The Feather River Route 25th Anniversary Update

[@donsmith7979]

Very Nice !! The room looks great too. Thx

[@riogrande5761]

A lot of operation there. I grew up in northern California and had a college friend who came from a Western Pacific RR family. His father and grandfather all worked for the WP.; the father lived in Davis CA, where I spent my Jr. High and High School years. My favorite era is late 70's thru early 80's for WP and D&RGW. I see you couldn't resist a California Zephyr from the 60's.

[@TheTrainFreak]

This is an awesome looking layout that look fun to operate on. - Jason

[@Adam.J.Reynolds]

Beautiful layout. Well done. Looking forward to more.

[@chuckholsclaw6829]

Wow, incredible layout !!! I thought it was ho until right at the end seeing the cars in comparison to the locomotive sitting there. I model ho. I like n scale but I have enough of a hard time with ho. N is just a little too small. I admire those who can and do it well. You have built and rebuilt your layout 4 times to what it is now ! Good for you !!! Your dedication and hard work has paid off and it shows. I would love to see a video of your trains running. I think I will research it and see if I can find something. Thank you for sharing. Chuck

[@johnpetrovitz935]

WOW Just caught up with your presentations. Fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing it with us! Very much looking forward to seeing more! Congratulations on 25 years of excellent work! …not to mention four moves!

[@MacTrom1]

Thanks for the overview.

[@bruceboyer8187]

For tenp structures a quick spray paint of the box makes a huge difference

[@georgiasunbelt]

Beautiful layout your building Mark….hopefully you’ll share more of its progress soon…haven’t seen a layout actually modeling the Kedee (sp) Wye before…

[@BNSFDash9]

Fantastic Mark! Thanks for the updates. The layout is looking real good!

[@timstoys1]

What an outstanding layout.... Thank you for sharing

[@adampizante8519]

Great work!

[@bruceboyer8187]

Love the Orrville grain facility

[@tracksideadventures]

Great layout tour

[@derekalexander4030]

Really gorgeous layout, you are very talented. You have captured the feel of the area and the Keddie wye is spot on. Enjoyed the work you did on Daryl’s layout as well. It’s not often that you can’t tell right away that you are looking at an N scale layout but it’s done so well that I didn’t.

[@tommythomason6187]

Amazing Art. Those trestles are fantastic. Building my own free-lanced N-scale empire - "Texas Gulf Line" - but it will not be this massive.

[@allowe]

Happy Silver Anniversary to you and your Feather River spouse! I'm happy to see Oroville Grain made the journey and is still standing!

[@markbridgwater]

Al I think of you every time we switch Oroville Grain. It's survived most of the 25 years and thousands of miles moving it. Thanks for the sturdy construction and I hope you are well. Cheers!

[@Bob-ed9tc]

Power plant at BNSF junction? Don't you mean Unicorn fart processing plant. As you say in the video, " This is Calcuttaforina after all!" Very cool layout! I used to haul containers out of Oakland. And I've got friends that live just across the valley from Clio trustle. Nice.

[@RayBoebel]

New sub here.....and WOW!!! That looks great! Cant wait to see progress!

[@adriengadson3544]

Nice looking layout that is in my state. One day I would like to see this layout closer. Maybe on the Piedmont Pilgrimage if it returns this year.

[@bg104]

Those trees look terrific!

[@markbridgwater]

They sure do! You da man to plant so many of them. Thank you, Bryan!

[@kennethraymond4278]

Lots of good stuff since i last saw it. In only 10 more years it will be almost finished.. good job. ... Ken R.

[@markbridgwater]

Haha Ken. Indeed there is no end in sight...thankfully!

[@michaeldeckert6023]

Thank you for a great tour of your layout. My father was an executive officer with Southern Pacific. In the early '70s I was a 18 year old brakeman. Pushed in and out (on a regular basis) cars to the then General Motors plant (now Tesla). Went through the Niles Canyon and worked all the way to Pleasanton a number of times. In fact my very first assignment was the switcher in Niles. Oakland to Roseville was also my major work domicile. So many of the places you've detailed so very well I worked in my youth. Many of the places you are showing along the your layout, I have either worked or ridden with my father in the private railroad executive car he was allowed to use. He was in charge of the operations of all communications for the railroad nationwide. His group was the one that created a company known today as Sprint.You've done a great job!! I'll keep watching.

[@markbridgwater]

Great stories, Michael. Perhaps one day we can get together so I can hear more.

[@davebnsfnscale4433]

Nice video,great layout

[@markbridgwater]

Thank you so much. I will try to be more frequent with new videos, especially as our ops sessions develop this year. Cheers!

[@jamesblum7420]

Fantastic Mark! Thanks for sharing your gift of hobby. Jim

[@markbridgwater]

Thank you, brother!

[@SouthernAlbertaRail]

Hey Congrats Mark! Happy I got the chance to see a few previous versions in person. Here's to 25 more Pal! Cheers. -grant

[@markbridgwater]

Thanks Grant. I still have a picture of that visit to Feather River Route 3. Your layout is a masterpiece and I'm glad to see you back to working on it again. Indeed, cheers to 25 more!

[@luvindemtrains]

Happy 25th anniversary Mark! I came to your layout in 2019 for the Piedmont Pilgrimage and actually got some footage of it as well as other layout. I plan to post that video sometime this year. I definitely see the progress from that visit and it looks real good. Thanks for sharing. Also great rock work with Daryl's layout.

[@markbridgwater]

I do the Pilgrimage every year to promote the hobby and give back in honor of all the model railroaders who have helped me in my own journey. And yes, I couldn't let a midwest modeler like Daryl be unsupervised while doing mountains.What a great hobby!

[@tony791999]

Awesome layout, thanks for making this video. I like how you have the streets "old Sacramento" at a slight angle to the edge line of the layout... looks very natural and realistic. The bridges are spectacular, the North Fork bridge is particularly incredible. Tearing into the hillside by "the Y" must have been a bear, ugh. I hope it is trouble free now.

[@markbridgwater]

Thank you, Anthony. My good friend Dave Montgomery built the North Fork Bridge and the Keddie Wye bridge...then said he'd never build another bridge for me, lol. I'm looking forward to detailing the Sacramento scene, which suffered some damage in the move to Atlanta. And yes, leaning over the Keddie Wye to the corner was not friendly on my back. I actually made a removable 'scenery hatch' on the other side of the wall to make sure the realignment was right. As I uncovered the old alignment, it was obvious why it was derailing. I managed the trifecta of an S-turn, a vertical hump, all on a turnout. I've run a lot of trains through there and all is well, until an open house or ops session of course. Cheers!

[@tony791999]

@@markbridgwater It's a labor of love haha!! Have to remind myself of that sometimes... especially when cutting into a mountain. Best of luck with all future train running :)

[@tonydavey3741]

Hi Mark, pleased to see the progress your making, and it looks amazing, just wish i lived next door instead of 3000 miles away, i also follow Darryl's layout build and did not make the connection that it was you doing the plaster work for his scenery, take care

[@markbridgwater]

Daryl's a good friend and long time N-scaler so it was great to visit him and see what an HO layout that is spread out and running long trains (as we both have been doing in N-scale). It's going to be pretty cool and he's having a great time in retirement.

[@SpringfieldAndWestern]

Really really amazing layout! Thank you for this great tour. It´s such a shame that you will have to take it apart due to the need to move. I understand you will start over in H0? Why is that?

[@mysticrailroad]

i always enjoy seeing this layout. excellent work Sir! :)

[@markbridgwater]

Appreciat it!

[@lionellance]

Awesome update..thanks for sharing and keep up the great work...Lance how big is the layout or room size..

[@vertisjohnson219]

Is it possible to see the track plans?

[@fredgemmill617]

Mark, I watched you throwing up a rock face on Darryl"s new HO layout and was wondering when we would see another video from you on the Feather River Route. The amount of scenery that you two threw up was amazing. I visited one of your earlier layouts in 2004 during PSX2004, and saw you, I think, in Cleveland in 2018. I use Radio Shack paddle switches to operate many of my turnouts, a trick I learned from you. Many thanks. Keep up the good work and I hope someday see some operations videos. Fred

[@markbridgwater]

Hi Fred. Those toggles gave us great service for many years. I have a new 3D printed design that I'll be sure to share in a future video. As for an operational video, stay tuned and be careful what you ask for :-)

[@vertisjohnson219]

What are the track plans? What size?

[@douguyehata7062]

“N” gauge very nice layout. Is this a large home layout or a club layout. I work in HO and going to build a 10 X 10 layout one bedroom in my home next year. You did capture the look of the area that you talking about. The scenery is very good and is one thing that I need to learn about myself. My wife said that she will help me with that part of the railroad because I don’t like scenery, it’s very messy for me. Is the layout DC or DCC I didn’t hear what system you use on the layout.

[@monsvillerailways5736]

Looks amazing. Great work. Question. Can you run a single train on your own the full length of the huge layout? Or do you need multiple people to do that? Happy Modelling

[@markbridgwater]

I run trains by myself all the time. The loops and bypass track at each staging yard allow that, but I do have to throw a turnout at each return to the mainline. Thanks!

[@monsvillerailways5736]

@@markbridgwater wow. That's awesome having such a continuous run. Great job 👍

[@luizparana3683]

N scale?