The In-ko-pah Railroad is my outdoor, large-scale layout. It's still under construction, though some parts are basically done. The layout is built on a steep hill behind our house which was formerly covered with iceplant. The theme is a desert, narrow gauge railroad serving mines in a rugged, rocky mountainous area.
I've posted some new pics of my railroad, beginning with this one:
The rest of the pics are mostly closeup scenes from some of the (more or less) completed areas. I shot a bunch of these kinds of pics to enter in Garden Railways magazine's annual photo contest. I selected the three best pics and mailed them in to the magazine. Those three are NOT online. The pics I posted online are the ones that didn't make the cut, but I think they're still pretty good.
I've finished the long plate girder viaduct, and you can see part of it in some of the pics. It's about eight feet long, half of it straight and half curved. It's supported by cast concrete pillars. The plate girders were scratchbuilt from 1/8" thick G10 fiberglass and styrene angles.
BTW, when I shot these pics, it was the first time I've ever had a train on the upper level of track, and the first time I ever had one actually running on the layout. The longest continuous stretch of track so far is only about 20 feet, so I could only run a short train back and forth. But it sure was cool!!
(The last photo was taken at Balboa Park, and shows the "riding" train that's in front of the San Diego Zoo. It runs on 15" gauge track.)
BTW, my railroad is named after the In-ko-pah Mountains and In-ko-pah Gorge, which are in the desert east of San Diego. Eastbound Interstate
8 passes through the In-ko-pah Gorge, going down into the Imperial Valley from the high desert. I don't know exactly what "in-ko-pah" means, but it's an Indian word. It was the name of a tribe that used to inhabit the area near Jacumba. a