The original plastic track that came with the New Bright trains has long since been torn up.  The second track was made by jamming 1/8 x 1/2 strap iron into grooves cut in 1/2" square cedar ties.  The strap iron track was slowly replaced by aluminum rail, and the last of it was finally pulled up in the 2001 upgrade project. This upgrade project  saw the main loop raised up onto full size railroad ties, all the scale ties and roadbed replaced, and  the code 250 and code 332 aluminum rails respiked. This upgrade was to allow for electrification of the rails to be able to run the DCC equipped engines that my railroading buddies and I have been operating on our portable BiG Railway.

Up until 2001, the only engines in use on the VCR were powered by on-board batteries. Two of them are radio controlled while a third has a one-of-a-kind tethered memory throttle which can be disconnected from the engine - pushing a button on the throttle causes the plug at the engine end of the tether to automatically eject. To reconnect the throttle, the coal load in the tender is touched, causing the engine to coast to a stop over the next metre or so. This engine works very well in switching service - with the throttle plugged in, it has great slow speed control, no stuttering on dirty track, no delay from radio control, and no steps in speed from DCC. But it can also take a train out on the mainline and run through tunnels and bridges and under trees without having to have the wire attached.  Upgrading has not eliminated battery operation from the VCR, in fact two additional radio controlled Big Haulers were aquired, one in as-new condition, the other a beater that is presently being rebuilt into a 0-6-0 switcher.

The structures on the VCR must have been built with a rubber ruler. Some are 1/2" to the foot, others are 3/8" to the foot and still others are 1/29 scale. A few are of no discernible scale at all. That makes them a good match for the engines and rolling stock, which seem to be the same way. The original New Bright (1/36 scale?) engines have largely been replaced by an Aristo-Craft 1/29 scale RS-3 and a couple of Bachmann Big Haulers which Bachmann calls either 1/24 scale or maybe 1/20.3 scale narrow gauge but which the VCR runs as 1/29 scale standard gauge. Go figure. Rolling stock includes a number of Bachmann 1/24 scale cars, including 3 bay hoppers which the VCR shops measured and found to be exactly 3 times as large as similar Athearns hoppers, making them closer to 1/29 scale. Fortunately, no matter how hard you look, there is no scale in the word FUN.