Slim Gauge Guild

I was in LA for most of the weekend, so no modelling, but I did have a chance to stop by the Slim Gauge Guild in Pasadena, CA for a quick visit.  Bill Beverly hosted a short tour.  The SGG has both a HOn3 and Sn3 layout filling a 2000+ sq. ft. basement of an office building.

The HOn3 layout follows prototype scenes and the Sn3 layout is "mostly freelance" according to the guild.  Both layouts follow older styles of track planning with huge regions of mountains and multiple overlapping tracks.  On one hand this creates scenes which occupy in excess of 6 feet vertical space but on another hand it makes the track plan a bit hard to follow when there in person.

All of the track on the Sn3 layout is hand laid and the turnouts all stubs.  Bill mentioned the HOn3 track isn't all quite hand laid yet but they're working on it.  I commented on the presence of a few Shiohara turnouts to which I got a strong reaction, something to the effect of ripping them off the layout...

The layout height was set around, I'd guess, 48" off the floor, or at least a good 9-10" below my chest height.  The Sn3 included a "high line" which was around eye level height (maybe 59-60 inches).

I asked Bill about the height, to which he responded favorably.  He mentioned while a lot of clubs try to keep people out, the SGG is very open and the lower track height is much easier for children to view the trains.

A few hours after the visit I asked my wife, a non "train person", what she thought of the guild's setup.  It's always a bit interesting for me to see how non modelers and people who aren't into trains view model railroads.

She had 3 comments:

• It was really big
• She liked the smaller size better (I'm not clear on why)
• She was a bit disappointed that it was mostly scenery and less finished/detailed structures.

So there you have it, a short overview of the Slim Gauge Guild in Pasadena, California.