The real Dalies, New Mexico. Photographed in 2004 from west of the junction just a few months before the 60-foot tall water tank was torn down.

At the junction of the Gallup (left) and Glorieta (single track on right) Subs looking west.

Looking upgrade from east to west toward Dalies. East of the junction at Dalies there is large cut as the tracks descend the west side of the Rio Grande valley

Looking east several miles west of Dalies toward Belen, there is a transition from cut to fill. Belen is in the Rio Grande rift valley below. The low point on the horizon between the distant Manzano (taller, left) and Los Pinos (right) mountains is where Abo Canyon is located.

Looking east, this cut represents the end of the portion of the Transcon on the Gallup Sub that is modeled.

Construction of the 30 foot long and 11.5 foot wide Dalies module set commences in January 2005.

Early foam cutting and frame building.

Underside of the Dogleg 45 degree module section.

Top of the Dogleg 45 degree module section.

First motive power on Dalies.

One of the two 90 degree curves under construction.

Loop is coming together.

The "Y" module section under construction. At this point in the project I thought I'd be buried in it.

Up on legs and working on track and turnouts.

Fascia has been installed along with turnout control housings and cutouts for UP5 panels.

An inside look at the leg pockets and the turnout control housings.

Fascia, cork roadbed, and foamboard scenery base gets a coat of Glidden Great Desert.

Track is being laid and scenery is going down. I had about 200 prototype photos that I had taken at Dalies that I worked from. I printed them out on a color printer and some of them may be seen here. The plastic shakers are full of various mixes of Arizona Rock & Mineral products and sifted dirt/silt that I had collected at Dalies.

Dalies turnouts under construction. Central Valley Model Works #9 turnouts and the associated Details West turnout detail kit were used on Dalies.

Track has been laid and the first coat of baseline desert scenery has been applied.

Re-engineering the location of the tracks and re-working the scenery on the two 90 degree curve modules.

More work on the two 90 degree curve modules.

Tom Trodden (left) and Kevin Hughes of SouthWest Free-mo test the reversing loop reverser for the very first time after engineering the wiring on the "Y" module section. Dalies uses a Tony's Train Exchange PS-Rev auto-reverser.

Periodically during the construction process I would stage trains and sometimes even just motive power to keep my motivation up.

More work-in-progress eye candy to provide the motivation needed to put in the hours to get this beast operational.

Playing around with a photo backdrop and Overland SD75Ms.

Dalies "Y" module section in front of photo backdrop. I'm going to break out my Smith-Victor 3200K tungsten photofloods one of these days soon to improve the lighting and play around with this backdrop some more.

For the fun of it one day I took one of Dalies long straight module sections outside and took this grab shot. These Kato SD40s were the first two locomotives that I ever added detail parts to and weathered. I keep them for sentimental reasons. I like the light and perspective of this image.

Underside photo showing framing detail. The bottom module shows the framing technique where the curvature of the module is slight enough to allow the stringers to run continuously endplate to endplate. The dogleg module on top shows the framing when one or more stringers can't run endplate to endplate due to a more extreme curvature and a center cantilever is required.

The top 90 degree curve module displays this framing technique in full flower with extreme curvature and a center cantilever to accomodate the stringers. In addition to carpenter's glue, countersunk #8 2.5-inch long woodscrews were used to attach the stringers. The stringers consist of lengths of two-inch wide 3/4-inch thick Birch plywood.

Dalies loaded in U-Haul's largest trailer for its first ever roadtrip to its first ever set-up as part of SouthWest Free-mo's set-up at the La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona, in April 2006. That's 265 miles from home-base in the Albuquerque area.

Dalies made its first public appearance at the Winslow set-up in April 2006. You may turn a scale 6500+ foot long train on Dalies. Still lots of scenery work to do including desert foliage and lineside details.

Intermodal at night on Dalies in the Amtrak depot waiting room at the La Posada Hotel in April 2006.

Steve Emerson's Kodachrome power moving the priority freight at the April 2007 Winslow set-up.

Eddie Ryan's BNSF intermodal hotshot screams across Dalies in April 2007 in Winslow.

Most entertaining photo taken so far on Dalies. Tim Costello was the lighting director for this shot. New Mexico has lots of interesting native flora and fauna.