Layout History
Begun in 1994, the Pine Bluffs & Ceda Falls Railroad was created by the American Section of the Alton Model Railway Group, and evolved out of the design criteria the section set down for construction of a modular American exhibition layout. Our aim was to create an easily expandable design, that would allow members and the section to build and exhibit a variety of models, based on the same basic design and construction methods.
After the basic modular standards were set down, we began to plan our first module - what we initially wanted was two to three metre viewable area, with a concealed 'fiddle' yard which would be based on a cassette system instead of the more usual rotational designs. It was decided that we wanted a terminal design to begin with, but that could be converted to a through version later on. Finally we decided that a depot and industries on the edge of a large town/city would give us sufficient interest of operating, and enable a variety of stock types to be used.
The final design had two and a half metres of 'display' area, and included a depot, water tower, local store, flour/grain warehouse, diner, petrol station and garage, and a furniture factory.
Construction on the layout began in mid 1994, and the layout attended its first exhibition in 1996. Since then it has attended an average of eight exhibitions per year.
Once construction was completed, work began on a new set of modules called Yu-Bend Canyon, which included numerous angled modules to turn the layout into a 'U' shape, with the ultimate of of making turning it into a round-and-round layout. Unfortunately, the design, construction and size of the modules proved problematic, and although the modules were completed they were only exhibited at the Alton Limited before being retired in early 2003.
Apart from general maintenence, little was done with Pine Bluffs Depot until 2001, when the section decided to make an end-to-end version of the Depot. This involved making a new fiddle yard and new one metre board to be used instead of the short half metre board. The new one metre board includes an Oil Depot, Railway Express Agency building and a Scrapyard. This new board was completed in the summer of 2002, and had its first exhibition at Alton Limited 2002.
The section will shortly begin work on two new modules, due to be ready in 2005, which will finally enable us to exhibit a full round-and-round version of the layout. Details of our progress is available elsewhere in the site.
See also:
Layout Construction - the construction methods we used on the layout
Future Planning - our plans for the future of Pine Bluffs
Danger: Men at Work - find out what the section are working on at the moment
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Layout History
Find out about the history of the layout, including previous modules, the various changes that have been made to the layout and more
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Layout Construction
Find out about how we constructed Pine Bluffs Depot, our modular standards and the methods we used
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Future Planning
See our plans for the future of the layout, including TWO new modules being built at the same time
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Have Layout, Will Travel
Details on how to book us for your exhibition
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