This is a G scale railroad I put up in my house in December 1998 when I had a week or so free! Actually, I should say I started it in late December 1998, and finished it in August 1999 when the rail line officially opened. The woodworking and design of the railway actually took about 2 months of work, but ordering the track, and picking out the train took a long time due to some bananna war in Europe? Strange, eh?

 

 

Above you can see the train passing over my fireplace and through the family room where it turns (see picture below) to head towards the kitchen!

Below is one of the hardest parts of my railway, creating a suspended bridge that didn't interfere with the smoke detector or vceiling light. The chains suspending the train are made of brass, and the wood is half inch oak plywood from Home Depot with edging also from that amazing store. I made the brackets out of redwood and bolted each one to the wall. Yes, I learned that anchors are not enough the very hard and painful way... use bolts! Notice the tunnel cut into the wall below, leading to the kitchen as well... people seem to like this part the best...

 

 

 
Once in the kitchen it passes over my cabinets (soon to be replaced) and heads out through another tunnel into the dining room. Notice that I have built a switchyard above the cabinets with my Christmas train parked and ready to go. Ideally I will build a controller that allows one train to circulate around the house each hour, and then the other the next... kind of a huge cookoo clock!
Here you go! A train (looking pretty stylish in my opinion) trucking through the living room. I love it when the lights are low over the holidays and the train lamps slowly illuminate the tunnels leading to the living room. One of my wagons actually plays Christmas music, which is fun for the first 500 loops, but then you will find my chasing the damn thing down to turn it off. I think I've had nightmares with nothing but "Jingle Bells" playing in my head all night...

 

After passing through the dinning room the train goes back into the kichen, across other cabinets, over a few windows and passes throght this portal you see on the left to reenter the main family room again. Can I just tell you now how much I like the results of this project.