Marcel Trautwein's Grand D'Elusion Model Railroad

Then there is the extraordinary layout of Marcel Trautwein; painstakingly detailed, yet completely fanciful.
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A Swiss native whose family immigrated to the U.S. and settled in this area when he was 7, Trautwein has built in his Wind Lake basement a breathtaking railroad straddling “Great Canyon.” Sheer mountains descend to a floor painted to mimic a river and dividing the scene into two halves. To the right is a crowded community of European-style buildings nestled amid rocky clefts; to the left, an elaborate Western setting with forests, mines and a sprawling sawmill. “I like creating things,” he says. “Anything you want, I can build.”
He says it as simple fact - and the mountains and circling trains in his basement prove it. Above, a painted blue-sky backdrop curves seamlessly to the ceiling; no sharp corners break the illusion.
Trautwein has crafted a preposterously compelling story to explain the seeming split personality of his HO railroad.
On the left half are the mines and timber that generated the wealth of the European settlers and their descendants living in this fictional pocket of the Pacific Northwest; on the right half, they have built a tourist magnet - Little Switzerland - that draws hundreds of visitors (by train, of course) daily to its quaint architecture and amenities. A trolley, a tram, cable cars and even a mountainside funicular railway provide local transportation.
No detail is too small. Tunnels have sculpted rockwork interiors and his railroad cars are lighted inside. “So I can see the light bouncing off the granite rock as they come through,” he explains. Under the archway of one of the nearly two dozen bridges, a welder repairs a broken-down truck; a tiny flickering light bulb simulates the welder’s arc.
And no detail is too large. Midway through a visit, Trautwein flips some switches. The room darkens, thunder rumbles and lightning flashes across sky. When the storm passes, hidden lights project a rainbow over the mountains. Small wonder Trautwein calls his railroad “The Grand D’Elusion.”