Burr Stewart’s Burrlington Northern (HO & HOn3)

The HO Burrlington Northern is Burr’s proto-freelanced version of the Burlington Northern Railway in the Seattle area three years after the 1970 merger of the GN, NP, SP&S and CB&Q, when many of the predecessor’s locomotives were still not repainted in BN green. The layout is centered on Interbay yard, with mainlines radiating from there to the north, south and east (as well as the MILW car barge to the west). To enjoy narrow gage fun, Burr created a fictitious HOn3 extension of the 3’ gage D&RGW interchanging with the standard gage in Everett, WA and climbing the walls to three small mountain towns. This full-basement layout focuses on switching, with 8 yards and many locals and switch jobs. The scenery is mainly evergreen trees and rock formations typical of the area.

A tour of Burr’s house also includes two smaller model railroads in the living room – an N scale freelanced modern-era 4x8 with an On30 switching layout on shelves hanging underneath.