The Red Spider Canyon layout - Page 1 of 6
This is my second layout. In truth, I wanted to build something that could remind me the wonderful views on the American Southwest, which made me feel, each time, the same emotions I felt in front of those skies so blue and those rocks so red.
Instead of a photo, even beautiful, to watch, I thought, why not build a model railway set in the desert?
The railway had to be, in fact, a simple excuse to tell all the rest, the rocks, the heat, the muddy river, the sagebrushes, an old mine and a few other things.
I was lucky enough to venture into those places several times and the last time, in 2014, it was only to confirm and verify, directly on the spot, a few details, the last ones.
The first draft dates back to May of 2013, and the ideas, you see, were already clear: a single-track line that runs along the bottom of a canyon, a rock wall and a mesa on the top. That's all.
My intentions were to build something new, mixing high-tech with very realistic landscape construction techniques, taking advantage of my knowledge of those places. This was what I wanted to do, it was up to me to make it!
The space at my disposal was not much: less than 150cm wide by 45 deep. The railway project would have to use that space without oppressing the landscape. Simply put, rails had to appear added to the rest and not their opposite, as you can often seen many model railways.
Construction began in late September 2013 and, practically, has never stopped, always trying to complete some part, given that the aspects on which I had to work were so many: the construction of the case, the realization of the landscape, the laying of tracks, the connection of electronic circuits, software writing, and so on.
In this way I optimized lead times, managing to carry out my work in a year and a half, with no time to rest. The official opening of the model was held May 9th, 2015, with many friends and the special participation of the 0039 group and theirs bluegrass music!
