Linn Westcott's Sunset Ry & Navigation Co

[MidlandPacific]

I know Linn Westcott built a model railroad, and I know it popped up from time to time when he used it to test out or demonstrate an idea, but did it ever appear in MR with a trackplan, a description, and some background?

[tgindy]

The closest thing I could find for the Sunset Railway & Navigation Company in my archives were the March 1965 & April 1965 issues of Model Railroader where Linn Westcott introduced hard-shell and zip texturing scenery. These articles were later revised and expanded in Bill McClanahan's 1967, "Scenery for Model Railroads." You can see also portions of the layout throughout "How to build Model Railroad Benchwork" but no overall track plan.

I remember spending 50 cents, quite a bit of cash at the time, for each 1965 issue out of my paper route earnings. How amazed and what inspiration for my high school years HO train layout. These were my first Model Railroader magazine purchases.

There is a nice March 1965 picture of the Arapho Creek area also showing the yet unfinished remaider to the other end of Linn's layout in the background, and an alternative track routing diagram but only for Arapho Creek at the end of the article. It looks like a lot of visible yard staging in the distance under construction.