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By Mike Weesner on Oct 19, 2007 | In A. Main category | 3 feedbacks »
The Hollywood, Hitchcock & Hill Railroad is located in Monterey, California. It was built as an homage to the impact of trains in the movies. The time periods & areas represented by the HH&H Railroad are the 1890’s Western States, and the 1950’s Eastern States. The movies “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid” directed by George Roy Hill and Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” were the inspiration for the creation of this Garden Railway.
The trains that run on the HH&H are made by LGB. The western trains are a Forney Rio Grande mine train, and a Mogul Denver, South Park & Pacific passenger train. The Hitchcock train is a New York Central 20th Century Limited passenger train.
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Gulapata
By Mike Weesner on Oct 20, 2007 | In E. Construction techniques, 2. Gulapata | 3 feedbacks »
I have used Gulapata extensively in my layout. Gulapata is a formula developed by Jack Verducci. Jack Verducci is President of BAGRS (San Francisco Bay Area Garden Railway Society) http://www.bagrs.org/ and a columnist for Garden Railways. If you subscribe to Garden Railways magazine http://www.trains.com/grw/ you can download a pdf copy of his December 1997 article entitled “Working with Gulapata". The latex rock molds were purchased from Bragdon Enterprises http://www.bragdonent.com/ .
The desert area in the HH&H railroad layout in under a redwood deck. The deck is supported by two (ugly) concrete columns. The columns were covered by Stucco and a final layer of Gulapata. The result was two Mittens similar to the structures found in Monument Valley in Utah http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/monument_valley/.
Desert
By Mike Weesner on Oct 20, 2007 | In 2. Desert | 1 feedback »
The desert area in the HH&H railroad layout in under a redwood deck. The deck is supported by two (ugly) concrete columns. The columns were covered by stucco and a final layer of gulapata. The result was two mittens similiar to the structures found in Monument Valley in Arizona.
Hitchcock
By Mike Weesner on Oct 20, 2007 | In 4. Hitchcock | 1 feedback »
Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense from the 1930’s until the 1960’s http://hitchcock.tv/. The HH&H railroad pays tribute to this Directors skill. There is a fictitious studio displayed in the layout. Mr. Hitchcock is seen on the backlot directing the Bodega Bay school scene from “The Birds".
Mines
By Mike Weesner on Oct 20, 2007 | In 5. Mines | Send feedback »
In the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” the protaganists robbed trains. These trains had mine payrolls on board. In planning the HH&H layout, I knew I needed a destination for my train. The train to be robbed had to go into the hills to deliver supplies, payroll and passengers. In September of 2006 my wife and I visited Cripple Creek, Georgetown, and Leadville Colorado to visit old mines and museums. The Little Jonnie mine owned by the Ibex mining company in Leadville was a vertical shaft with a headframe that had great deposits of silver. The husband of “the unsinkable” Molly Brown (j.j. Brown) ran this mine and made significant advancements. http://www.mollybrownsummerhousehistory.org/molly_and_jj_brown.htm.
