Exploring Model Train Landscape: Ruby Junction

Next in our journey along the C&S Railway, we leave the main line and follow a branch line through Ruby Junction. Ruby Junction joins together Kebler Pass and Irwin, which sit in the high mountains of Colorado. To make the town of Ruby come to life, expert modelers took advantage of a variety of techniques and features that create a model train landscape you have to see to believe. Let’s take a look at some of the fantastic detail that went into constructing one of the most impressive stops on the C&S Railway!

Expert model train landscape: a ghost town reincarnate

While the station in Ruby is no longer in use and the stretch between Kebler Pass and Irwin is now considered a ghost town, the Ruby Line and its junction live on thanks to this wonderful scene and its remarkable model train landscape.

As Train 99 rounds Cheryl Curve and makes its way past a hopping party at the corner saloon (complete with flange squeals produced by a digital module), we pass over a low-hanging bridge and find ourselves at Ruby Junction. Once in station, the conductor cuts the engine, and with the help of an A-frame turntable Train 99 is flipped around and made ready for another go at a return trip down the Ruby Line. The turntable is based on a 1940s model and constructed from scratch to match the rest of the model train landscape found in this scene of Ruby.

Elsewhere in this stunning model train landscape, you’ll find the Master & Potter Boilerworks depot. This scratch-built building, named for expert modelers Charlie Potter and Dennis Masters, is complete with chain-link fence made from bridal veil material and dry-transfer graphics.

Later in the video, a smaller train heads for the saw mill in Irwin, where it will pick up timber to bring back through Ruby. Along the way, it passes through a well utilized closet space and building flats, as well as a track gang complete with sounds of railway construction. In Irwin, you’ll get a great look at expertly built model train landscape in the way of a working saw mill, the water of which has been made from EnviroTex polymer. And last but not least, you’ll find a cool little surprise on the hillside!