April 2017 Layout Tour
We had 6 Layouts Open for Tours in the Bloomington Area. Here are some pictures from the tour.
Trevor Jones' Midland and Great Western Junction Railway - N scale
Here is Trevor showing a visitor some of the details on his fantastically detailed and extensive Midland & Great Western Junction Railway which is set in the County of Gloucester, England, Trevor's home neighborhood. The era is the late 1950's early 1960's period. Two regions of British Railways operate autonomously: the Midland Region, a double track main line and the Western Region, a hilly cross country single track line, with the principle interchange at Newnham on Severn. Cheltenham St James is a large stub end station on the Midland with a sizable engine shed, both laid out to prototype plans. The Western taps the industries, mines and quarries of the Forest Of Dean as well as serving two river docks.
Bob Case's Baltimore and Ohio Railroad - HO scale
The Baltimore & Ohio was the first railroad in the world to attempt to cross a mountain range. Fascinated by that effort, Bob Case chose to create the part of the crossing known as the "West End", including some of his favorite scenes between Cumberland, Maryland and Grafton, West Virginia. In order to make these scenes realistic, he has walked or ridden a mountain bicycle to take hundreds of photos. As shown below, it’s now spring in 1948 and you can watch B & O trains battle the mountains.
Paul Lutz's Conrail Marion Branch - HO scale
Steve Studley and Paul with Paul's Conrail Marion Branch layout. We always enjoy great looking layouts in clean tidy rooms like this. Paul has created a neat locally themed modern layout. It is loosely based on an existing line running north and south from Elkhart (Goshen, IN) to Indianapolis (Avon, IN) with intermediate yards/switching points at south Anderson, Marion, Warsaw (Ft. Wayne) and Peru, IN. The mainline run is approximately 300 feet. The layout is comprised mainly of L-girder benchwork with code 83 track laid on either homasote or cork. Train control is via a Digitrax duplex system and Operations are controlled by a dispatcher who is in radio contact with the train crews. Car forwarding utilizes car cards and waybills
Robert Sharp's layout showed us how to take a popular Atlas track plan the "Berkshire Valley" project that he built for his grandchildren. It evolved into a Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio pike, set in Meridian, Mississippi in the 1960s. Robert's pike includes DCC operations and the layout has a helix that leads to staging The layout now has full scenery.
Robert Sharp's Gulf Mobile and Ohio Railway - HO scale
Bob Talbot's Freelanced Kentucky and West Virginia - HO scale
One of Bob's behind the scenes feature is his double track helix behind the layout that leads to the 30 foot staging yard, holding 16 trains. The railroad is a point to point layout that runs north to south from Newport Ky. to Dante Va. While not based on any prototype, the railroad borrows from scenes and names of locations visited on railfanning trips over the years.
Marty Witkiewiczs' Erie Lackawanna Railway, Fairfax Division - HO scale
Marty shows Tom Cain one of his structures on his Erie Lackawanna Fairfax Division layout. It is a prototype based freelance HO scale model railroad of the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. Scenes on the layout are representative of cities, industries and scenery found almost anywhere throughout the United States. The details, structures, engines and rolling stock are typical of what may have been found along the railroad between the year 1970 and 1975.