The owner of this beautiful layout, Jim Treadway is moving and unfortunately his beautiful HO Scale layout is being dismantled. Immediately after filming this video, Jim started the process of dismantling the layout.

I had the pleasure a handful of time to operate this masterpiece of a layout and it will be greatly missed by many who had visited and operated it over the years.

The inspiration for this layout from Jim Treadway himself:

Stinky Creek Railroad

NOT AS IT WAS
AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN

The Stinky Creek is inspired by the Everett and Monte Cristo Railway which was a 42 mile standard gauge railroad which ran from Puget Sound to the gold fields in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State.
The Everett & Monte Cristo was financed by a Rockefeller Syndicate.
When a local surveyor submitted a plan that avoided the water level route along side the Stillaguamish river, he was promptly fired by the Eastern Syndicate with the comment that they had been building railroads along rivers in the East for decades and that "little trout stream" was not a problem. They built the railroad along the river and every spring the "trout stream" became a torrent tearing out bridges, washing out track, and roaring through the tunnels knocking out the supports.
As a consequence of the whopping annual repair costs and disruption of service the railway never made a profit, and was abandoned in the 1930's
In my alternate history, the railroad was financed by a couple of lumber barons from Michigan. Cutler and Savidge had made a fortune by cutting down every tree over 2 inches in diameter in upper Michigan.
Cutler and Savidge were looking for some Where to continue their clear cutting when they heard about the gold and trees in the Cascade Mountains. They had the railroad built and designed by the local surveyor. They did not mind the circuitous route because their plan was to have the ore shipments from the gold mines pay for the rairoad sreater could ship their timber and lumber for free. The longer the route the greater the access to the trees. Thus the Stinky Creek has lots of bridges, high trestles and tunnels. The spring floods were avoided and the railroad prospered. The time is now the 1930's and in spite of the depression the Stinky Creek is operating and bringing some prosperity to the area. The Stinky Creek Railroad and the town he founded were named after the Kentucky birthplace of Mr. Gutter.