Overview of the Union Pacific Cheyenne Division

John Gray’s Union Pacific Cheyenne Division model railroad captures the wide open spaces of Wyoming. The HO layout is designed to showcase the vastness of the West with broad curves and scenic sweeping vistas. The Union Pacific is a great place for John to display his large collection of brass locomotives and cars. He believes that it is important to get them out of the box and run them both for his enjoyment and the history they impart to others. Even though John Gray is a railroad executive, he shuns the modern scene in favor of the late 1930’s through the early 1960’s.

A variety of operating equipment can be seen on the layout to John’s liking. The layout is a way to recreate historical scenes and activities that John either saw, or wishes he had seen. In this video, Allen Keller interviews the man behind the Union Pacific. Allen mentions that the layout features vast open spaces and very few structures and he asks John why this is. John responds that this is true to the West and how modelers look at most major lines. The Union Pacific has its own 46 by 26 foot building. The minimum radius is 34 inches and the roadbed is spline. The layout is a double loop with a lower line and an upper line as shown in the diagram. It begins and ends on the only town on the layout, Cheyenne, Wyoming. On its way, however, it crosses some vast scenic vistas.