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The model railroad is based on areas in the San Juan Mountains
in Colorado and is a point-to-point system designed to provide
operating sessions. The era modeled is 1930-1940. Four towns are
on the line; at the east end is Virginia City. Westcliffe,
a mining area, is the western terminal. There are two routes
between these towns, one passes through the town of San Juan and
the second goes via Tellurton in the lower country. Operation of
the system is facilitated by a digital control radio throttle
which also controls the lights and sound effects (bell, whistle,
steam, etc.) of the engines. The routes of the trains are
directed by the setting of the remotely controlled switches
(turnouts) throughout the layout.
Click
here
for the latest news about the SJ&T
The new,
longer, sound-enabled version of the
"burning embers" video!
(updated 06/10/2009)
The new article in the
Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette!
(updated 04/01/2009)
The "Tale" of the SJ&T
The San Juan & Tellurton RR was created when a Midwest
entrepreneur acquired and merged the financially stressed D&RGW,
the C&S, the RGS and the Tellurton Cascade & Western railroads
in the early 1930s. His philosophy was to combine and operate
these companies as a unit. He considered repainting and
identifying all equipment with the new SJ&T names and logos a
waste of money and would operate the total equipment pool as one
railroad to get as much synergistic benefit as possible.
Operational economy was the criterion. As such a common sight is
a D&RGW engine hauling C&S passenger cars. An example of his
synergistic attitude is when a 120 foot long bridge over the
deep Cordova canyon was needed. He had it designed and
components made in a previous acquisition, a steel plant in
Chicago. He had the parts shipped to and erected on site. Not
only was this approach less costly but the arch bridge is
artistic relief from the extensive timber structures that were
built when timber was free to be cut.
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