The layout at a glance
Name: Royal Gorge Route
Layout owner: Florida Scale Rails club
Scale: HO (1:87.1)
Size: 8 x 12 feet
Prototype: Denver & Rio Grande Western (standard and HOn3 narrow gauge); Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; and Union Pacific
Locale: Colorado
Era: 1930s to ’60s
Mainline run: 75 feet
Minimum radius: 22″
Minimum turnout: no. 4
Maximum grade: 21⁄2 percent (narrow gauge)
Benchwork: open grid
Height: 42″
Roadbed: cork on wood spline
Track: Micro Engineering flextrack, code 83 (standard gauge), code 70 (narrow gauge)
Scenery: Hydrocal with plaster rock castings over cardboard grid
Backdrop: none
This track plan originally appeared in the January 2021 issue of Model Railroader magazine. See a PDF version of this by clicking here.