Here is what I've come to call the Cochise Layout, since my home while growing up was located on Cochise Dr. in Sedona. This was my first layout I built with my dad that had real benchwork and was elevated off the ground with permanent legs, not just sitting on saw horses. I started this layout after I had accumulated enough track and turnouts and train cars. If I remember correctly, I had this layout in my room in 1990-1991, when I was 14-15 years old.

This layout was stuffed into my 10' x 12' bedroom along with a twin bed, a dresser, and my 125 gallon fish tank. It was a tight squeeze but I was happy to be able to set up my trains for more than a week, since by then my parents were ready to have their living room back. =) This was also the first layout that I tried to draw up some plans for before I went to town cutting wood. I never really followed the plan, I just ended up laying track as I pleased.

Benchwork was alot of old 2x4's cut in half with some new 1x4's added in. Except for the area by the door, the entire layout was flat top on 1/4" plywood. The area by the door was cookie cutted out to allow the track to drop down to cross the removable bridge. On the other side of the removable bridge, the track went under the main part of the layout and into a reverse loop. Staging? what's that? This was one facet of the hobby I had no clue about.

The track was all Atlas sectional code 80, and alot of #6 turnouts. Track was nailed right to the plywood. At that time, all that was available was 19", 11" and 9-3/4" radius track as I was unaware of flextrack. Most of the curves are 11" radius, with a large 19" radius half circle on one part of the layout. I had a small yard and an area to park my locos, as well as some sidings. I lacked the knowledge of what switching was or what operations were. I was just happy running a train.
Power for the layout came from an MRC dual throttle power pack, and all the track was divided into blocks and hooked up thru Atlas Selectors and Controllers.

Alas, this layout never did have scenery, since I had started high school, and trains kinda faded out while skateboarding, video games and hanging out with friends became the norm.
Here is all I have in my possesion, a redrawen track plan of what my room looked like. There is one picture taken of me standing in front of the yard area, but its in a good friends photo album stuffed away in storage. Maybe one day I'll get a copy from him.

click on the picture for a larger image

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