The Furtak’s over the years have enjoyed visiting various model railroad displays and other activities related to both live and model railroads. Joshua has always enjoyed building big empires with the wooden trains and with the girls each participating in various extra activities like dance, art and guitar lessons, Jason and Debra thought it might be nice to let Joshua graduate to model electric trains and building a full N-scale model railroad.
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Model Phase I - Details:
Name: Shilo & Redmond Railroad
Branch: Town of Liberty and Liberty Mountain
Began: November 2008
Scale: N-Scale
Size: 24″ X 48″
Track: Bachmann Easy-Track – code 80
Style: Freelance
Joshua began building his model railroad from a couple Bachmann train-sets that he’s used over the past couple of years for quick setup. The track is the “quick snap” E-Z-track system which is made with code 80 track and plastic road bed. Joshau's dad assisted Joshua with repairing the track and soldering the rails for “permanent” placement and electric continuity. Joshua tested the running of his trains for a couple of hours and gave his ‘ok’ on the track for permanent placement and the building of his empire..
Joshua (and daddy) also authorized the creation of the wood base and upper level. The model measures 2 feet by 4 feet and consists of an upper deck just larger than 2 X 2.
The Liberty branch has two trains operating with a single power pack for each track. The model also has a mountain, bridge and other cool features. Details take shape as the model goes through each phase.
This model has truely been a family affair. The young ladies of the family help in various ways; including Gabrielle who manages the model's live stock like pigs and horses and domestic animals, Alexis in building construction, back-drops and similar, & Madisynne working on various “messy” tasks like plastering. Debra has also gotten involved with various projects including building construction.
These model railroads were built with the intent of displaying them at various model railroad shows has enjoyed over the years.
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Model Phase II - Details:
Name: Shilo & Redmond Railroad
Branch: Paradise City & Sequoia Ridge Branch
Began: November 2011
Scale: N-Scale
Size: 7 x 3 1/2 & 5 x 6 (L-shape)
Track: Kato - M2 (x2), V5 & V7
Style: Freelance
UPDATE: 10-29-2012: The Phase II model turned out to be a burden both in transportation and storage. It turned out to be too large to be practical. The Furtak's are exploring the possibility of transitioning this model to a T-Track design ( http://www.t-trak.org/ ) which would allow for better storage and transporting. We'll update our progress as it comes.
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In the fall of 2011, in advance of the Great Train Expo, the Furtak Family decided to expand their family show model to include this new larger section of track based on the Kato track packs (M2, V5 & V7). The new section of the Shilo & Redmond railroad will be called Paradise City & Sequoia Ridge. The plan is to include a large city section and another mountain.
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Model Phase III - Details:
Name: Shilo & Redmond Railroad
Branch: Flint River Branch
Began: November 2011
Scale: N-Scale
Size: 4x4
Track: Atlas Trainman Code 55 - (round)
Style: Freelance
Also in the fall of 2011, in advance of the Great Train Expo, the Furtak Family decided to expand their family show model to include a new type of model for the Furtak Family called a "Pizza Box" layout; made famous by Carl Arendt - Micro & Small Layouts. This new section of the Shilo & Redmond railroad will be called Flint River Branch. Debra has decided to get more actively involved with the family model by taking on the design direction for Flint River which began by the construction of a Christian Church. We look forward to the way that this model will shape out for shows to come.
