Jim & Beverly Harper's Proto 48 model railroad - Southern Pacific and Sacramento Northern Railroad

We are still at the Color Country Model Railroad open house in Saint George Utah, this week visiting the Proto 48 scale-gauge model railroad of the Southern Pacific and Sacramento Northern. We have visited Jim s Proto 48 layout several times in the past but we are back to see any changes to the layout. The big change is HE's SELLING IT!. Or planning to at least. First, what is Proto 48... Well, it's O scale, however, most of the "accurate" two-rail O scale standard gauge layouts are 1:48 scale, but the gauge is one and one-quarter inches, or five feet, NOT the accurate four feet eight and one-half inches of the prototype. In Proto 48 the gauge is accurate for 1:48 scale, 1.177 inches. This means all wheels and locomotives need to be built to this exotic gauge. Moreover, the size of the wheel is accurate to the prototype as well. Tiny wheel flanges. Proper profiles. Accurate track sizes. Everythig as close to the prototype as possible.