Model Railroading > Meltdown Motive Power ca. 2000

My SWP is now set for 2001-ish time frame.  As on the prototype UP, almost anything goes in scrounging up motive power.
The first image has a yellow painted ex SP tunnel motor SD40-2 in the siding as a manifest with a patched GP-40 and a leased Amtrak F40 heads east at Marathon.
The second image is a westbound stack train with an EMD and a Conrail leased pair, also at Marathon.
Waiting for some finishing work are a MK ex Santa Fe F45 and a BN SD-40 to further spice things up.
I cannot duplicate some UP power decisions such as SD-60s on switchers and locals though.  They were wild times.
 

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Every time you post photos I am seeing some really great work. Would you tell us more about your layout such as the overall size, age and and track plan? 

Yes, tell us more. That doesn't look like Marathon Texas !  Is that a hypothetical "Marathon"?

No, not Marathon TX or FL for that matter.
I just chose place names that I like, a few are family names but others exist on some railroad I know.
One real Cascade is on the DRGW Silverton branch, Klien is a coal mine town near Roundup MT, once on the MILW, Carbon Jct. was just south of Durango, and Ancho is a siding on the Tucumcari line NE of El Paso.
Thank you for the kind words.
The layout was well covered in the December 2014 NMRA magazine and has been featured on the Trackside Model Railroader digital magazine earlier this year.
It is 25 years old and was moved once.  The present setting has 11 foot ceilings, which greatly enhances most scenic views.
 

Good Grief! In the first photo, he even modeled the subgrade beneath the track that curves off the edge!

SP had a meltdown period around 1993 when their motive power was stretched thin and they were leasing power and also rebuilding.  At least that is what I recall from articles in CTC and PRN magazines of that time.

railstiesballast Wrote:
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> No, not Marathon TX or FL for that matter.
> I just chose place names that I like

Well done! 

Maybe someday there will be a start-up commuter operation from your psgr terminal.