The ALCANEX (Alaska-Canada Northern-Expo Railways System) Layout

The layout as of end of the season,  2009:

I purchased the old Copper Center Bar in May of 1996 with the intention of constructing an overhead model railroad in g-scale. "G" or garden railroad scale uses 45 millimeter-wide track.  The typical scales used by this track are in 1:32, 1:29, 1:24  and 1:20.3.  Some model train manufacturers have used scales that are difficult to determine, largely due to the compression factor where some elements of a piece of rolling stock are not built in proportion to the others. This is especially true in regard to length, which is often the first dimension to be cut relative to height and width. Also, because all these scales use the same track gauge, there is an obvious discrepancy at the wheel base, although this is seldom obvious. 

I chose the 1:24 scale for purposes of constructing most of my model buildings, but employ mostly 1:29 rolling stock due to its availability for my current theme. Some of the rolling stock is also closer to 1:24.  For comparison, this scale is twice that of the more familiar 0- gauge as  exemplified by the Lionel trains.  G-scale is approximately four times the scale of HO, which is roughly 1:87.   I chose the larger scale because of ease of use in construction and due to its high visual impact.

I will dwell in more detail into the early beginnings of this model railroad elsewhere.  For now it is enough to know that my first model was my interpretation of the Chitina Local Branch of the Copper River & Northwestern Railway, Chitina to Kennecott. Over the years 1994, when I was still living in Fairbanks, until 2003, I developed models of various significant historic structures--most of them long gone--for my model towns of Chitina, McCarthy and Kennecott.  At first I incorporated elements of Chitina and Kennecott in my overhead model railroad inside the old Copper Center Bar, now renamed the Copper Rail Depot. This process did not begin until 1998.

In 2000 I  had a new structure constructed that would house the massive Kennecott model. In 2001 we completed work on the structure and had a dedication ceremony on May 27th of 2001.  In 2003 I completed that   model with the construction of several McCarthy and Chitina structures.

In 2006 I  began a new project separate from the original CRNW Railway model.  Originally I intended to run the Great Northern and then the Alaska Railroad lines on this new segment, which was intended to extend well beyond the existing Kennecott model town.   I called the new project "GN Phase II (Great Northern).  It consisted of a single line inside and above the back bar that would extend approximately 250 feet to a turn-around well to the east of the bar. 

Over time I added a second parallel parking land to the first one behind the bar, added additional track, and then began making plans for the new town of Cicely, Alaska, based on  the mythical town created for the 1990s television series "Northern Exposure" which was actually shot at Roslyn, Washington.  Some of my locations which I added later incorporate names from that series, such as Sleetmute and Cantwell.

I also added additional  railroad lines, including the Santa Fe, the Northern Pacific, the Canadian Pacific and AmTrak. These and others were incorporated under the umbrella name of ALCANEX--Alaska-Canada Northern Expo (influenced from "Northern Exposure," of course) Consolidated Railways System. 

Revised ALCANEX map is here