Inspiration Behind the Utah Midland

Aside from the fact that Al enjoys the desert terrain of Utah, his choice of location served as a way to compensate for the amount of track he had. He started off with way too much track and he wanted to keep it. Al justified the excessive amount of track by having two railroads pursue coal in one canyon. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway tie together because they share a single canyon in Utah. Al’s layout features the better part of each railroad.

When it comes to modeling techniques, Al developed several tailored for desert terrain. The Utah Midland requires vast amounts of rockwork scenery. When Al started modeling, he wasn’t impressed with the tree kits on the market. By modeling Utah, he didn’t have to worry about trees because the scenery was nothing but sand and stone.

In the next segment of the Utah Midland Railway series, Al Lindop dives deeper into the details of the rockwork scenery on his layout. He demonstrates how he sculpts the plaster and achieves the dusty look of the desert.