Where? What Year? Why? Or who cares?

What: The In-kopah Railroad is a fictious desert narrow gauge line serving mines and mining towns.

Where: The In-ko-pah Railroad is set in a rocky, mountainous region of the desert in Southern CA. It is named for the In-ko-pah Mountains and In-ko-pah Gorge of San Diego and Imperial counties. (The place name itself is an Indian word meaning "east people" and was used to describe the tribe which inhabited the area.)

When: Present day, mostly. However, I'm trying to avoid the use of modern structures or vehicles, so that the layout would fit just as well in an earlier era. And I'll be running mostly steam, as a "preserved, working" heritage railroad.

Why: I've always loved the desert, especially the Anza-Borrego region in eastern San Diego County. The flora and fauna are more varied than in the Mojave desert. So I've always wanted to have a model railroad set in that type of desert environment.

I also like the old mines, mining camps, and ghost towns that I've visited during my many trips in the Southern Ca deserts and Nevada. Some of those old mines were in mind-boggling locations, high on the sides of steep, jagged mountains.

I like all kinds of trains. So I would love to have had enough room to operate some modern standard gauge trains along with a narrow gauge branch line. But I have very little room, just 19x50 feet (including the pathways and stairs), on a very steep slope. I knew from the start that this would limit me to tight curves and small rolling stock -- thus I stuck with narrow gauge. But that's ok, funky little NG trains are cool!

The steep slope was a challenge but it also made it possible to build the kind of "vertical scenery" was most interested in.

That's the "real life" reason that my railroad is what it is. I've also created a brief fictional history which can be found on my website. And that brings me to, "Who cares". Well, I find that having a theme and fictional history help me create a more cohesive and believable model railroad.