessories. The majority of wire terminations are through terminal strips with wire lugs and routed through cable clamps and secured in bundles with cable ties.
Special thanks to my loving wife Loretta, for putting up with my insanity and not asking too many questions when I come home from train shows and swap meets.
Ted Tryke
