The San Juan & Tellurton RR Welcome to the San Juan & Tellurton Railroad

09/11/14

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New! IntuiSwitch™ Turnout Controller

Image of fascia-mount turnout control

Continued development on the SJ&T includes continued efforts to find new and better ways to do things. One result of these efforts is a unique fascia-mounted control for turnouts. After a long phase of development and refinement, Shelly Levy and son Brad Levy introduced these controllers for sale at the 34th National Narrow Gauge Convention, September 3-6, 2014 in Kansas City.

The IntuiSwitch™ simplifies installation and provides intuitive operation with visual and tactile feedback. With no sharp corners or protruding knobs, it won't snag clothing and is safe from accidental activation. It is easily usable in nighttime operations as well, which is important for the SJ & T, since the layout is equipped with a combined fast clock and lighting control system that automatically transitions between daytime to nighttime lighting with simulated sunset and sunrise.

For full information on these new turnout controllers, visit www.intuiswitch.com .

Welcome to the San Juan & Tellurton Railroad!

This is the home page of the San Juan & Tellurton Railroad (SJ&T), a freelance On3-scale (1/4 inch = 1 foot or 1/48 of prototype) three-foot gauge model railroad.  The SJ&T currently operates in Lenexa, Kansas (in suburban Kansas City).  The current layout consists of 215 feet of track covering a physical area approximately forty feet by twenty-two feet.

Panoramic view of Tellurton

The model railroad is based on areas in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado and is a point-to-point system designed to provide operating sessions. The era modeled is 1930-1940. Four towns are on the line; at the east end is Virginia City.  Westcliffe, a mining area, is the western terminal. There are two routes between these towns, one passes through the town of San Juan and the second goes via Tellurton in the lower country. Operation of the system is facilitated by a digital control radio throttle which also controls the lights and sound effects (bell, whistle, steam, etc.) of the engines.  The routes of the trains are directed by the setting of the remotely controlled switches (turnouts) throughout the layout.

Click here for the latest news about the SJ&T

The new, longer, sound-enabled version of the "burning embers" video! (updated 06/10/2009)

The new article in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette! (updated 04/01/2009)

The "Tale" of the SJ&T
The San Juan & Tellurton RR was created when a Midwest entrepreneur acquired and merged the financially stressed D&RGW, the C&S, the RGS and the Tellurton Cascade & Western railroads in the early 1930s. His philosophy was to combine and operate these companies as a unit. He considered repainting and identifying all equipment with the new SJ&T names and logos a waste of money and would operate the total equipment pool as one railroad to get as much synergistic benefit as possible. Operational economy was the criterion. As such a common sight is a D&RGW engine hauling C&S passenger cars. An example of his synergistic attitude is when a 120 foot long bridge over the deep Cordova canyon was needed. He had it designed and components made in a previous acquisition, a steel plant in Chicago. He had the parts shipped to and erected on site. Not only was this approach less costly but the arch bridge is artistic relief from the extensive timber structures that were built when timber was free to be cut.


Photo Galleries

View photos of the San Juan and Tellurton Railroad

Go to SJ&T Photo Galleries Page

 

Techniques

Click image to see the video of the burning embers

Hobos around the campfire - Burning Embers Video (1.71 mb)

Click here to see how the effect was achieved

 

History

Find out more about the history and development of the SJ&T

 

Layout

Drawings of current layout and its historical evolution

 

Links

A few websites frequented by the SJ&T's operators and a list of Shelly Levy's Publications and Clinics

 

Visitors and Comments

See visitors and their comments

Go to SJ&T Visitors Page

 

 

 

 

 

Feedback

Give us your feedback or request a tour . . .

 

Search

Search the SJ&T website . . .

 

Miscellaneous

News about the SJ&T, Web Site Map, Privacy Policy, Copyrights and Linking, Photo Credits and more . . .


Go to SJ&T Layout Page

 

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This site was last updated 06/10/09 Hit Counter

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