The railroad was recently expanded from Columbus to Mobile, AL, adding about 100 feet of main line and bringing total main line trackage to about 400 feet. The extension to Mobile adds a number of new industries and towns, another major yard with passenger facilities, and a large waterfront scene. Scenery along the mobile extension is underway. To handle the extra traffic, the staging yards at Atlanta have been double-decked and expanded. Traffic is staged for dual eras to represent either the period 1947-1960 or the period 1960-1980. Building the Georgia Great Southern has been the topic of several Piedmont Division clinics over the last few years. This layout was seen in Walthers' N catalog and MR's "Trackside Photos".
Heavy freight and passenger service in the late 1950's
The L & K railroad links Baltimore and Pittsburg. The Baltimore and Ohio station and yards in Baltimore has replicated downtown Baltimore. The Pennsylvania Railroad is featured in Pittsburg with traffic from both railroads traveling across the L & K mainline. All locomotives are equipped with sound. You have to see the excellent workman ship, super scenery with unbelievable detail. This layout appeared in Internet Trains, NMRA Calendar (2011), Walthers HO catalog and MR Trackside photos 3 times.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Southeast Division is a freelanced railroad operating from Richmond, VA. in the north to New Orleans in the the south. It has 180' of single track mainline with Digitrax DCC. The steam and early deisel motive power is leased from the PRR.
The Sugar Creek Valley is mainly a logging railroad located in the Appalachian Mountains during the 1940's and 1950's. My layout also includes an engine maintenance facility, a farm, a sawmill and many other unique features that must be seen to be appreciated. The SCV features personally designed and built trestles, bridges , tunnels and some scratch built buildings. All features , to include engines and rolling stock , are weathered. This layout was featured in O Gauge Railroading Magazine's January 2008 issue. The layout is also featured in O Gauge Railroading Magazine's greatest layouts video Volume 6.
Big steam! Brian is an excellent power man and the hostlers have to stay busy keeping the locos ready for trains. Hand laid code 70 and 55 track. The layout features a single track mainline. Many scratch built structures with super detailing. Photos of this layout were in the Walthers HO catalog and a full page and 1/3 in MR Trackside Photos.
This is a freelanced Logging railroad that uses Shays, Heislers, Camelback and small steam switchers to navigate the railroad. The layout contains over 40 structures consisting of 4 Fine Scale Miniatures and many Campbell kits some dating back 40 years. The mountains are completed with the exception of some background and trees. Little Towne is a village that has all except one structure built from wood kits Come and see if you can identify the plastic structure.
You will have to see this highly detailed fully sceniced Railroad. It is depicting North Georgia in the early 1950's, with mostly Southern Railroad highly-detailed brass locomotives. It is a DC operated railroad with infrared comtols.
The GRR is based on a real division of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It began as a sectional layout built to NMRA modular standards. A large two-level section has been added to expand prototypical operations. Features include scratch-built & kit-bashed structures, hand-laid industrial track, interchange with U.S. railroads, super-detailed scenery and numerous mini-scenes.
British Railways, Southern Region. London to the Southwest.
The Waterloo to Wessex Line, part of the Southern Region of British Railways, is an HO/OO single level “point-to-point” layout with hidden areas to provide continuous operation. You will have the opportunity to see an OO layout set in the English countryside with English steam engines with express Pullman passenger cars, slow commuter passenger trains, and various “goods” trains (freight trains) operating between Waterloo in London and the southwest coast of England. The layout is now almost complete with approximately 90% of the scenery complete with a variety of English village and country scenes, including stations, churches, gardens, allotments, farms, village streets, canals, and pubs.
The SPR is an operations based layout during the transition years and consists of a mainline for the PRR and one for the B&O that intersect to provide a live interchange between the two railroads. Operations is through car cards and waybills. Phones are used to communicate with the dispatcher and engineers. Staging is computer controlled. Lots of industrial areas for switching and mainlines for through trains and passenger traffic.
The Valley and Tekoa Railroad layout is modeled to somewhat simulate the Virginia and Truckee Railroad in the time period of 1895 that ran in the State of Nevada. The V&T was originally constructed to haul ore from the mines to the stamp mills along the Carson River. The towns, structures and even the name of the layout has it's origins from Biblical nomenclature. The main town of Tekoa grew up because of its location in the valley and has the only brick station on the railroad. Other towns on the line consist of Ophir, prospering because it is the location of Solomon's Mine, now producing a small quantity of gold ore and hence the location of the railroads yard and engine facilities which has enabled the citizens of Ophir to maintain themselves and prosper. The other town is Dan. The structures are a mixture of scratch and kit built.
See two well designed and executed railroads. The garden railroad with 140 feet of mainline meanders around a land scapped yard. The 65' of "N" scale layout is well sceniced with yards and mainline operation.
The Great Cypress Lines is a point to point Class 2 railroad existing during the Transition Era encompassing the years 1940-1970. While it does not exist in any particular recognizable geographic area, it represents the area of the Southeastern United States. Cities are named for family and friends. Built for operations, the railroad is run several times a year by my Operating Group, the North Atlanta Rail Barons, as well as several other Operating Groups in the Atlanta area.
The layout is DRGW and RGS. The DRGW layout is complete with back drop and scenery. It begins in Durango and ends at Cumbres Pass. There are two roundhouses at Durango and Chama. The RGS layout has complete backdrop, track and switches wired so that trains can run. The towns include Dolores, Stoner, Rico, Ophir, Vance Junction and Ridgway, Colorado. It takes 45 minutes for a train to run the entire layout. Photos of this layout were in Walthers HO catalog. It was also written up in the 2011 HOn3 Annual.
The Delta Southern Railroad of Dr. Joe Nichols, Sr., MMR, includes hand laid track, operating signals, four freight yards, and many passenger trains. A color camera in a Proto 1000 RDC enables the operator to get an engineer's eye view of the layout while operating from a mockup of an SD40-2 control stand. The Delta Southern's latest addition is an industrial switching area featuring more than 70 buildings - almost all are scratch built. Joe Sr.'s specialty is close detail work. A must-see for beginners and veterans of the hobby. DC power with blocks controlled by 75 scratch built signals. A layout that has been on three National Conventions but continuously changing.
Large basement layout featuring 2 levels with valance lighting using fluorescent bulbs. Aisles are wide and the fascia is curved to be operator friendly. Operates as a point to point design with a helix for continuous operations. Both freight and Passenger service is provided to 5 towns. The painted backdrop provides a good setting for many nicely detailed buildings and bridges.
You will see a very impressive layout built for operations. This walk around layout is in the modern era. The St. Louis Gateway is a double deck layout built to model the operations of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. Operations on the layout simulate the prototype's operations around SH Tower and Madison Yard. This includes heavy yard switching and interchange traffic between the many railroads in the East St. Louis area. The operator at SH Tower sees about 50 trains that arrive from 5 different directions (5 staging yards) in the area. A rail fan's delight.
Virginia and West Virginia 1953 steam to diesel transition
The Brandywine & Benedictine Railroad is a Class 1 Appalachian coal hauler modeled in 1953. It runs north and south from Winston Salem, NC to Pittsburgh, PA. Motive power is a 50/50 mix of steam and first generation diesel power.
The railroad is designed with prototype operations in mind with jobs to keep 12 to 16 people busy. The B&B is controlled using Digitrax DCC and a computer running RR&CO software.
Somewhere between here and nowhere in the late 1960's
The old Diamond River is gone, and a new version has been built. The Main
line and most of the switching area are complete at this time. Some basic
scenery has been started and some structures are in place.
This largely free-lanced multi-deck layout set west of Boston features a three foot long double trestle with over 1200 nut, bolt and washer castings. A swinging gate with three track levels allows access to the center of the layout. South River Modelworks buildings anchor 3 corners of the layout. A double track helix (2½ loops) flairs out for a total run of some 70' to connect the two levels of the layout.
Steam is still king on Revis' LOP&G come see the great scenic backgrounds, excellent, award winning, structures and a cemetery on the this southern-style layout.
The layout of Ron Gough's National Southern Railroad Co. (NSoRR) was featured on the cover of the Sept., 2005 edition of the NMRA Scale Rails magazine. The layout is 100% complete with full scenery and includes a trolley line. Set in the heavy mountains of southeastern TN at the turn of the century 1900, the steam powered railroad handles a primary grade of 4.5%.
See Horseshoe bend and the large yard at Pittsburg with the passenger terminal and deisel facility. Well seniced with details and weathering. Most locomotive are sound equiped. Great for operating sessions.
The EI&TCo. is a 1947-era backwoods railroad featuring logging, sawmilling, steel manufacturing, coal mining and many of the ancillary industries necessary to make this all work. The sawmill peninsula has a newly-completed engine servicing facility, river, log dump and sawmill. The sawmill has a footprint of 12.5” x 32” x 15” high. It was scratchbuilt to fit the layout location. The mill complex includes the power house, slash burner, conveyors, lumber stacks, water tanks and the small village. The coal mine, steel mill complex, and waterfront are the next large projects. This layout was featured in the 2012 On30 Annual and the Narrow Gauge & short line Gazette.
Steve's On30 Shay won 1st place at the Piedmont Division and the Southeast Region train shows in 2000; it won 2nd place at the NMRA national at San Jose with 113 points.
The North South Railroad is an N Scale basement layout from Atlanta to Cincinnati from the late 1970's to the late 1990's, with truck terminal, coal loader, intermodal facilities, and auto factory. The centerpiece model is Cheoah Dam and powerhouse on the Little Tennessee River at Tapoco, NC. Mike Callahan, MMR, scratch built this impressive scene. The layout features both the Norfolk Southern & CSX railroad.
This layout is designed for operations. First, it replicates coal movement from the local mines, to the centralized coal preparation plant and from the prep plant to the end user. Second, general freight traffic is classified in a separate yard to keep trains moving over the layout. Third, many switching areas (the largest is 3 feet by 26 feet) keep local crews busy for hours.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Southern Division is based on areas of my interest of the terminal division and the main line from Philly to Harrisburg. My interests are electrics, steam and early diesels. The reason I chose this area for running under the wire is Pennsy prototype modeling. The catenary comes from Model Memories in kit form. Please observe the High Voltage signs for the catenary is live.
The track plan takes in scenes from downtown Philly to Harrisburg. It is my adaptation of the prototype. The period being modeled is from the 1950’s to early 1958 when the k4 and the GG1’s and the early RS diesels ruled the main line.
The ERR (HO) is a modern logginng tsiltosf depicting yhr Cascade Mts of Oregon, from Coos Bay to Brants Pass. Coos Bay is a major intermodal post and Amtrak destination. Logging happens in the mountains at Camp #6 Eagles Nest and transported to the paper mill, lumber mill, and plywood mill.
The ERR garden railroad (G) has 3 loops and a 2% grade connecting line. It has a waterfall, small pond with 3 large Koi. It forms around a 200 year old Oak tree within a vehicle turnaround area. One trestles and 2 bridges cross the pond.
1967 and Santa Fe's east-west main line still moves freight and first class passenger name trains from Chicago to Los Angeles over Raton Pass across Canyon Diablo. Construction of this large layout is in the early stages with much of the main line, and point-to-point D&RGW narrow gauge "Chili Line" interchange still to be built. An interesting visit for those starting to build ambitious layouts. Continuous running not yet possible. This layout has been seen in MR Trackside photos, NMRA Calendar (twice), Walthers HO catalog and N catalog (twice), Scale Rails feature article, NMRA.org feature and Internet Trains.
C&O from Hinton, W. Virginia to Clifton Forge, Virginia
This layout will be on the all day tour to Chattanooga, TN. See this beatifully sceniced, S scale layout with 223' of double track mainline. The Alleghany Sub was, and still is, principally a coal hauling, class 1 line, requiring the heaviest of motive power with pushers to move long strings of loaded hoppers east over the Alleghany summit. Premium passenger service is also a high priority of this C&O layout.
Transition era Union Pacific RR in the Sherman Hill locale
This is a double deck layout. The double track line over Sherman Hill is joined by the single track Herriman line joining the main line at Dale Creek on the upper level and a staging yard and medium size town on lower level. There is 200 feet of continuous run visible main line . The layouts is block control DC.
This 1940's to 1950's, steam to diesel transition era travels from York, PA to Baltimore, MD. See the 400' of mainline with 100% hand laid, code 70 track and 55 turnouts built in place. This layout is modeled after actual towns along the Ma&Pa route in Southeastern PA. Photos were used to scratch build landmark structures with meticulous detail. These exquisite buildings capture the essence of the region and era and are the highlight of this layout. Due to health reasons this layout was dormant for over 10 years. This layout is being revitalized by the Wrecking Crew Model Railroad Club for the purpose of operating sessions and layout tours.
This "O" scale railroad features the UP, ATSF and SRR railroad. There is 140' of mainline with a hand painted backdrop. Structures and trees are commercial and scratch built. There is also some animation. Joe built the railroad and did all the scenery for entire railroad unassisted.
1950's including Pennsylvannia, Maryland and West Virginia
This is a freelanced railroad incorporating the Pennsylvania, B&O and Western Maryland railroad. This railroad has 135' of double track mainline. All scenes are well detailed.
This 3 rail railroad has well developed scenery with many scratch built structures. The 100' mainline goes over and under through wooded landscape and detailed towns.
This HO layout is one of three you will see at the Wrecking Crew at McWane Museum. While you are having lunch at the Wrecking Crew stroll around and see this highly detailed layout. It has a total of 300' of mainline which is created by three concentric loops. The class 2 railroad shares trackage with the L & N and Southern RR. It is a sectional layout with 14 sections and can be operated as DC or Digtrax DCC.
This is one of two N scale layouts built by the Wrecking Crew. It is a DC operated layout and used as a traveling layout by the club. It is a freelanced Southern RR in the mid 1950's era. The locale is North Alabama. It has a 20' double loop mainline. It well detailed with beautiful landscaping.
This garden railroad has live pond plants, goldfish and waterfall. It has an upper and lower pond and a rocky mountain. The roadbed is granite sand with one main loop with a modified dog bone. This freelanced railroad is located in Rocky Pine, USA and has 65' of mainline.
This is a short line railroad that connects the Coal River Mining Company and the City of Coal River. In addition the railroad serves a variety of businesses and industries located in and around the city. There is freight and passenger service. This is a walk around railroad with a lot of detail and scenery.
Visit this fun layout! It features a 6’ diameter 2 track helix, two 12’ suspension bridges and a 4’ arch bridge. The layout has about 650’ of track with 95’ of main line. 8 trains and a trolley can be run continuously. It has ceramic buildings, creatures and multi levels.
Here you will see an "S" scale Georgia RR main line traveling through the country side meeting up with the Central of Georgia at a joint yard. Towns like small town Madison with typical Court House in the town square. Then there is the quarry at Camak. There is hand laid track, scratch and kit bashed buildings and industries.
The Sugar Creek Valley is mainly a logging railroad located in the Appalachian Mountains during the 1940's and 1950's. My layout also includes an engine maintenance facility, a farm, a sawmill and many other unique features that must be seen to be appreciated. The SCV features personally designed and built trestles, bridges , tunnels and some scratch built buildings. All features , to include...
This is a freelanced Logging railroad that uses Shays, Heislers, Camelback and small steam switchers to navigate the railroad. The layout contains over 40 structures consisting of 4 Fine Scale Miniatures and many Campbell kits some dating back 40 years. The mountains are completed with the exception of some background and trees. Little Towne is a village that has all except one structure built...
Big steam! Brian is an excellent power man and the hostlers have to stay busy keeping the locos ready for trains. Hand laid code 70 and 55 track. The layout features a single track mainline. Many scratch built structures with super detailing. Photos of this layout were in the Walthers HO catalog and a full page and 1/3 in MR Trackside Photos.
You will have to see this highly detailed fully sceniced Railroad. It is depicting North Georgia in the early 1950's, with mostly Southern Railroad highly-detailed brass locomotives. It is a DC operated railroad with infrared comtols.
This is a walkaround layout. It is well detailed and sceniced with scratch built, kit bashed and standard kit buildings and accessories. The layout is DC operated with an interresting track plan. It's 100' mainline models the Pennsylvannia RR and PRSL.
The GRR is based on a real division of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It began as a sectional layout built to NMRA modular standards. A large two-level section has been added to expand prototypical operations. Features include scratch-built & kit-bashed structures, hand-laid industrial track, interchange with U.S. railroads, super-detailed scenery...
British Railways, Southern Region. London to the Southwest.90 %
Outside stairs to basement entrance
The Waterloo to Wessex Line, part of the Southern Region of British Railways, is an HO/OO single level “point-to-point” layout with hidden areas to provide continuous operation. You will have the opportunity to see an OO layout set in the English countryside with English steam engines with express Pullman passenger cars, slow commuter passenger trains, and various “goods” trains (...
Middle Georgia railroad connecting the Southern and Seaboard CL45%
This layout is built in a 20' x 14' barn especially constructed for this purpose. The layout area is completely air conditioned and heated. It is located about 100' from my house. It has been under construct for 1 1/2 years. The layout features a douuble track figure 8 with a yard.
The SPR is an operations based layout during the transition years and consists of a mainline for the PRR and one for the B&O that intersect to provide a live interchange between the two railroads. Operations is through car cards and waybills. Phones are used to communicate with the dispatcher and engineers. Staging is computer controlled. Lots of industrial areas for switching and...
This largely free-lanced multi-deck layout set west of Boston features a three foot long double trestle with over 1200 nut, bolt and washer castings. A swinging gate with three track levels allows access to the center of the layout. South River Modelworks buildings anchor 3 corners of the layout. A double track helix (2½ loops) flairs out for a total run of some 70' to connect the two levels of...
