Calafountain is the name of a hill area on the southern outskirts of Perth and the layout takes its name from there but it has been changed slightly to suit this N scale layout set in North America.
The layout depicts a mountainside with a river flowing through and it is assumed that the “Calla” is the river and that there was a fountain from the springs in the mountain. The crossing of the river is where an old rope and raft system was used to cross the river before the coming of the railway.
In North America, numerous duplicate lines were built by separate railway companies and the layout displays this. The ground level track portrays a once single line, upgraded to double track to improve the movement of passengers and freight during the early 20th century. The doubling of the line necessitated some new bridges and the cutting of additional single portal tunnels. The upper track is from a rival railway company which had to take a higher-level route due to the space limitations between the mountainside and river. There is no link between the upper and lower tracks and there are no points on the scenic section.
The available rolling stock is varied so trains from the 1940’s to the 1990’s can be run, mostly but not exclusively from Union Pacific, Santa Fe and Burlington Northern railways.
Track is Peco code 80. Train control is via the Digitrax DCC system or conventional DC. This allows for the lower track to be DCC controlled and the upper track DC controlled or vice versa, depending on the rolling stock available.